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GWOT VII - The Play's The Thing
Jul. 2nd, 2021 08:42 pmGWOT VII - The Play's The Thing
"Governor," she said as respectfully as she could manage.
"Yes, Sheila?"
"This is extremely unwise."
"I have had this discussion with the Lieutenant Governor. With the Commanding General of the Republic. With all three parties in the Legislature. Now you?"
"Their duty is to California. My duty is to you. To keep you alive. And the only way to stay alive when nukes are flying is to be elsewhere, elsewhen. It takes ninety seconds for the Alert One bird to land on the lawn. That's a long time in nuclear war. This. Is. Not. Safe."
Pat put down her pen.
"I am asking twenty million Californians to sit tight. I will not go hide in some Godforsaken bunker somewhere while our fates are decided. If they kill me, they don't want to talk. That means Case Zulu Hard. You don't need some middle aged has been for that. I've already lost everything I ever cared about. Time for a new team to take over."
The Governor paused.
"Hold that thought. Once this is over, if I live, I will resign. Maybe grow grapes. So don't think of yourself as guarding a Governor. Think of yourself as guarding a would-be wine grower. Red or white?"
"Depends on the soil, Governor. Some reds are well thought of in California. Other places, white wines flourish."
"And that depends on Case Zulu."
As to what parts of the state might survive.
###
Operations Plan Inferno
On the execution of the order, all State controlled fire and rescue resources are ordered and directed to scatter throughout the state, avoiding population centers, crossroads, airports and airfields, and military sites.
Each strike team or task force will be fully equipped to sustain itself for up to two weeks without any outside logistics support. Use concealment and dispersion to preserve your capabilities.
It is understood that you are being asked to park alongside dusty remote dirt roads while millions of your fellow citizens are under nuclear attack.
You are ordered to live. You are ordered to survive. If we are fortunate, you will return home without incident. If we are less so ... you will be desperately needed, to try to save whatever is left.
/GovCal
/Pat
###
TS/SCI NOFORN
Project Liberty
FLASH OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE - MILNET
The California Air Bridge has been in operation for four hours, thirty minutes. MARK. The Air Bridge is a logistical effort to fly out large numbers of California civilians, mostly children, from the North American continent. Priorities have been given to the children of middle ranking government officials, soldiers, those in orphanages or under state sponsored foster care, and scientific and technical workers. It is notable that with the exception of diplomatic personnel, the families of executive rank (department head or higher) personnel are explicitly ineligible for evacuation.
Air Bridge aircraft have been given multinational fighter cover on the first leg from Los Angeles to Mexico City. Special permission has been granted by the Mexican government for armed California National Guard aircraft to escort these flights over Mexican airspace. This cooperation is unprecedented.
A joint diplomatic note issued by California, Nevada, Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela and Brazil warns that flights from Mexico City to Brazil and points forward are considered diplomatic flights and that any attack on them will be considered an attack on the "People and Nation of California."
This phrasing is new and the significance of it is not fully understood...
###
US Navy - Atlantic Command
A nondescript conference room, a breakout room, with laptops and papers. Only the clothing of the briefers - naval uniforms - distinguished it from any complex corporate meeting.
But no merely business meeting had ever been held for such stakes.
"Go-No Go Checklist For Strike."
It was a chant. Naval, air and space weapons systems - some of terrifying capability. Personnel ready to employ them as directed. It looked good on PowerPoint.
The Californians had certain capabilities, which were known. These could be defeated. They had certain other capabilities, which were suspected. These also could be defeated.
Shadow boxing in a mirror. Of course the Californians would fold. A few cities, a few strikes, and America would be unified again. A punch or two and she would return, weeping, to her master.
So they told themselves. So they told each other. Reinforcing the belief. Groupthink.
Analysts who thought differently weren't in that room. Their views were not championed.
Many corporations had lied themselves down a primrose path to their own annihilation.
Rather fewer governments.
###
The Nevadan border guard was getting nervous.
He'd called Control three times. When the forces started massing on the hill across from his checkpoint. When the civilian traffic east had quadrupled, forming long and longer lines that the handful of overworked customs inspectors had to semi-screen.
And lastly when the neatly dressed, dapper young California military officer had come to him with a white flag on a stick.
"I've come to tell you something to tell your bosses. A brigade of California battle armor is setting up on that hill, with support units including artillery in proportion. If you do not resist, you will not be harmed. If you resist you will be destroyed. Do you understand?"
He didn't. And he was afraid to say so.
Finally the young officer had given in to his frustration.
"Look. No one sets up twenty thousand troops on a border without digging in unless they're going to drive across it. Shortly. If I were you, I'd either take that uniform off and run away, or practice raising your hands smoothly. Not so fast that you get shot, not so slow that you get shot. Do you understand?"
Control had taken his report. But the controller had sounded ... distracted. As if bigger things were happening.
###
Distributed Aerospace Warfare Node #322
A conference room, in an anonymous building on the outskirts of a mid-sized town. Seven people - three men, four women - with laptops and headsets. An Internet connection and two heavily armed soldiers who took turns patrolling nearby.
It wasn't what anyone thought of, when they thought of nuclear war. The movies, and the propaganda, emphasized rooms deep in concrete, with a 'floor' of workers and leaders walking around amongst them.
Not a small circle of people setting up around a single large table to play what looked like a complicated, baroque game. WIth a projector showing a repeater view of the Big Board in the Mammoth Lakes Aerospace Center.
If they had to - they could run California's defenses from the room. And the way things were going, they just might have to. If it hadn't been for the several thousand other rooms, scattered all over the state, in which the unthinkable had been Tuesday for years and years.
They could scale up. Play what amounted to a multi player massively parallel computer game in which the weapons and the deaths were equally real. Or scale down, and themselves continue the fight if they were the last node left standing. Or alive.
###
"Attention, all public and private units this net. This is a police control. This is not an exercise. Forward slash with blue tape, show orange. I say again, forward slash with blue tape, show orange. You have twenty minutes to comply. After that you will be fired upon on contact. This message will repeat in five minutes."
###
"Mr. President, we have a new escalation in the California situation."
"Go on."
"In about seven hours, they are having a diplomatic reception in their China embassy."
"So?"
"They've made arrangements to broadcast the proceedings live all over their state. And they're going to broadcast it on their CA- radio systems and the Internet."
"Jam it. What is the term, DOS it."
"They've revealed new capabilities. New transmitters, new antennas, larger aerials and even two satellite broadcasts. It's almost like they want us to know that whever this thing is going to be is important."
"It won't be. It's just California."
"Also, the U.K. Ambassdor is requesting a meeting..."
"No."
"... for exactly the time of that diplomatic reception. He has instructions from his government to watch it with you, or at least to be in commmunication."
"No. I'll be asleep."
"Mr. President. I don't recommend that you sleep in D.C. tonight."
"What?!?"
"This has all the signs of a diplomatic ultimatum."
"I will not be chased out of my own bed by some California sheninigans! The Ambassdor can go talk to himself."
"They may have anti ballistic weapons systems."
The President shrugged.
"And so what if they do? They can shoot down a handful of inbounds. All we have to do is launch one more inbound than they have defense missiles. That's not difficult. We are the most powerful nation in the world and we will not let these rebels keep pushing us around!"
The aide did not reply.
"That will be all."
He didn't hesitate by the door. He didn't even think about it. A good fifty feet down the corridor, in safer territory within the White House, he used his secure phone to call his supervisor, the Chief of Staff.
"I'm not feeling so well. I gave the President the information but he was very dismissive. I don't know that I did a very good job. I'd better go home and get some rest."
"You do that."
The aide cleared the White House exit procedures, got his car, and started driving west. Only when the fuel tank complained that it was about to be empty, did he stop and fill it with gasoline. Buy a gas can, fill that as well, strap it in to the seat next to him. A case of bottled water and some beef jerky.
He planned to drive all night. He did not plan to return.
He would certainly be fired in a day or two. He might plead stress and illness and thereby avoid prison. He would never work in a responsible or sensitive position again.
But if he was right, no one who knew he had abandoned his post in the face of deadly peril would survive the day.
Nor would the city.
###
The streets were subdued.
Not quiet. Not exactly tense. Waiting for something. Not a treat. It was a good time to stay home, or do an errand and go home. To keep your loved ones close. And an extra hug, and a kiss for no reason.
Everyone kind of knew, without knowing.
And no one said.
But we're going to stick it to the Americans, or they're going to stick it to us. Or maybe a double party.
###
CubeNet
A slow Internet, almost a message board from the ancient days of Bulletin Board systems. Not all participants could reveal who or what they were. Or especially - most especially - where.
Cryptic short comments. Many of them, short URL references to events on the global Internet. A few, themselves coded obscurely, with the header letter that showed they were authorized.
Three approximate groups.
One group, the largest, with individual members saying now and again, variations on "We're here." The largest in numbers, but the least chatty. As in, we will die before we abandon you.
Another saying more often, variations on "We're still here." As in we haven't been blown up yet. Definitely talkative. Someone had speculated that they were fixed sites and the comment had been _immediately_ deleted. But they'd seen what they'd seen, so they knew.
And a few that didn't say much.
Eighteen was one of those that didn't say much. But what he said tended to be important, if terse.
"Don't miss the party, sis and bro. The whole world is watching."
Idle Googling. "The whole world is watching."
And also, simple fact.
"Governor," she said as respectfully as she could manage.
"Yes, Sheila?"
"This is extremely unwise."
"I have had this discussion with the Lieutenant Governor. With the Commanding General of the Republic. With all three parties in the Legislature. Now you?"
"Their duty is to California. My duty is to you. To keep you alive. And the only way to stay alive when nukes are flying is to be elsewhere, elsewhen. It takes ninety seconds for the Alert One bird to land on the lawn. That's a long time in nuclear war. This. Is. Not. Safe."
Pat put down her pen.
"I am asking twenty million Californians to sit tight. I will not go hide in some Godforsaken bunker somewhere while our fates are decided. If they kill me, they don't want to talk. That means Case Zulu Hard. You don't need some middle aged has been for that. I've already lost everything I ever cared about. Time for a new team to take over."
The Governor paused.
"Hold that thought. Once this is over, if I live, I will resign. Maybe grow grapes. So don't think of yourself as guarding a Governor. Think of yourself as guarding a would-be wine grower. Red or white?"
"Depends on the soil, Governor. Some reds are well thought of in California. Other places, white wines flourish."
"And that depends on Case Zulu."
As to what parts of the state might survive.
###
Operations Plan Inferno
On the execution of the order, all State controlled fire and rescue resources are ordered and directed to scatter throughout the state, avoiding population centers, crossroads, airports and airfields, and military sites.
Each strike team or task force will be fully equipped to sustain itself for up to two weeks without any outside logistics support. Use concealment and dispersion to preserve your capabilities.
It is understood that you are being asked to park alongside dusty remote dirt roads while millions of your fellow citizens are under nuclear attack.
You are ordered to live. You are ordered to survive. If we are fortunate, you will return home without incident. If we are less so ... you will be desperately needed, to try to save whatever is left.
/GovCal
/Pat
###
TS/SCI NOFORN
Project Liberty
FLASH OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE - MILNET
The California Air Bridge has been in operation for four hours, thirty minutes. MARK. The Air Bridge is a logistical effort to fly out large numbers of California civilians, mostly children, from the North American continent. Priorities have been given to the children of middle ranking government officials, soldiers, those in orphanages or under state sponsored foster care, and scientific and technical workers. It is notable that with the exception of diplomatic personnel, the families of executive rank (department head or higher) personnel are explicitly ineligible for evacuation.
Air Bridge aircraft have been given multinational fighter cover on the first leg from Los Angeles to Mexico City. Special permission has been granted by the Mexican government for armed California National Guard aircraft to escort these flights over Mexican airspace. This cooperation is unprecedented.
A joint diplomatic note issued by California, Nevada, Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela and Brazil warns that flights from Mexico City to Brazil and points forward are considered diplomatic flights and that any attack on them will be considered an attack on the "People and Nation of California."
This phrasing is new and the significance of it is not fully understood...
###
US Navy - Atlantic Command
A nondescript conference room, a breakout room, with laptops and papers. Only the clothing of the briefers - naval uniforms - distinguished it from any complex corporate meeting.
But no merely business meeting had ever been held for such stakes.
"Go-No Go Checklist For Strike."
It was a chant. Naval, air and space weapons systems - some of terrifying capability. Personnel ready to employ them as directed. It looked good on PowerPoint.
The Californians had certain capabilities, which were known. These could be defeated. They had certain other capabilities, which were suspected. These also could be defeated.
Shadow boxing in a mirror. Of course the Californians would fold. A few cities, a few strikes, and America would be unified again. A punch or two and she would return, weeping, to her master.
So they told themselves. So they told each other. Reinforcing the belief. Groupthink.
Analysts who thought differently weren't in that room. Their views were not championed.
Many corporations had lied themselves down a primrose path to their own annihilation.
Rather fewer governments.
###
The Nevadan border guard was getting nervous.
He'd called Control three times. When the forces started massing on the hill across from his checkpoint. When the civilian traffic east had quadrupled, forming long and longer lines that the handful of overworked customs inspectors had to semi-screen.
And lastly when the neatly dressed, dapper young California military officer had come to him with a white flag on a stick.
"I've come to tell you something to tell your bosses. A brigade of California battle armor is setting up on that hill, with support units including artillery in proportion. If you do not resist, you will not be harmed. If you resist you will be destroyed. Do you understand?"
He didn't. And he was afraid to say so.
Finally the young officer had given in to his frustration.
"Look. No one sets up twenty thousand troops on a border without digging in unless they're going to drive across it. Shortly. If I were you, I'd either take that uniform off and run away, or practice raising your hands smoothly. Not so fast that you get shot, not so slow that you get shot. Do you understand?"
Control had taken his report. But the controller had sounded ... distracted. As if bigger things were happening.
###
Distributed Aerospace Warfare Node #322
A conference room, in an anonymous building on the outskirts of a mid-sized town. Seven people - three men, four women - with laptops and headsets. An Internet connection and two heavily armed soldiers who took turns patrolling nearby.
It wasn't what anyone thought of, when they thought of nuclear war. The movies, and the propaganda, emphasized rooms deep in concrete, with a 'floor' of workers and leaders walking around amongst them.
Not a small circle of people setting up around a single large table to play what looked like a complicated, baroque game. WIth a projector showing a repeater view of the Big Board in the Mammoth Lakes Aerospace Center.
If they had to - they could run California's defenses from the room. And the way things were going, they just might have to. If it hadn't been for the several thousand other rooms, scattered all over the state, in which the unthinkable had been Tuesday for years and years.
They could scale up. Play what amounted to a multi player massively parallel computer game in which the weapons and the deaths were equally real. Or scale down, and themselves continue the fight if they were the last node left standing. Or alive.
###
"Attention, all public and private units this net. This is a police control. This is not an exercise. Forward slash with blue tape, show orange. I say again, forward slash with blue tape, show orange. You have twenty minutes to comply. After that you will be fired upon on contact. This message will repeat in five minutes."
###
"Mr. President, we have a new escalation in the California situation."
"Go on."
"In about seven hours, they are having a diplomatic reception in their China embassy."
"So?"
"They've made arrangements to broadcast the proceedings live all over their state. And they're going to broadcast it on their CA- radio systems and the Internet."
"Jam it. What is the term, DOS it."
"They've revealed new capabilities. New transmitters, new antennas, larger aerials and even two satellite broadcasts. It's almost like they want us to know that whever this thing is going to be is important."
"It won't be. It's just California."
"Also, the U.K. Ambassdor is requesting a meeting..."
"No."
"... for exactly the time of that diplomatic reception. He has instructions from his government to watch it with you, or at least to be in commmunication."
"No. I'll be asleep."
"Mr. President. I don't recommend that you sleep in D.C. tonight."
"What?!?"
"This has all the signs of a diplomatic ultimatum."
"I will not be chased out of my own bed by some California sheninigans! The Ambassdor can go talk to himself."
"They may have anti ballistic weapons systems."
The President shrugged.
"And so what if they do? They can shoot down a handful of inbounds. All we have to do is launch one more inbound than they have defense missiles. That's not difficult. We are the most powerful nation in the world and we will not let these rebels keep pushing us around!"
The aide did not reply.
"That will be all."
He didn't hesitate by the door. He didn't even think about it. A good fifty feet down the corridor, in safer territory within the White House, he used his secure phone to call his supervisor, the Chief of Staff.
"I'm not feeling so well. I gave the President the information but he was very dismissive. I don't know that I did a very good job. I'd better go home and get some rest."
"You do that."
The aide cleared the White House exit procedures, got his car, and started driving west. Only when the fuel tank complained that it was about to be empty, did he stop and fill it with gasoline. Buy a gas can, fill that as well, strap it in to the seat next to him. A case of bottled water and some beef jerky.
He planned to drive all night. He did not plan to return.
He would certainly be fired in a day or two. He might plead stress and illness and thereby avoid prison. He would never work in a responsible or sensitive position again.
But if he was right, no one who knew he had abandoned his post in the face of deadly peril would survive the day.
Nor would the city.
###
The streets were subdued.
Not quiet. Not exactly tense. Waiting for something. Not a treat. It was a good time to stay home, or do an errand and go home. To keep your loved ones close. And an extra hug, and a kiss for no reason.
Everyone kind of knew, without knowing.
And no one said.
But we're going to stick it to the Americans, or they're going to stick it to us. Or maybe a double party.
###
CubeNet
A slow Internet, almost a message board from the ancient days of Bulletin Board systems. Not all participants could reveal who or what they were. Or especially - most especially - where.
Cryptic short comments. Many of them, short URL references to events on the global Internet. A few, themselves coded obscurely, with the header letter that showed they were authorized.
Three approximate groups.
One group, the largest, with individual members saying now and again, variations on "We're here." The largest in numbers, but the least chatty. As in, we will die before we abandon you.
Another saying more often, variations on "We're still here." As in we haven't been blown up yet. Definitely talkative. Someone had speculated that they were fixed sites and the comment had been _immediately_ deleted. But they'd seen what they'd seen, so they knew.
And a few that didn't say much.
Eighteen was one of those that didn't say much. But what he said tended to be important, if terse.
"Don't miss the party, sis and bro. The whole world is watching."
Idle Googling. "The whole world is watching."
And also, simple fact.
