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drewkittyGWOT IV - Snippets Of The 2nd American Civil War
Ultimately, I came no closer to the front lines than Alviso Prison.
But the front lines came more than once to us.
You may know the key events of the War of the Republic better than I do. Certainly if you were there for any of them.
Highlights:
The Battle of UCLA: when, at the insistence of Homeland, a scratch division of American Army dug out of their bunkers and massacred the students, faculty and alumni of same ... and didn't get out, having been successfully mousetrapped into expending itself on a smoking ruin. The Warsaw Ghetto with more drones and less hope.
The First Air Battle Of Oakland: or what happens when American ADA ("Air Defense Artillery") is mostly in the hands of, you guessed it, the California National Guard. Also, "The Oakland Turkey Shoot." Still gives American pilots nightmares, and makes everyone's pilots really careful about IFF and authenticators.
The Battle of Barstow, 1 and 2 and 3 and ..., involving scratch forces nominally allied to one side or another fighting it out in a wheeled chaotic mess covering thousands of square miles of desert, with friendly fire a given. Also known by those who were there as "Wasteland Weekend For A Year."
The Battle of Laguna Beach, in which prepared elements of a Marine Division met a scratch defense of Californian rebels in what had been a sleepy Orange County beach town ... and mutinied after taking 30% casualties. That's the American version, anyway. They kind of realized they were fighting for the wrong side.
A lot of the fights were very confused. You see, with the notable exception of Homeland and the paid paramilitaries (who kept asking "paid when? with what?"), it turns out that Americans really don't want to actually shoot at each other all that much.
I only got to try and execute genocidaires who were captured. If they surrendered on terms, we honored them. Mostly. But occasionally we sent our own special operations groups after them. The Bear Forces didn't have cool toys, attractive names or a recruitment strategy. What they had was the promise of revenge for those who were truly willing to spend all they had for it.
Did Bear Forces operate outside California? Do bears ... yeah.
The California Naval Militia was commanded out of Monterey. Just a happy accident that the prewar USN had several facilities in that area.
It was striking, after a year or so of fighting, how thoroughly the United States Navy shattered into its component parts. The East Coast Navy stayed loyal to America. The overseas Navy fought until exhausted. But the West Coast Navy, which had taken the brunt of the China War, fragmented and defected to its home states - fortunately for us, Washington and California.
(Hawaii was in a very odd position. Never quite loyal, never quite disloyal, and used its leverage to Keep Homeland The Fuck Out. If California is any judge, saved thousands of civilian lives that way.)
The first lithium ion diesel electric submarines were horror shows that were guaranteed, like any submarine, to sink once. They got better.
Former American submariners who defected to California felt they had something not just to prove, but to atone for. I won't say they're wrong. But an awful lot of them died in fires in the ocean deeps, out of guilt over San Francisco.
I've mentioned the naval war. I've hinted at the air war. I will draw a merciful veil over some of the ground war.
But the most important armed force of California was the one that never fired a shot from anything heavier than a pistol.
The California Republic SDF ("Strategic Defense Force") saved us all just by existing.
The architects of the 2nd American Civil War figured that nuking San Francisco would give them all the tools they needed, including stark raving fear, to own the country.
After the Chinese sneak attack on the Midwest, they realized that fear of nukes cut both ways. A lot of people just kind of melted out of big cities, despite all threats and sanctions. A handful joined local Resistance movements. (Oh, hey, bears...)
When California proved that we were fully nuclear capable, without actually having to blow up any cities, this gave even the most hardened pro-American advocates pause.
Sure, they could, with the reduced arsenal America still had, blow California off the map. But if they did, what was left to deter the increasingly militant, increasingly bold UK and Russia?
It was anticlimactic when the California Republic and the UK signed the treaty forming the Northern Hemisphere Defense Organization. The next two signatories were Canada and Russia.
NOHEDO. An alliance of weaker powers surrounding a dangerously crazy giant.
The war didn't exactly end. It kind of petered out.
We had just about finished the POW trials when the order came down.
Start repatriation. The Americans have agreed to prisoner exchange.
Las Vegas had, like Hawaii, played all sides against each other to remain relatively intact. This made Vegas the venue for formal as well as informal diplomacy, and the logical home for the peace talks.
(Reno had been a battlefield three times over, and was "too far from God, too close to America.")
So now, the promise of a bus to Vegas meant more than than a weekend of fun and some gambling.
It meant freedom. For those who were eligible for exchange.
Which meant no more California Republic military charges hanging over their heads.
Which circled matters back to, well, me.
Ultimately, I came no closer to the front lines than Alviso Prison.
But the front lines came more than once to us.
You may know the key events of the War of the Republic better than I do. Certainly if you were there for any of them.
Highlights:
The Battle of UCLA: when, at the insistence of Homeland, a scratch division of American Army dug out of their bunkers and massacred the students, faculty and alumni of same ... and didn't get out, having been successfully mousetrapped into expending itself on a smoking ruin. The Warsaw Ghetto with more drones and less hope.
The First Air Battle Of Oakland: or what happens when American ADA ("Air Defense Artillery") is mostly in the hands of, you guessed it, the California National Guard. Also, "The Oakland Turkey Shoot." Still gives American pilots nightmares, and makes everyone's pilots really careful about IFF and authenticators.
The Battle of Barstow, 1 and 2 and 3 and ..., involving scratch forces nominally allied to one side or another fighting it out in a wheeled chaotic mess covering thousands of square miles of desert, with friendly fire a given. Also known by those who were there as "Wasteland Weekend For A Year."
The Battle of Laguna Beach, in which prepared elements of a Marine Division met a scratch defense of Californian rebels in what had been a sleepy Orange County beach town ... and mutinied after taking 30% casualties. That's the American version, anyway. They kind of realized they were fighting for the wrong side.
A lot of the fights were very confused. You see, with the notable exception of Homeland and the paid paramilitaries (who kept asking "paid when? with what?"), it turns out that Americans really don't want to actually shoot at each other all that much.
I only got to try and execute genocidaires who were captured. If they surrendered on terms, we honored them. Mostly. But occasionally we sent our own special operations groups after them. The Bear Forces didn't have cool toys, attractive names or a recruitment strategy. What they had was the promise of revenge for those who were truly willing to spend all they had for it.
Did Bear Forces operate outside California? Do bears ... yeah.
The California Naval Militia was commanded out of Monterey. Just a happy accident that the prewar USN had several facilities in that area.
It was striking, after a year or so of fighting, how thoroughly the United States Navy shattered into its component parts. The East Coast Navy stayed loyal to America. The overseas Navy fought until exhausted. But the West Coast Navy, which had taken the brunt of the China War, fragmented and defected to its home states - fortunately for us, Washington and California.
(Hawaii was in a very odd position. Never quite loyal, never quite disloyal, and used its leverage to Keep Homeland The Fuck Out. If California is any judge, saved thousands of civilian lives that way.)
The first lithium ion diesel electric submarines were horror shows that were guaranteed, like any submarine, to sink once. They got better.
Former American submariners who defected to California felt they had something not just to prove, but to atone for. I won't say they're wrong. But an awful lot of them died in fires in the ocean deeps, out of guilt over San Francisco.
I've mentioned the naval war. I've hinted at the air war. I will draw a merciful veil over some of the ground war.
But the most important armed force of California was the one that never fired a shot from anything heavier than a pistol.
The California Republic SDF ("Strategic Defense Force") saved us all just by existing.
The architects of the 2nd American Civil War figured that nuking San Francisco would give them all the tools they needed, including stark raving fear, to own the country.
After the Chinese sneak attack on the Midwest, they realized that fear of nukes cut both ways. A lot of people just kind of melted out of big cities, despite all threats and sanctions. A handful joined local Resistance movements. (Oh, hey, bears...)
When California proved that we were fully nuclear capable, without actually having to blow up any cities, this gave even the most hardened pro-American advocates pause.
Sure, they could, with the reduced arsenal America still had, blow California off the map. But if they did, what was left to deter the increasingly militant, increasingly bold UK and Russia?
It was anticlimactic when the California Republic and the UK signed the treaty forming the Northern Hemisphere Defense Organization. The next two signatories were Canada and Russia.
NOHEDO. An alliance of weaker powers surrounding a dangerously crazy giant.
The war didn't exactly end. It kind of petered out.
We had just about finished the POW trials when the order came down.
Start repatriation. The Americans have agreed to prisoner exchange.
Las Vegas had, like Hawaii, played all sides against each other to remain relatively intact. This made Vegas the venue for formal as well as informal diplomacy, and the logical home for the peace talks.
(Reno had been a battlefield three times over, and was "too far from God, too close to America.")
So now, the promise of a bus to Vegas meant more than than a weekend of fun and some gambling.
It meant freedom. For those who were eligible for exchange.
Which meant no more California Republic military charges hanging over their heads.
Which circled matters back to, well, me.
