GWOT VII - Surprize!
Oct. 14th, 2021 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyGWOT VII - Surprize!
We were off the live video feeds. We could, however, go back to them at any moment that was needful. We were also recording, and transmitting. Just in case the Object in this room, or some stray bit of American or Chinese or Russian ordinance, put paid to my little discussion with our new American possessions.
"Go ahead, Ambassador, with one proviso. I am accredited to California, not to the Russian Federation."
"I have instructions from my government. We have watched as with surgical precision, your nation and England and France have taken down what had been until now the greatest power in the world. What assurances are there that Russia will not be next?"
"Fair question. Again, I answer it as a military officer, not a diplomat. How many cities has Russia nuked?"
A long, uncomfortable pause in the room.
"Barring mishaps like Chernobyl. How many, Ambassador?"
"None."
"Very good. America nuked two cities in 1945 and over one hundred cities in the Firecracker War. China, at long last, retaliated against a mere seven. So there is the scoreboard, if you are so inclined. America over a hundred. China seven. Russia zero."
"California two," he retorted.
I nodded. The ashes of the sailors and air warriors, and not a few civilians, we had wantonly murdered were still falling, radioactive ash wrecking what had been homes and dreams. And would be for days.
"Russia is protected by three Doomsday systems. Two of them are theoretically capable of offensive nuclear war. Perimeter, the Dead Hand. The Russian Naval ballistic missile submarine fleet. The third is a suicide weapon, code named Strangelove. You probably have more than one. But Strangelove is like a pistol pointed at your own head, Russian Roulette played by Russian rules. So we are willing to tolerate it."
Five chambers loaded.
"I was told, briefly, that the French would discuss with you Dead Hand and not to worry about it. We could discern that it had launched, that was all we needed. I was also told, equally briefly, that your ballistic submarines were 'noisy tubs full of unreliable crap' and that in any case, out of fear of a rampant America, you had isolated them into bastions, territorial seas, that made them a fancy form of silo rather than a strategic deterrent."
The Russian's face darkened.
"You are very blunt."
"The situation calls for it. The reason ballistic missile boats are so destabilizing is the same reason we got rid of Hammer as soon as we possibly could. Let us pretend that we are in the situation we are in now - America the loser, groaning under the Birkenstock sandal of a raibow California. If one Trident survived, we would all be waiting for it to decide when to launch and what to launch on. Knowing that we couldn't see it until it launched and then we couldn't stop it. Russia cannot make this threat because We Know Where Your Boats Are.
"France and the U.K. were smarter. Just enough ballistic missile boats to be a credible deterrent. Not enough to require the literal madness of Mutual Assured Destruction. A doctrine that California explicitly rejects, by the way. We do not defend our children by threatening to murder the children of others. We just, to borrow a phrase from a shoe manufacturer, Do It.
"So posture, or make your threat. But if you make a threat, be very sure that you do so with the permission of your government. Because we react to threats with immediate force."
Every Californian in the room was clear that this was a shooting people type conversation. But some of the diplomats, and this Russian, were slow on the uptake.
"How did you destroy Omaha, and with what?"
I shook my head.
"That is not the business of your government. The UK and France both independently reached out to the Russian Federation for your assistance in this matter. Russia remained 'affirmatively neutral.' 'Hoping for peace in our time.' 'Cautiously optimistic that America's internal politics will stabilize.'
"We could have used your help, Ambassador. People and ships and submarines are dead that could have been saved if Russia had helped, with her naval and space warfare and technical expertise. Now you want to cut yourself a piece of the pie that you didn't even ... keep from baking.
"The answer, Mr. Ambassador, is no. No no no, no no no," I sang, to the horror of several diplomats. "No, you may not make hay from our struggle. No, you may not even think about it. Armageddon sick of this conversation. If you want the diplomatic answer, ask a diplomat. My answer, you nekulturny bastard, is that we have every power America thought it had yesterday. AND MORE SO. And also friends.
"If your government wants to enjoy the friendship of California, shut the fuck up and get out of this room. Now. I have the feeling the Chinese are about to PNG you. On my own authority, I can ban you from California territory. And I do."
Two of the SDF troopers moved forward.
"I am a diplomatic officer and I have full immunity!"
"You do. You are trespassing in the national territory of the California Republic. A diplomat ordered to leave foreign territory must comply. I so order. Or were you not listening? And now you must take all your compatriots with you. Including the armed ones."
A quiet voice in the corner spoke up. George, setting down a phone.
"China expels your Embassy. You have one hour to remove your personnel to the airport."
"What?!?" His face darkened, and two other diplomatic officers started arguing with him in frantic Russian.
A uniformed Russian pushed forward. A naval attache.
"Sir, we will withdraw as ordered. I must ask. What are your intentions towards Russia?"
"Russia sold arms to us. Russia also sold arms to our enemies. We have a relationship. It has been damaged. I must leave this to our diplomats and our foreign relations experts. The most I can say, today, is that we respect Russian sovereignty and the inherent rights of her people to continue to exist."
A horrific pause that only I could break.
"So long as she pays us the same respect. Thank you, Colonel, dismissed."
The Russian delegation left, to go pack and explain themselves to their government. Their ambassador was dragged - by other Russians. Depending on how irritated the Central Committee would be with the video of their performances, they might go to Siberia and they might end up in camps.
Unlikely they'd be strapped to a gurney and rolled into a furnace. That treatment Russia reserved to traitors.
We'd dealt with America. We'd dealt with Russia. We had deals with France and England.
Now I needed to pay the tab for the hall we had held our banquet in.
"George, we will name a replacement Ambassador to China as soon as we can. In the meantime, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to your people, your government, and you personally."
George was implacable.
"Thank you, Colonel 18. Like the Russians, I have also received orders from my government. We both know what the gratitude of nations is worth."
None of the American Tridents had gotten a missile shot off. Several had fired torpedoes. We had parked one of our three missile defense submarines off the China coast. She hadn't fired.
But her sister, who had fired on Hawaii, had unavoidably revealed what we had brought into a Chinese port without permission or authorization.
Countries that have received the fury of full nuclear war are cranky about people who bring nuclear arms near them.
George was also perfectly capable of intuiting that the Object behind me, in this room, was of the same breed of Object that had wrecked Omaha. And would, if unplugged, annihilate this city and set on fire everything in an eighty kilometer radius.
"I am authorized to extend to you the thanks of the Chinese people. We are forever in your debt. We grant you honorary Chinese citizenship. Should it be needed, we guarantee you diplomatic immunity and full pension and benefits as of this moment."
There was a 'but' coming. I knew it.
"And ... your companions. The four of you. It is literally the least we can do. But we would like very much to do more."
Here it comes.
"We volunteer to join your alliance on the same terms as the French and the United Kingdom. The People's LIberation Army is at your disposal. Not California's disposal. Yours."
Now that wasn't anything I was expecting.
The SDF troopers got very nervous.
Now I really could make myself dictator of the world, if I so chose.
###
I shook my head.
"I greatly appreciate that. Please instruct the PLA Naval Branch to work in close cooperation with the California Navy. I think trying to use Chinese troops to keep order in the Americas would create more problems than it would solve. But we will need inspectors, technical experts, aid and assistance of all kinds. If nothing else you could take up the slack in California and free more of our forces to consolidate in America. Our diplomats can settle the details, our alliance will be fair and generous."
I lowered my voice. I knew damn well the whole world would hear, one way or another, whatever I said on this evening of horrors. It was still not a thing I was proud of.
"California selected me for two characteristics, Colonel Xiang Hu." It was the first time I had used his name and rank. "The ruthlessness to do all that needed to be done, without compunction or remorse. Colonel, I authorized using _nerve gas_ on _children_. I blew up American cultural and historic treasures from Hawaii to Maine, from the Dakotas to the southern tip of Florida. If there were any justice in the world, you would offer me a noose, not asylum. And a lot more has been done behind the scenes that men hung for at Nuremberg, and I hung men for at Alviso.
"That was not the important criterion. Entirely too many men and women are capable of as much. Cruelty is cheap. I was selected instead for the other attribute. The willingness to fight, to wage war, to save our enemy from herself, the country so many Californians now hate. I fought to save America. Not China, not California. To hold the toll down to two cities. A surgeon conservative in his blood letting.
"And also the ability to resist the temptation you just offered me. A soul so frozen that I can just let it go. I have no desire to rule the world, but I will do anything I must to keep it from burning. We are less than a tenth of the way down our contingency plans.
"A small detail. There are right now, four California aircraft headed towards Kergulen Island. They are beyond return and we will need to bring in jet fuel by tanker ship sometime in the next few weeks. Those aircraft are packed with teenage girls. If we had lost as badly as I feared, the biosphere badly damaged ... they would have found their husbands already on the island. Captured US Navy sailors. A new Pitcairn Island for a dead race.
"'He fears his fate too much, or his deserts are small. Who will not put it to the touch. To win or lose it all,'" I quoted, without credit to the source.
"I bet it all. Controller, does Mammoth Lakes have operational control?"
"Yes, General."
Someone handed me a set of rank tabs. Betty undid my collar and swapped them out on the spot.
"Governor's orders." And I received a salute, amid a crashing bark of relief.
"Viva California!"
The room shook.
"Mammoth Lakes has control. I don't drink much. I need to get very, very drunk."
Someone put a California IPA in my hand, tab already popped, and I drank it down.
Preaching is thirsty work.
Someone walked up to me, closely attended by a SDF trooper.
"General. Where is my wife?"
I shook my head.
The Station Chief started to answer, and I made a gesture that silenced him instantly.
No, this man would not be comforted to know that we'd put his spouse in the freezer. Embassies don't have morgues.
"I'm sorry for your loss, sir."
The plane from California had landed, carrying her dependents. Security considerations had prevented prior notification.
Would she have killed herself if she'd known?
The hazards and fortunes of war take many forms.
His face froze. He stumbled away. The Psyche took his arm. He was one of ours. We would do what we could for him. And for the two children watching from the door, having no idea what they were looking at, but somehow knowing they would remember it all for the rest of their days.
One death is a tragedy. Ten thousand in Hawaii, at least half a million too close to Omaha and under the Hammers, at least twenty thousand US Navy sailors. Air Force and Space Force. Even a few Army - cadets at the Point - and Marines, at Atlantic Command and at Annapolis. And a VIce President, and more than a handful of civilians who had just been touring Rushmore when we'd crushed it, or admiring fallen leaves in New England when the Radiant Hammer had lit them on fire. Power line workers in Tennessee, air defense controllers under a mountain in Colorado.
I tossed the can down.
"Stronger," I insisted.
Strong drink was brought.
I wept.
I hadn't wept since Site. I hadn't wept at Alviso. Not at the Border. Not in bloody, bloody Iowa.
You only weep when it is over.
That is the first lesson, if you aspire to become anything like me.
The second lesson.
Don't.
We were off the live video feeds. We could, however, go back to them at any moment that was needful. We were also recording, and transmitting. Just in case the Object in this room, or some stray bit of American or Chinese or Russian ordinance, put paid to my little discussion with our new American possessions.
"Go ahead, Ambassador, with one proviso. I am accredited to California, not to the Russian Federation."
"I have instructions from my government. We have watched as with surgical precision, your nation and England and France have taken down what had been until now the greatest power in the world. What assurances are there that Russia will not be next?"
"Fair question. Again, I answer it as a military officer, not a diplomat. How many cities has Russia nuked?"
A long, uncomfortable pause in the room.
"Barring mishaps like Chernobyl. How many, Ambassador?"
"None."
"Very good. America nuked two cities in 1945 and over one hundred cities in the Firecracker War. China, at long last, retaliated against a mere seven. So there is the scoreboard, if you are so inclined. America over a hundred. China seven. Russia zero."
"California two," he retorted.
I nodded. The ashes of the sailors and air warriors, and not a few civilians, we had wantonly murdered were still falling, radioactive ash wrecking what had been homes and dreams. And would be for days.
"Russia is protected by three Doomsday systems. Two of them are theoretically capable of offensive nuclear war. Perimeter, the Dead Hand. The Russian Naval ballistic missile submarine fleet. The third is a suicide weapon, code named Strangelove. You probably have more than one. But Strangelove is like a pistol pointed at your own head, Russian Roulette played by Russian rules. So we are willing to tolerate it."
Five chambers loaded.
"I was told, briefly, that the French would discuss with you Dead Hand and not to worry about it. We could discern that it had launched, that was all we needed. I was also told, equally briefly, that your ballistic submarines were 'noisy tubs full of unreliable crap' and that in any case, out of fear of a rampant America, you had isolated them into bastions, territorial seas, that made them a fancy form of silo rather than a strategic deterrent."
The Russian's face darkened.
"You are very blunt."
"The situation calls for it. The reason ballistic missile boats are so destabilizing is the same reason we got rid of Hammer as soon as we possibly could. Let us pretend that we are in the situation we are in now - America the loser, groaning under the Birkenstock sandal of a raibow California. If one Trident survived, we would all be waiting for it to decide when to launch and what to launch on. Knowing that we couldn't see it until it launched and then we couldn't stop it. Russia cannot make this threat because We Know Where Your Boats Are.
"France and the U.K. were smarter. Just enough ballistic missile boats to be a credible deterrent. Not enough to require the literal madness of Mutual Assured Destruction. A doctrine that California explicitly rejects, by the way. We do not defend our children by threatening to murder the children of others. We just, to borrow a phrase from a shoe manufacturer, Do It.
"So posture, or make your threat. But if you make a threat, be very sure that you do so with the permission of your government. Because we react to threats with immediate force."
Every Californian in the room was clear that this was a shooting people type conversation. But some of the diplomats, and this Russian, were slow on the uptake.
"How did you destroy Omaha, and with what?"
I shook my head.
"That is not the business of your government. The UK and France both independently reached out to the Russian Federation for your assistance in this matter. Russia remained 'affirmatively neutral.' 'Hoping for peace in our time.' 'Cautiously optimistic that America's internal politics will stabilize.'
"We could have used your help, Ambassador. People and ships and submarines are dead that could have been saved if Russia had helped, with her naval and space warfare and technical expertise. Now you want to cut yourself a piece of the pie that you didn't even ... keep from baking.
"The answer, Mr. Ambassador, is no. No no no, no no no," I sang, to the horror of several diplomats. "No, you may not make hay from our struggle. No, you may not even think about it. Armageddon sick of this conversation. If you want the diplomatic answer, ask a diplomat. My answer, you nekulturny bastard, is that we have every power America thought it had yesterday. AND MORE SO. And also friends.
"If your government wants to enjoy the friendship of California, shut the fuck up and get out of this room. Now. I have the feeling the Chinese are about to PNG you. On my own authority, I can ban you from California territory. And I do."
Two of the SDF troopers moved forward.
"I am a diplomatic officer and I have full immunity!"
"You do. You are trespassing in the national territory of the California Republic. A diplomat ordered to leave foreign territory must comply. I so order. Or were you not listening? And now you must take all your compatriots with you. Including the armed ones."
A quiet voice in the corner spoke up. George, setting down a phone.
"China expels your Embassy. You have one hour to remove your personnel to the airport."
"What?!?" His face darkened, and two other diplomatic officers started arguing with him in frantic Russian.
A uniformed Russian pushed forward. A naval attache.
"Sir, we will withdraw as ordered. I must ask. What are your intentions towards Russia?"
"Russia sold arms to us. Russia also sold arms to our enemies. We have a relationship. It has been damaged. I must leave this to our diplomats and our foreign relations experts. The most I can say, today, is that we respect Russian sovereignty and the inherent rights of her people to continue to exist."
A horrific pause that only I could break.
"So long as she pays us the same respect. Thank you, Colonel, dismissed."
The Russian delegation left, to go pack and explain themselves to their government. Their ambassador was dragged - by other Russians. Depending on how irritated the Central Committee would be with the video of their performances, they might go to Siberia and they might end up in camps.
Unlikely they'd be strapped to a gurney and rolled into a furnace. That treatment Russia reserved to traitors.
We'd dealt with America. We'd dealt with Russia. We had deals with France and England.
Now I needed to pay the tab for the hall we had held our banquet in.
"George, we will name a replacement Ambassador to China as soon as we can. In the meantime, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to your people, your government, and you personally."
George was implacable.
"Thank you, Colonel 18. Like the Russians, I have also received orders from my government. We both know what the gratitude of nations is worth."
None of the American Tridents had gotten a missile shot off. Several had fired torpedoes. We had parked one of our three missile defense submarines off the China coast. She hadn't fired.
But her sister, who had fired on Hawaii, had unavoidably revealed what we had brought into a Chinese port without permission or authorization.
Countries that have received the fury of full nuclear war are cranky about people who bring nuclear arms near them.
George was also perfectly capable of intuiting that the Object behind me, in this room, was of the same breed of Object that had wrecked Omaha. And would, if unplugged, annihilate this city and set on fire everything in an eighty kilometer radius.
"I am authorized to extend to you the thanks of the Chinese people. We are forever in your debt. We grant you honorary Chinese citizenship. Should it be needed, we guarantee you diplomatic immunity and full pension and benefits as of this moment."
There was a 'but' coming. I knew it.
"And ... your companions. The four of you. It is literally the least we can do. But we would like very much to do more."
Here it comes.
"We volunteer to join your alliance on the same terms as the French and the United Kingdom. The People's LIberation Army is at your disposal. Not California's disposal. Yours."
Now that wasn't anything I was expecting.
The SDF troopers got very nervous.
Now I really could make myself dictator of the world, if I so chose.
###
I shook my head.
"I greatly appreciate that. Please instruct the PLA Naval Branch to work in close cooperation with the California Navy. I think trying to use Chinese troops to keep order in the Americas would create more problems than it would solve. But we will need inspectors, technical experts, aid and assistance of all kinds. If nothing else you could take up the slack in California and free more of our forces to consolidate in America. Our diplomats can settle the details, our alliance will be fair and generous."
I lowered my voice. I knew damn well the whole world would hear, one way or another, whatever I said on this evening of horrors. It was still not a thing I was proud of.
"California selected me for two characteristics, Colonel Xiang Hu." It was the first time I had used his name and rank. "The ruthlessness to do all that needed to be done, without compunction or remorse. Colonel, I authorized using _nerve gas_ on _children_. I blew up American cultural and historic treasures from Hawaii to Maine, from the Dakotas to the southern tip of Florida. If there were any justice in the world, you would offer me a noose, not asylum. And a lot more has been done behind the scenes that men hung for at Nuremberg, and I hung men for at Alviso.
"That was not the important criterion. Entirely too many men and women are capable of as much. Cruelty is cheap. I was selected instead for the other attribute. The willingness to fight, to wage war, to save our enemy from herself, the country so many Californians now hate. I fought to save America. Not China, not California. To hold the toll down to two cities. A surgeon conservative in his blood letting.
"And also the ability to resist the temptation you just offered me. A soul so frozen that I can just let it go. I have no desire to rule the world, but I will do anything I must to keep it from burning. We are less than a tenth of the way down our contingency plans.
"A small detail. There are right now, four California aircraft headed towards Kergulen Island. They are beyond return and we will need to bring in jet fuel by tanker ship sometime in the next few weeks. Those aircraft are packed with teenage girls. If we had lost as badly as I feared, the biosphere badly damaged ... they would have found their husbands already on the island. Captured US Navy sailors. A new Pitcairn Island for a dead race.
"'He fears his fate too much, or his deserts are small. Who will not put it to the touch. To win or lose it all,'" I quoted, without credit to the source.
"I bet it all. Controller, does Mammoth Lakes have operational control?"
"Yes, General."
Someone handed me a set of rank tabs. Betty undid my collar and swapped them out on the spot.
"Governor's orders." And I received a salute, amid a crashing bark of relief.
"Viva California!"
The room shook.
"Mammoth Lakes has control. I don't drink much. I need to get very, very drunk."
Someone put a California IPA in my hand, tab already popped, and I drank it down.
Preaching is thirsty work.
Someone walked up to me, closely attended by a SDF trooper.
"General. Where is my wife?"
I shook my head.
The Station Chief started to answer, and I made a gesture that silenced him instantly.
No, this man would not be comforted to know that we'd put his spouse in the freezer. Embassies don't have morgues.
"I'm sorry for your loss, sir."
The plane from California had landed, carrying her dependents. Security considerations had prevented prior notification.
Would she have killed herself if she'd known?
The hazards and fortunes of war take many forms.
His face froze. He stumbled away. The Psyche took his arm. He was one of ours. We would do what we could for him. And for the two children watching from the door, having no idea what they were looking at, but somehow knowing they would remember it all for the rest of their days.
One death is a tragedy. Ten thousand in Hawaii, at least half a million too close to Omaha and under the Hammers, at least twenty thousand US Navy sailors. Air Force and Space Force. Even a few Army - cadets at the Point - and Marines, at Atlantic Command and at Annapolis. And a VIce President, and more than a handful of civilians who had just been touring Rushmore when we'd crushed it, or admiring fallen leaves in New England when the Radiant Hammer had lit them on fire. Power line workers in Tennessee, air defense controllers under a mountain in Colorado.
I tossed the can down.
"Stronger," I insisted.
Strong drink was brought.
I wept.
I hadn't wept since Site. I hadn't wept at Alviso. Not at the Border. Not in bloody, bloody Iowa.
You only weep when it is over.
That is the first lesson, if you aspire to become anything like me.
The second lesson.
Don't.
