Shanghaied - 2ACW

162 – Cry of freedom

Russia’s state broadcaster RT broke the news that Jessica Toomey was to produce irrefutable evidence concerning the role of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Green as the mastermind behind the America Insurgent Army terror group. She was due to host a media event, RT said several hours ahead of that, where documents that had been confirmed as genuine by former officials in the Walsh Administration would prove previous allegations. There was news too that a US Justice Department official who had been enraged at the cover-up back in DC was in Moscow too after being given political asylum and he would speak alongside her. RT’s leak was spot on. A little bit earlier than initially scheduled, Toomey and that self-exiled official appeared before the cameras. Documents were handed out, ones which were genuine and certainly shouldn’t have been in their hands let alone passed to the media. Toomey declared that, just as she had alleged, the evidence proved that there had been a cover-up ‘worse than Watergate’ which she was exposing to the world. She asked whether other Americans could accept what she wouldn’t: continued allegiance to the US Government in light of the Green-AIA revelation.

Far off in distant Oklahoma, on the other side of the world from that high drama in Moscow, Green fled his house between the leak of what was coming and the proof provided. He and his wife, who had long functioned as his private attorney and in DC was suspected as being almost as involved in the whole affair as he was, slipped out of their extensive rural property in that state right under the noses of almost a dozen Federal Marshals who had been posted to keep watch on them. No charges had been filled against Green and he was supposedly free to do what he wanted yet those Marshals were there to stop him doing a runner. A runner he did though, with help from paid accomplices to his escape. Soon he was at a small nearby airfield – while the Marshals knew nothing – and aboard a private jet that didn’t mess around in getting airborne once Green and his wife were inside. A flight plan had been filled, one with gave the jet special dispensation to fly in military controlled skies: another pair of accomplices, one at the FAA and the other at FEMA, had signed off on that. They hadn’t asked enough questions and instead took cash which they would never get the chance to spend once the authorities caught up with them. The aircraft flew southeast first, going far away from the aerial battlefields of the Second American Civil War, as it flew over the east of Texas and then out of the Gulf of Mexico. It arrived in Mexico just after Toomey and that defector spoke. There was a change of aircraft at an airstrip in the Yucatan Peninsula to a larger private jet which then flew deeper down into Latin America. Those involved in the first flight knew no details about the second and would be clueless when later investigated. The flight-crew and almost everyone involved in Green’s escape knew none of the real truth about what was going on with him. They thought they were helping him get to overseas medical treatment, not fleeing from the US Government. There was disbelief in their innocence from investigators after the fact but no lies were actually told.

Green was gone. He fled justice, personal revenge of President Mitchell too, and set about a life on the run. Soon he would be hunted all over the world.


Admiral Miller hit the metaphorical roof.

The actual roof above his head when he was brought news that Green was on the run was mountain rock. Since the bombing run made by a B-21 Raider stealth bomber on the Department of Homeland Security’s peacetime HQ, he had moved central operations for the DHS to Mount Weather. The underground emergency facility within the Blue Ridge mountains as they went across Virginia was where President Walsh had fled to during the short Sino-American War which had spun out of the Taiwan Conflict a few years beforehand. There was a separate area of the facility where Mitchell would be evacuated to if the fight with the secessionists of the Democratic American Republic went to the stage where that was thought necessary. Miller’s DHS was running operations underground like the Defence Department was from Raven Rock (the Pentagon a blasted ruin) too. Safe from another attack, despite the DAR having no more of those bombers left, Miller had been enjoying himself when under Mount Weather. He and his top people were out of the craziness that DC was with the media and all of those politicians too. But then he was told that Green had been up and vanished.

Mitchell had told him, with a nod and a wink, not anything verbal let alone an executive order, that he wanted to see Green suffer a fatal accident. For the president to wish someone dead and to have that done was – unfortunately – the usual way of things in America. Presidents bumped off enemies. However, it wasn’t through a military attack launched overseas against a recognised opponent of the United States, such as it normally was, when the 50th President sought to have the once most powerful politician in the country bumped off. He had wanted Miller to see it done on the sly and to make it look accidental. He had only given Miller the task after it was suggested by the DHS Secretary as a way to solve the issue. No one else knew. That had even included Secret Service agents who, like everyone else in the Mitchell Administration, had been completely left in the dark. Miller had a team prepared, people who did such things for a living, and had been a day away from seeing his president’s wish fulfilled before Green pre-empted that. He got wind of what had gone on out in Oklahoma only through Attorney General Gunnarsson. She had had those Marshals go in to detain Green once that news event in Russia happened – which would have spoilt the planned accident – and it was discovered that he and his wife had recently fled despite those Marshals nearby. There were also two civilian contractors whose expenses were being paid out of DHS slush fund near to the house in Oklahoma too, without the Marshals knowing about their own covert surveillance. They were the advance team for the people whom Miller had been intending to send to get rid of Green. It took some time to find out what was going on, as Miller’s people had to act on the quiet, but it was discovered that both of those watchers were dead: someone had killed them while leaving the Marshals alone.

When he was able to confirm that Green was gone and thus on the run, but not knowing much else, Miller had thought it best to go and see Mitchell. The president’s chief-of-staff told Miller that Mitchell would see him but there would have to be a brief meeting where the DHS Secretary had better get to the point of what he needed to say. The funerals of the First Lady and one of Mitchell’s daughters – killed at Green’s (indirect) hand – were a day away. Miller had a helicopter arranged to pick him up from Mount Weather and fly up to Camp David where his president had gone. There was a short walk from out of his office below the mountain to the elevator. On the way, he and his two personal protection officers came across one of the secretaries assigned to his deputy. Jeanne and others had ‘moved in’ to the mountain as they could hardly go back and forth on the commute to home everyday. Miller had been making the effort to be more friendly with the staff who were also underground and he stepped right between his lead protection officer and Jeanne to put a friendly arm around her because he had seen she looked a bit upset. His thoughts had been that the pressures of being confined where they all were had been getting to her as had been the case with others. Jeanne smiled at him as his arm went around her (he’d done that to others: he was a lawsuit waiting to happen) before she then cried out one word: ‘freedom!’.

There was then a blast. Miller died instantly, the second Homeland Security Secretary killed by the AIA in a few short months.

The president was told not long afterwards. He demanded details from his Homeland Security Advisor but those took some time to come. When Mitchell was finally told the whole story, he was disgusted at it all. That woman who blew herself up while killing Miller and one of his guards too was a long-term infiltration agent. The AIA had gotten her all the way to where she ended up, standing next to Miller in a tight corridor deep below ground in one of the supposedly most secure places in the United States. She had an explosive device with her too, one which no one detected. She was also reached from outside with a message to that afternoon kill Miller straight after Green had gone on the run. All arranged without no one getting wind of it.

Mitchell was the president of a country where something such as that was able to happen the day before he buried members of his close family also slain by terrorists.

Green forgets that the ISA, Delta Force, and DEVGRU can hunt him down without the need to worry about extradition treaties.

I don't see the DAR holding out longer even though the ALA (which is not aligned with the West) assassinated Miller. The U.S. first has to deal with the effect of Glowworm before dealing with the final blow against the DAR.

That's what got me wondering. Why the hell does the Pentagon have no antidote against the Glowworm?

Also it is possible for the U.S. Armed Forces to emerge victorious if the East goes on a war-footing economy just like World War II. The problem is that the DAR's break-away from the U.S. did not produce a "Pearl Harbor moment" that angered and motivated the population out in the East. Even Americans in the east of the Continental Divide are divided because thought of shooting fellow Americans in the 21st Century is just stupid. Hence the amount of desertions ongoing on both sides.

163 – No shooting

On April 5th there was a UN Security Council meeting in New York. It was an urgent affair, one to discuss the situation regarding peacekeepers in Algeria. As one of the permanent members of the UNSC, the United States could have requested a delay due to events down in North Carolina that day where – in a private event – President Mitchell was burying his wife and one of his daughters. Other permanent and the rotating members could have agreed to a delay but Mitchell told SecState Renzi to not see that done. The meeting didn’t take place during the exact time of the funerals yet still occurred that day. Algeria had been a mess for many long years, back since the Walsh Administration launched air strikes to try and defeat Islamic rebels seeking to topple the secular regime… pretty much the same thing had been done not that long afterwards in Egypt too by the 48th President. European, African and Asian peacekeepers were there and a series of terror attacks had struck at them. There were calls for the peacekeepers to be pulled out due to there not being much of a peace to keep. The United States’ position was that they should stay and honour their mandate. Renzi affirmed that in open session, supported by the majority of the UNSC. Russia, China and a couple of others wanted them out but the veto power of those two permanent members wasn’t able to end the mission: they had voted for it to start and couldn’t stop it continuing.

India had a big presence of peacekeepers there in Algeria and that country’s foreign minister had gone to New York to see them kept there. She requested a meeting with Renzi afterwards, one with just the two of them and no one else. Renzi took the meet. An offer was presented, one with India acting as a neutral third party seeking nothing for itself in a successful outcome. Renzi was expecting the conversation to be about Algeria, possibly something else in the world if not that, so was left stunned when India’s FM brought up the matter of the fourteen year-old Anna Mitchell. The president’s surviving twin daughter was still in intensive care at Walter Reed with her life hanging in the balance after being poisoned by that biological agent. The SecState was informed that India was in contact with the Russians. They could apparently help to save that young girl’s life. Like India, nothing was wanted in return. All that the United States had to do was ask for the cure which was apparently available. That ask didn’t have to be public and both India and Russia weren’t going to make any announcements nor off-the-record briefings. An antidote to save Amy Mitchell’s life was right there for the taking. The Russian Government was apparently eager to hand it over, along with the right support to see it used properly too. The Indian FM urged Renzi to contact DC to get permission if she herself couldn’t make a request on her own.

Renzi tried Mitchell but was only able to reach Vice President Cruz at that time. The situation was explained to a stunned Cruz. The answer which came back was to make the ask and take what was on the table. Renzi was told that should Mitchell decide that he didn’t want that promised help, it could be retracted at any time but she believed that there was no time for messing around. The president was with other family members and the delay in contacting him wouldn’t be that long: in the meantime, Renzi was to make that request. Renzi did so. Decisions had been concentrated in Cruz’s hands for sometime before that, hence why Renzi asked permission from the vice president rather than waiting on Mitchell. The Russian FM was also in New York and a meeting there at the UN complex took place with India acting as an intermediary. Renzi said the necessary words to ask for help from Russia to save the life of that gravely-ill girl. It was at once granted. She was told that there were two specialist doctors already in the grounds with the medicine at-hand: they were ready to be taken to Walter Reed with that and were also prepared to answer any questions that the child’s doctors had. Renzi set about arranging all of that.

Mitchell didn’t say no when he was finally told. A helicopter with those two doctors was half an hour away from Walter Reed and he was in the position to refuse but allowed it all to go ahead. He made it clear that without the permission of the doctors there, plus the successful go-ahead from US Government military medicine specialists too, there would be no treatment given to his daughter yet allowed the whole thing to proceed. There was a hold up, one which those two Russians who flown to Maryland tried to hurry onwards, but, in the end, they and what they brought with them were convincing enough for the treatment to be given to the president’s daughter. Within days, her condition would improve significantly. Within a week, Anna Mitchell would be out of intensive care.

None of that was made public. It was all kept Top Secret with none of the three governments involved putting the information into the public arena. President Makarov had his ambassador in DC deliver a hand-written note to Mitchell where he told him that he expected nothing in return. He did what he did as a father himself, so the message said. Mitchell, Cruz, Renzi and others in the know weren’t so convinced of Makarov’s honest intentions at all but what had been done had been done. As to that antidote delivered to cancel out the poison in Amy Mitchell and save her life, not all of that was used in her care. The Russians brought more than they needed, just in case. The remnants of the medicine went to Fort Detrick: back to where the whole RF-187 saga of its use in America had begun. It had been almost five years since the Balashikha caper when the CIA got a team into the FSB ‘poison factory’ just outside Moscow and stole all of those germ samples from there. The Russians had found out not long afterwards but said nothing in public, joining the CIA in keeping quiet too. It was only after the Omaha Bombing and the mistaken belief that terrorists with the American Insurgent Army had used it there that the news concerning American spies stealing Russian biological agents had been leaked to become public. Russia had denied that anything like that had ever happened – the CIA had stayed silent – and that it manufactured such things in violation of international agreements. Variants of Novichok was all Western disinformation, a fairytale for the gullible seeking to impugn Russia’s reputation! When Attorney General Underwood and others in DC had been killed by the germ, with Walsh almost infected too, Russian denials had continued. Even in the face of the attack on the First Family, when questions were put to a Kremlin spokesperson, it was all once more denied. Yet… Makarov sent to America the cure to save the life of Mitchell’s daughter despite all of that. Russia’s leader admitted nothing yet at the same time confessed all through such an action as that.


When President Roberts had died after little more than a week in office, the official position taken by the government of the Democratic American Republic had been that that was no concern for them. Barely weeks after breaking away from the country which the 49th President led, doing so to follow the leadership of the candidate whom the position was that he stole the presidential election from, the DAR had considered that United States to be a wholly different country whose affairs weren’t any of theirs. President Pierce decided to take a different course as a public position for the DAR when it came to the matter of the murders of members of the First Family. He sent a message of official condolence to Mitchell through a backchannel on behalf of his new country – one which went unacknowledged – and also made a public statement to his people where there was an expression of sorrow for the fate of Natalie & Amy Mitchell.

During April 5th, from dawn until dusk that evening out in the West, there was no shooting. Mandated from the top-down, military operations conducted by the DAR Armed Forces against those of the United States ceased. There had been action before the sun came up and there was once the sun finally set that day too. However, across Idaho, Montana, Colorado & New Mexico, the DAR didn’t take shots at their opponents. There were many instances where fire was directed at them in localised encounters and the situation was so tense that return fire was given, yet General Fuller had his subordinates keep a lid on things across their side. Pierce had been firm that he wanted that done. On the day when the US president buried his wife and child, the DAR wouldn’t be attacking the United States. Many tactical and even operational warfare opportunities were missed by doing what was done yet Pierce was looking at the strategic picture. A day would be missed on the attack… most of that way usually done in the hours of darkness too. But the bigger picture was what mattered.

That wasn’t something that the DAR kept secret, at least not outwardly. Internal, state-controlled media made no mention of what was going on at the front-lines of war. However, propaganda directed externally broadcast what the DAR was doing that day. Out of respect for the ongoing funerals of two innocents whose lives had been taken by terrorists, the wife and daughter of the United States’ president, there was a pause in ongoing military operations. Nowhere was that called a ‘ceasefire’.

Large sections of the US media called what happened just that though. They were denied access to any of the funerals nor even a glimpse of Mitchell that day. What happened with the other daughter at Walter Reed was also unknown. Print, television and online journalists picked up fast on what the DAR was saying though about the day where there would be no shooting during the Second American Civil War. What was being done by Pierce was recognised for what it was as roundly criticised. He was clearly playing a game with the hearts and minds of Americans by feigning compassion while pretending his country wasn’t anything but the illegal dictatorship that it was. Nonetheless… they covered what was going on and kept talking about it afterwards too. Questions were directed towards the White House, the Defence Department and Members of Congress as to whether the US Armed Forces were having a ‘temporary ceasefire’ too. Denials were made that there was any ceasefire ongoing but admissions came as well that it was happening by the DAR. How then could US troops open fire against DAR soldiers when they weren’t shooting back? With such questions then posed by the media, Pierce got what he wanted by putting his opponents right on the spot. Those in the media who had highlighted his cold-hearted cynicism in doing what he did played right along just as they were certain to do.

Away from that media game, countless Americans pondered to themselves over whether that first ceasefire – the news came later that day when it got dark that it had finished – would be the only one. The news was already out there that weeks ago the DAR had proposed a full ceasefire with an answer to what to do about that from the Mitchell Administration still having not come. For a day at least, the war had ended. The killing had been brought to a halt. Would that happen again?

Having read up to this point, and having read James G 's other works, I now think ACW II's end will be messy and convoluted, fully satisfying none of the factions but satisfying individuals who are savvy, connected or lucky enough to figure out a way to personally profit.

I also think all that -- on top of a wrecked economy, a corrupt and bloated government, blatantly propagandistic media, corporations and oligarchs greedy for more and more wealth (and power), worsening and quickening climate change, water shortages, an aged power grid on the verge of collapse in some areas, increased crime everywhere, and more corruption fueled by cartels and foreign entities -- will create the conditions for a Second American Revolution that will either result in a new, golden age for the nation and the world, or a totalitarian dystopia only Stalin (and satan) could love.

Complete plot twist over there. The Russians helping the President's daughter. That's something I didn't expect. Maybe Makarov is trying to ease tensions?

EDIT: The funeral seems to be the Christmas truce moment of the USA and the DAR.

164 – Sticks and stones

Tired and weakened by several weeks of full-on combat, and never that strong to begin with, the Arizona Corps continued its offensive to ‘re-liberate’ New Mexico regardless once that short unofficial ceasefire was over with. There was more fighting in central New Mexico where DAR units went on the attack to finish clearing out the wider Albuquerque–Santa Fe area yet the majority of the effort was made in the southern reaches of that huge state. An attack was made from out of Far West Texas into Arizona to get behind retreating US Army units. El Paso was caught behind the lines and unoccupied but there were portions of the wartime-raised 3rd Armored Division out there in Texas and they crossed the state line going north. What was done mirrored almost exactly what US III Corps troops had done at the end of January when they had first struck into New Mexico. As was the case then, those on the defence fell backwards. It was the US V Corps who played the role of the defender come April but they were unable to make much of a fighting retreat. All they could do was to fall back to the north and east, giving up plentiful ground without blooding their opponents significantly. The 3rd Infantry Division had come all the way home from Eastern Europe to take part in the Second American Civil War but was unable to put up a show of all that it could in theory do. The skies were full of enemy aircraft, with none of their own, and there were crippling computer problems with fire support systems everywhere. Only because the attackers weren’t moving quickly did the majority of the defenders manage to fall back. As had been the case a couple of days beforehand with Las Cruces, there was no fight for the small cities of Alamogordo nor Carlsbad either. Retreating US troops didn’t make a stand ahead of nor near them. What few engagements they made while falling back where near to where the Sacramento Mountains and the Lincoln National Forest lay. Good ambush sites, of which there were many, were made use of to give time for further retreats to be made while trying to punish their opponents.

DAR tanks rolled into Holloman AFB and up across the White Sands missile range to the west of where those mountains where. Out in the east, there was a push towards the Mascalero Escarpment. That was a terrain-dominating ridge which was on the western side of the Llano Estacado: the Staked Plains. A huge plateau stretching across into West Texas, with an equally stunning ridge line on the other side, the 3rd Armored Division got to the edges of there. More engagements were had along the ridge-line. Breakthroughs were made in places but none were substantial enough. Localised counterattacks the next night where dismounted air assault troopers with the 101st Airborne Division were employed up close pushed back the gains made to get up onto the Staked Plains proper. Forward DAR units were too far out ahead of their overstretched supply lines and beyond the reach of strong fire support when going that far east so quickly. A series of small victories were won for the United States’ fighting soldiers there. Those couldn’t make up for all of the defeat elsewhere though. The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment had gone through the middle of the Sacramento Mountains, across tribal land where they were unwelcome, to get all the way to Roswell. They fought not little green men in flying saucers there but instead US Army recently-raised soldiers getting their first, unpleasant taste of war.

The 170th & 171st Infantry Brigades had been stood up in Texas & Georgia respectively early in the war. There were retirees and also young soldiers already undergoing basic training when the secessionists in the West declared independence. Put together with officers released from training courses and well-equipped, it had taken some time to get them ready for war before they had moved to New Mexico in March. The United States, even without the large population in the West, had the capability to build a huge new army where it wouldn’t be brigades or even a couple of divisions but instead dozens of the latter if need be. However, full mobilisation hadn’t been done. It had been decided that in 2029 war wasn’t fought that way any more. The DAR had crafted a new army three times the size of what it inherited from defectors and deserters: they hadn’t done brilliant everywhere but their numbers had been important. The decision taken in DC to do the opposite had been something that many warnings had come about the danger of making that. As to those two brigades, they were crushed when the Blackhorse Cav’ reached them in the general Roswell area. Numbers were on their side and they had excellent defensive ground to fight from too. However, DAR aircraft and long-range missiles had done them terrible damage ahead of the Blackhorse Cav’ tearing forward ahead of all projections. In a one-sided, short fight, that was the end of that pair of brigades. They had engaged those on the attack in a stand-up fight when caught during their retreat, a fight that they were never meant to have. It did cost the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment plenty to go through them and the Blackhorse Cav’ could go no further afterwards, but a great victory had been won around Roswell for them.

Both the V & XVIII Corps were in New Mexico as part of the United States Army North. They and their component units were ordered to fall back up onto the Staked Plains in the east, and also into the mountainous northeast too. US Marines attached to the V Corps fell back away from the Sandia Mountains where they had been right outside of the recently-lost Albuquerque all the way down Interstate-40 – the historic Route-66 – all the way to Santa Rosa. They were harassed during that by air attacks yet weren’t chased effectively on the ground. Senior marines wanted to stay and fight it out with anyone who would give chase yet they marched away from a fight under orders to do so due to DAR advances to the south of them which threatened to cut them off otherwise. There were similar feelings with those serving with the 82nd Airborne Division where they withdrew away from the edges of the Pecos Wilderness and the Santa Fe National Forest. The much-contested stretch of I-25 which ran on the eastern side was once more given over to the DAR as the paratroopers retreated. Only in January they had done wonders up in Colorado but since then they had had a terrible war when in New Mexico on the receiving end of superior fire power. The pull out order saw them fall back away to the northeast and into better terrain than the low slopes below the hills where they had been into high ground of their own to defend but a retreat was still a retreat: there were few heads held high when the 82nd Airborne Division did as ordered.


The commanding general of the 1st Armored Division (the Old Ironsides) had brought his division home from Poland ready to put down rebellion and deal with traitors. He had never expected to be involved in the retreat back into the eastern reaches of New Mexico that he was forced into overseeing. Around the crossroads town of Vaughn and the back to the Mascalero Escarpment he took the Old Ironsides. Make a fighting retreat was what his orders said, something he had intended to have his professional soldiers do. Most of them were long-serving veterans though he did have among them plentiful less-experienced ones: the V Corps had lost so many deserters who went AWOL and stayed in Europe before ‘REFORGER in reverse’ was done. His men and women did him proud. So much of the division’s equipment didn’t though.

It wasn’t just his artillery support systems which suffered from computer problems when falling back in the face on an attacking opponent but also the fire control elements within his tanks and armoured vehicles. Abrams’ and Bradleys alike had all sorts of issues. It was widespread and crippled the planned fighting retreat. Things had to be done manually, which his soldiers could, but that was more difficult and time consuming. There was also no air cover, not even from armed drones which had been grounded just like the US Air Force’s most-potent aircraft. When the Old Ironsides finally managed to get up onto the Staked Plains, looking down at enemy-held territory below them that the DAR’s Arizona Corps wouldn’t have an easy time going up onto, he sent of a message to the V Corps commander which included a quote oft attributed to Albert Einstein.

‘I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.’

Whether Einstein had ever actually said such a thing was a matter for debate. On the matter of the Old Ironsides’ commanding general sending that up to his superior leading the V Corps, he did so after explaining in detail the array of nightmare issues that his men and women had faced trying to use their advanced warfighting equipment. It was almost as if they could only fight with sticks and stones: the major-general felt like he was in a post-apocalyptic situation where those were the only weapons at-hand. Known for his dramatics, but also well-regarded for his technical ability as a divisional commander, the end of that message was ignored at the V Corps HQ by the three-star in command. He was more focused on seeing that the majority of his forces, minus those two fresh brigades destroyed around Roswell, had gotten back into a series of good defensive positions behind the Mascalero Escarpment. The V Corps, like the XVIII Corps, had escaped to the eastern reaches of New Mexico. They had fallen back without being eliminated, giving up most of New Mexico while also doing so. The report was made up the chain of command that the latest mission had been accomplished with a request for further information. Only a ‘hold your position & await new order’ reply came. The DAR had taken more ground, re-seizing territory it claimed as its own, while the best army that the United States could field had run away from them because it was facing crippling problems that negated so much of its strength.