Shanghaied - 2ACW

184 – Flag with fifty stars

Boundary County Airport had pre-war been a tiny general aviation airport across the Kootenai River from the small city of Bonners Ferry. The river ran downstream up into Canada from there in the Idaho Panhandle with the airport never seeing any real activity beyond light commercial flying: it wasn’t large enough in size nor was there a nearby need for anything bigger. RED HORSE airfield engineers from the US Air Force, supported by national guardsmen from New Jersey attached to the 38th Infantry Division, had significantly expanded the airport during the conflict even in the face of DAR air & missile attacks. A-10 attack-fighters had flown from Boundary County, and there had been flights of light transport aircraft as well to support the portion of the US IX Corps operating in Idaho and Montana too. The Idaho Panhandle had been turned back over to the control of the Democratic American Republic when negotiations in Cañon City had met early fruitful progress (in a swap with pieces of Far West Texas going back to US control). There were Idaho politicians in United States territory who were furious – both Republican senators had done everything that they possibly could to keep the war going to free Idaho – and no one had consulted the locals either. Thousands of them who had remained behind during the fighting had fled into Montana once they were told what was happening. As to the airport, the work done there to expand it, hadn’t been completed when the handover was made. There had been no demolitions done of what infrastructure there was and the DAR got themselves an air facility in the north of Idaho in reasonably good shape.

They put it to use. Large aircraft couldn’t use Boundary County yet smaller ones could. Along with the good road connections through Bonners Ferry, aided by temporary bridges put over the Kootenai to replace war-damaged fixed links, the airport was an asset used to facilitate the exchanges of wounded between the two sides which had fought in the Second American Civil War. DAR and US aircraft flew in and out of there connections to destinations both east and west. Wounded service-personnel who had fallen into the custody of each during the conflict went through the airport. The set-up had been complicated to arrange at the beginning with erstwhile enemies suddenly have to work together, but once they did, they passage through of those being sent home was rather smooth. It was fellow Americans after all despite all of the politics over separate countries. Those who needed the most-urgent care were the first who went through there. Patients in comas, those suffering from serious burns & crush injuries and others who had suffered life-threatening wounds where their critical aftercare continued were transferred through all while there was political uproar in DC. The neighbouring Biggs AAF and El Paso International Airport down in Texas were far busier than Boundary County was in dealing with those exchanges of wounded. Nonetheless, the transfers made up in the Idaho Panhandle were sizeable. Those who had fought during the war, been badly hurt and were sent home survived because of the effective transfers to keep them alive when they went through that airport.


President Christina Cruz Flores mentioned Boundary County Airport (as well as the two Texas air facilities) on each occasion when she spoke to the American people through late-April 2029. Several times, the 51st President was on the airwaves taking the case for the ending of the civil war to the people directly. She spoke to them from outside of the damaged White House – with views of that in the background – before then also when went travelling. Firstly, she went to Colorado Springs. Her appearance inside the Centennial State highlighted that while Colorado was being split down the middle with the DAR, it would still be remaining within the United States as one of the new total of forty-two states in the union. The number of casualties of the conflict was when she mentioned how that airport was being used and she also spoke a great deal about infrastructure damage done throughout the entire country during the conflict. It wasn’t just where the battlefields had been but in more than half of the forty-two states. Environmental destruction was brought up as well. Cruz had never been a big environmentalist during her time as a Texas congresswoman – too many connections with the oil & gas industry with campaign contributions – and neither as part of her short time as vice president, but she highlighted all of that when addressing the nation. Furthermore, there was too the weakening of the United States’ position and influence in the world where damage had been done to that while Americans were fighting each other at home. Those were the reasons given why the war had to end.

In doing what she did, Cruz took her case for ending the war for good direct to the American people. President Mitchell had intended to do exactly the same thing before he lost his life during the putsch that had taken place in DC on April 12th. She did it with what was agreed by commentators to be more conviction that what Mitchell would have done so. Cruz wasn’t so tied up in the fight against the DAR than her predecessor had been: she had never made ‘solemn promises’ to fight to the very end to destroy the secessionist nation established in the West. Mitchell had done such a thing when he was vice president-elect during those crazy first few days following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence so for him doing what Cruz did wouldn’t have been as easy. Political dramas continued back in DC when the new president did what she did. She travelled onwards from Colorado after her speech in that state to go down to her native Texas in an unannounced visit. Her flight was made upon an E-4B aircraft rather than a VC-25B though with that former aircraft still functioning as Air Force One. A direct route from Colorado Springs to El Paso wasn’t taken: just because there was a ceasefire with the DAR, it didn’t mean that there wasn’t a not too irrational fear of something happening. She made another speech there at the international airport before also visiting a selection of wounded US service-personnel who had been in the process of being repatriated. Cruz made the argument that the continuation of negotiations with the DAR would mean that all captives held would be returned. There were families across the country who had loved ones in the West held as prisoner. They would be brought home once peace with the West was settled for good.


While Cruz was out in the new ‘border states’, the US Supreme Court heard the case of Florida vs. Cruz. The full name was ‘State of Florida; State of Texas, Plaintiffs-Appellees, vs. Christina Cruz Flores, President of the United States, Defendants-Appellants’ yet, for simplicity, the media and everyone else went with Florida vs. Cruz. Governor Cook had brought the lawsuit against the president in the name of Florida and it had been joined early on first by the Texas – Governor Garner there – and then several other high-profile litigants who put their name to it including senators such as Stokes too. The Fifth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals was chosen as the first courtroom arena though, despite there being many friendly judges, victory hadn’t come. Erika Cook took the matter all the way to the top, to the Supreme Court where she had previously defeated the plaintiff in Arreola Rodriguez vs. Florida to see a Republican (Roberts) put in the White House after the 2028 election.

The case surrounded that assertion that what Cruz was doing was unconstitutional. The president was overseeing the transfer of United States territory to an illegal secessionist regime. There had been no consulting nor balloting of the residents in the states lost to the DAR and there too was no authority that Cruz had to do that. Her use of executive orders to move the process forward towards the end game was challenged. Legal commentators, politicians across the country and everyone with an opinion had weighed in. The judges sitting in New Orleans, appointed under various Democratic & Republican presidents, had disagreed with the lawyers arguing that what Cruz had been doing was unconstitutional yet there was far more faith in those seated on the Supreme Court. The judges there were thought to be reliable to deny Cruz her authority and put a stop to it all. It wasn’t just about territory and people being lost for those behind the case: Cook and Garner actually weren’t that concerned about those particular issues despite what they said in public. It was more about stopping Cruz from what they regarded as committing the ultimate act of treason in seeing the quitting of the war which had started under Mitchell continue.

Using the courts with Florida vs. Cruz had become by that stage to be the only option left available. Mitchell had ordered the fighting to stop when those who wanted it to continue couldn’t halt his actions there using political means. A military plot to put a usurper in the White House when taking over DC had met ignominious failure. Talk of impeachment against Cruz from multiple Members of Congress had seen opposition from the party leadership on both sides of the isle: just because they were unhappy, it didn’t mean they were going to remove Cruz and force the country to have another new president. Public opinion had shifted towards moving on from the fighting and for there to be peace instead of all of that unnecessary killing. The lawsuit was the last throw of the dice. In addition though, there was too that self-aggrandisement from the two governors involved too. Both of them were looking at presidential runs in 2032, taking on Cruz directly for the Republican primary as well. By being the face of what some in the media were already calling the ‘new lost cause’, they aimed to help that effort all while arguing as they did in mid-2029 that they were only acting out of pure patriotism and love of their country. They presented themselves as standing solely for the flag with fifty stars on it.


Out of the public eye, the agreement struck in Cañon City on the matter of Glow-worm was something that fast moved to show progress. There were swaps made of technical experts who went from one country to another. Cruz had used an executive order to make that happen, defying an effort made in Congress to inject themselves into how that would go ahead. While they were still deciding on how to try to oversee the whole matter, as they thought they had the right to, she had people moving. That won her no friends yet didn’t create any new enemies either. There were senators and representatives who could see what she was doing on that matter was necessary. They didn’t agree with how she was going about everything, but could see that it needed to be done overall.

US experts flew deep into ‘enemy territory’: Edwards AFB in California and Area 51 in Nevada. The DAR sent its people to both Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio and the USAF’s Rome Laboratory research facility in New York. There were security efforts around those movements during them and while the teams were in-place. A guard was on watching what the visitors were up to. There was work done though, not espionage. Practical demonstrations, the actual outfitting and the revelations of the precise details of the shielding to guard against Glow-worm was presented to the United States at all four locations where they had visitors or where hosts. The DAR showed how to stop that computer virus from utterly destroying what it sought to. Only how to do that with certain weapons systems were revealed, as per the agreement for a staged process there, but what information was given was accurate and was shown to be as effective as promised. The US teams were weary of what they were being told and sought out to confirm that they were getting the truth, not one heck of a complicated lie, yet were generally satisfied at what they were told.

The US Armed Forces began to learn how to stop the rot. It would take time, cost a lot too, but the damage done was on its way to be fixed following the DAR opening up to tell them how that was to be done. President Pierce out in the West kept his end of the bargain, establishing that trust that had been demanded he give.

Yep, and they will continue too despite there being 42 states remaining.
The first official recognition of the DAR will come though! 

I'm guessing it will be the Red Dragon to do so as to rub the wounds of the Taiwan conflict.

I will also update the storyline of Alyssa Theodore as a sequel of A Republican in the Sea of Blue. I plan to have her and her fiancé move out east. 

A very dark ending indeed. The true winner is not the DAR but the People's Republic of China.

There we go. A divided America. 

Epilogue


186 – Bittersweet

President Pierce moved the capital of the Democratic American Republic from Las Vegas to Sacramento. He was more comfortable in his home state’s capital and had never really spent any time during the joint leadership, let alone his sole leadership, in Sin City. The removal from Las Vegas of DAR government institutions had started during the second month of independence when the US Army had been conquering Arizona and moving towards that city from the flank. Pierce never sent back government workers to them when the US forces were pushed all the way back east. Once the war was done with, he took everyone else out of there and brought them to him in California. He spent his early rule eliminating as much as possible from the public consciousness the ‘founding myths’ of the DAR, so many of them associated with Las Vegas: moving the capital from there was regarded by him as aiding that process where few people believed what they earlier had about the circumstances surrounding secession. The DAR had been formed as a federation of states with a significant deal of power in the hands of state governors. That had been the case under the leadership of the once all-important Council. Pierce had abolished the Council and then set about removing not just the power of the states, but the states themselves. States’ rights had been previously so important yet Pierce eliminated the very concept of the nine separate states within the DAR. That state lines were abolished and the powers of state governments subsumed into the central government. Governors and the legislatures had no ability to resist, not when Pierce had complete control of the armed forces. He’d used them beforehand to act against internal political resistance and didn’t hesitate when Washington state attempted to stop him. Governor Quinn was arrested on charges of treason and so too were important officials in her administration up there in Olympia. Four regions – north, south, east & west – were created within the DAR in an administrative exercise that involved drawing straight lines on a map regardless of anything else but simplicity. All power was in Sacramento though with Pierce and his inner circle.

The DAR Parliament was recalled. There were missing founding members, former Members of Congress who had quit DC for Las Vegas at the beginning of 2029, yet then turned against Pierce. When that body met in Sacramento in mid-May, Pierce addressed the (slimmed down) one hundred member assembly. There were new appointees everywhere among the delegates, each being one whose appointment he had personally approved of. He spoke of the victory won in war and how there was to be a second victory won in peace. A bold future was laid out for the DAR and its people. Challenges were spoken of, yet Pierce demanded that they be overcome. After his speech, a lackey took the role of speaker and laid out the new way of doing things for the parliament. Those who were there didn’t have to be geniuses to understand that they had become members of a rubber-stamp parliament with no independence and were to do as they were told less they face the wrath of their dictator. Heads were kept down by so many either aiming to work with what they had or seeking to later make an escape rather than accept what had happened. A handful of opponents to Pierce refused to play along. They made objections, loud ones. There were shouts of ‘a revolution betrayed’ and chants of ‘shame, shame, shame’. Those objectors were removed from the assembly and afterwards from their posts as well.

Like all revolutions, their one had been betrayed and those who allowed it to happen should have been ashamed. Fear won out though amongst their not-so-brave colleagues.

The initial revolution had made promises on democracy which Pierce perverted yet on other important social matters, he stuck with what had been promised to the people. There was free healthcare, free education (including the wiping of student debts), unobstructed access to abortion, gender recognition and a green revolution too. The entire private medical insurance industry was finally taken apart by Pierce – putting a lot of people out of work – and all educational bodies became free as well a state-controlled: endowments were seized for general use and even religious schools taken over. There was nationalisation of financial, industrial, transportation and commercial institutions. It was done in a manner sold as for the public good. ‘Foreign owners’, either in the United States or overseas, witnessed from afar what they had inside the DAR in terms of property and business taken from them to allow the government to complete that infrastructure grab: inside the country, owners were coerced to transfer ownership and offered meagre compensation. It all looked rather communist to critics though Pierce called it ‘progressive’ instead. There was a push to get national sports and entertainment started. A census was conducted, a rather invasive one which citizens were compelled to take part in. Large public works projects under the full control of the national government were announced with some of that setting out to repair war damage. The large military force raised for war wasn’t demobilised. It even included national guardsmen from Hawaii and Guam, territory lost by the DAR and given up in negotiations with the United States to end the war. There was a mutiny among them but that didn’t last long and they suffered the consequences.

A good portion of the DAR Armed Forces were moved away from where the front-lines of war had taken place, down the new country’s western border, and away to the southern frontier instead. Minister for Defence & Security Rawlings agreed, over the objections of the war-winning General Fuller, who promptly resigned, to assign operational control of them to the Ministry for Public Safety for an unlimited time. Minister Thompson sent soldiers to enforce law & order and ensure public safety through areas of Southern California and across into Arizona & New Mexico too. The criminal gangs that had established no-go zones along the border with Mexico were crushed, brutally. The soldiers were sent into Los Angeles, Phoenix and elsewhere to be used against protesting civilians as well. More mutinies and rebellions occurred, once more crushed with extreme prejudice. Thousands of criminals ended up in military custody and turned over to the civilian justice system. The DAR’s founding had seen a complete reformation in criminal justice though Pierce had the new Parliament rush approve additional changes. There was nothing for criminals – real and imagined – nor their attorneys to exploit, no Bill of Rights to point to either. Charges brought by the state were upheld with the sentences of convicts harsh. Many would be put to work in the service of the state rather than sent to prisons: that work was ‘public service’ and it wasn’t anything easy, safe nor done to bring rehabilitation.

Pierce did with the DAR what he wanted. His co-founders were either banished, dead or frightened into inaction. When he opened up trade talks with China, which brought about a hostile reaction in the United States, he was free to do that. Throughout the summer, negotiations with China went on. The DAR needed success in those and in Beijing they knew that. Trade with the United States for the DAR was negligible despite post-ceasefire promises of that opening up. By September, the talks were still ongoing. The DAR was broke and was busting at the seems. There was a real need for a breakthrough with the China talks to come, and come soon. However, before then, the Big One hit on the morning of September 4th. A massive earthquake where the San Andreas Fault ran through Southern California brought about a disaster of such a scale only equalled by the last true Big One that had occurred a hundred and twenty plus years beforehand. The main shock was officially registered as being 9.4 on the Richter Scale. The Big One was right at the top of the list of the most powerful recorded earthquakes ever.

With an epicentre in East Los Angeles and it occurring late morning on a workday, casualties in the DAR’s largest city were extensive. Not all ‘earthquake-proof’ buildings survived yet even among those that did, there were still deaths and injuries. Across California, through Arizona and down into Mexico the quake had a serious impact. More than nine thousand people would lose their lives including many school children caught in collapsed schools that were supposed to have stood up to the shaking. Flyovers came down, there were gas leaks leading to fires, aftershocks hampered recovery efforts, the emergency services were completely overstretched, hospitals were overwhelmed… the Big One did its very worst. Immediate damage was one thing but the long-term impact was really significant. A united United States would have had serious difficulties trying to deal with all of that. The separate Democratic American Republic had a far worse time. The quake ripped the heart out of all efforts to try and see economical recovery occur within the country. On its own, the DAR responded to the quake where foreign assistance, including an offer (tied to conditions) from DC, was rejected. That proud, selfish attitude of Pierce’s on that did his country no end of good down the line. It also lead to a lot more deaths and suffering for his people, plus made national recovery even less likely.


President Cruz spent the rest of 2029 engaged in fights with Congress. They battled her on everything to do with the post-war settlement with the secessionist West, yet also unrelated domestic policy. Her popularity with the public hovered in the middle between positive and negative depending upon the fight she was having. Cruz continued to defend her ending of the war with the DAR and the results too of the negotiations at Cañon City. By the late summer, the US Air Force was able to get its F-22s safely flying again while reliable aircraft carrier operations by the US Navy was also able to proceed before August ended too. The damage done by Glow-worm was fixed with DAR assistance despite other differences.

A sizeable military force remained in the new border states. There was cooperation with the Cheyenne Pact states but major disputes with Texas over the presence of so many federal troops – including the national guardsmen not released back to their states – enforcing security. They were needed. Colorado, Montana and Wyoming continued to be infested by guerrillas who had been there during the Second American Civil War or travelled to the Rockies following the ceasefire. Militia groups with a complicated political outlook fought federal US forces, the DAR and also each other. Communities were terrorised and lives taken among serving US service-personnel there to enforce the peace. Guarding against a renewed DAR military strike was also done though the chance of that diminished daily with withdrawals ordered by Pierce and the working together in so many arenas between the two former foes as part of the settlement agreement. POWs came home and there were joint removal efforts of mines & UXO plus recovery of human remains which littered the battlefields. More Glow-worm issues were fixed too.

From the UDI made in Las Vegas until the end of August, more than three point two million people moved eastwards from out of the DAR with three quarters of them doing so after Cañon City. They chose to flee the West and the federal US Government was overwhelmed with the task of aiding them. Most came with nothing in terms of financial support nor possessions. Resettling them and supporting them was a huge tax on the Cruz Administration. It brought with it a lot of political disruption. Cruz told the American people that it was their moral duty to aid those refugees, who fled oppression in the DAR. Not everyone agreed with her on that. Going the other way were almost one hundred and sixty thousand people who opted for a fresh start in the DAR. A fifth of them managed to later return though among those who stayed, many were unable to make a return when they too changed their mind. Yet, the DAR was something that remained seductive for all of its promises. The reality was different in many ways yet there were always those who could forget political freedoms when they saw other things on offer. Mad they were called: practical they deemed themselves.

Treason trials against recognised DAR military personnel weren’t undertaken – those captives were sent home – but there were plenty of unrecognised uniformed personnel whom the US Armed Forces sought to punish for their actions ahead of, during and even after the war. Deserters were also punished though less so should they have not gone West and instead fled overseas (Europe, Canada etc.): those too who had refused the call to arms as reservists or national guardsmen also didn’t face imprisonment but rather were discharged. Colonel Gibbons, who had lead the putsch in DC, but not acting on behalf of the DAR, faced a court martial for his actions. He was sentenced to death in the most high-profile punishment of that nature. He wouldn’t be alone in eventually hanging either: the US Armed Forces gave the death penalty to hundreds of the worst offenders who had acted against their country or committed war crimes. Those punishments were the first of the 21st Century in the United States for those in uniform but wouldn’t be the last. Civil proceedings against traitors also took place. Maria Arreola Rodriguez and Cicely Blair Padley had both been at the top of the DAR leadership before deposed and handed over gift-wrapped to the United States. Lori Oakes was also put on trial for her attempt to seize the US presidency aided by US Marines. That trio of women were joined by male & female civilians from politics, business and even the media who had turned against their country throughout the year. Nicholas Toomey was brought up on charges. He emerged from nowhere for a court appearance with it unsaid, but widely understood, that he had been for months secretly held in detention. He wasn’t alone: the DHS had held dozens upon dozens of people in Black Sites with authorisation for that coming from then President Mitchell. The scandal of that would sully his memory significantly.

The US flag continued to fly fifty stars alongside the thirteen stripes. The Democratic American Republic was recognised but there was been no removal of the stars that denoted lost states. Elections took place in both (divided) Colorado and Hawaii too. Those were for the governors – the incumbents had taken their posts during the war and both ran while being defeated –, state’s legislatures, US House seats and for the US Senate. There were restrictions placed on some candidates due to federal charges against them but democracy was in action. Colorado flipped to a Red state but Hawaii stayed a Blue one. Eight-six senators and three hundred and forty-two (Eastern Colorado had half a dozen) representatives formed the Members of Congress from states still within the union though there were also those remaining ones from lost states who had themselves stayed with the United States. Throughout the year, that situation showed no sign of getting a fix to it. Political violence also occurred on and off too. It was nowhere near the level seen during the Years of Lead yet there was terrorism unleashed due to political differences. Violence continued also down in Mexico where the spiral into a failed state there, brought on by what had happened north of the border, continued onwards as more and more Mexicans lost their lives than the death total up above that frontier.

When the Big One struck Southern California, Cruz had her Secretary of State contact her opposite number in Sacramento and offer aid. The offer wasn’t unconditional and Cruz wanted things in exchange, yet those were for matters down the line. Cruz was prepared to send help to the DAR even if she didn’t get a reply where Pierce would accept those conditions. It was something that she felt had to be done in making demands while also helping out. The point blank refusal came as quite a shock. The 9/4 Quake – so it became known for the date and strength – was clearly something that the DAR couldn’t deal with alone. Yet, Sacramento wouldn’t take the help offered. The resulting effects upon that country were plain to see in the aftermath where all hope of recovery internally, something that she was seeking to make damn hard to achieve, were shot. It was a bittersweet outcome. On the one hand, the DAR would struggle to get back up on its feet. However, at the same time, as Cruz and so many of her fellow US citizens saw it, those were still Americans out there despite everything. The war was over and they were lost but she wanted to help.

Instead, as had come on January 11th with that UDI, a middle finger was raised. The DAR had finished its complete separation and there were two countries where there once had been one. The United States just had to accept that and the unfriendliness that came from who were once their fellow citizens.


The End

Options #2 and #3 would lead into World War III. The U.S. had enough and any Chinese incursions into the continent would be met with nuclear weapons.

EDIT: What happened to MAR here? I was thinking we could see the trial.