Shadowbound
Incorrugible
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2007
- Messages
- 4,078
Update Four
2104
A man plans. Heaven decides the outcome.
2104
A man plans. Heaven decides the outcome.
The war in the midwest continues, even if with less dramatic shifts as in the past year. Unlike past conflicts this has seen no quick resolution after the opening engagements: the rival governments remain determined to see it through to its conclusion, altering the balance of power across continental North America. But the eyes of the world are further south, in Cuba, where Great Powers are clashing around the Caribbean.
The United States adopted a stand-off approach to degrading Detroit’s combat power, consolidating its gains across Ontario while using its formidable drone and missile arsenal to keep up the pressure on Detroit’s defenses. Operation Precious Spear aimed to knock out much of the city’s military manufacturing, particularly its conglomerate in Omni Military Products, and had largely succeeded, diminishing the Neoconfederates ability to equip a modern force.
Spoiler :
Reva Aztara made similar efforts along their southern front to degrade Neoconfederate military power, to considerably less success. They split their efforts along two axes: one was attritional attacks against the state militias that made up the bulk of the Neoconfederate manpower, while the other was the continued assaults on Chicago. Both saw minimal success as the sabotage campaign saw little success during the middle of the war, while Neoconfederates were able to redirect the bulk of their forces against the Chicago front, entirely reversing Aztaran gains in counterattacks throughout the year and once more pushing into enemy territory. Aztara even lost some of the reclaimed territory in northern Ohio handed over by the federal government to the Neoconfederate counter-offensive.
Spoiler :
The damage to Omni Military Products, and Chicago’s own success in its half of the campaign, has firmly shifted the power balance between the two cities. While the overall future of the Confederation is uncertain, Chicago’s primacy over Detroit seems more and more accepted.
Spoiler :
Continued fighting in the former United States has made Quebecois very conscious of their precarious security situation, accelerating their accession to the European Union by the end of the year. Brussels followed through on its commitments and deployed elements of the European Rapid Reaction Force to the new member-state, stationing them along the Ontario border to help assist with managing the flow of refugees and provide peace of mind.
Spoiler :
Years of ignored warnings about the stability of dykes and levees along the Mississippi, which had been neglected by the regional governments due to ongoing local strife, were proven prescient this year as an otherwise unremarkable hurricane season overwhelmed them. Coastal cities throughout the American south were flooded and hundreds of thousands of refugees fled inland, often crossing local boundaries and ceasefire lines in the process. Internal displacement has created huge refugee camps, stretching government welfare and foreign aid, while fueling crime and clashes between rival militia groups. Conflict observers that the Southern Union is on a clear path towards disintegration as a result as battle lines harden between opposing factions, who are now too powerful for the European peacekeepers to contain.
Spoiler :
The mutual exchange between the Nortenos and the Mormon Church culminated this year with the signing of several key defense and intelligence sharing agreements. The two powers are now linked, and it’s not just a one-sided relationship: Mormon infiltration of the continuity network is thorough and gives them considerable leverage within El Norte’s apparatus.
Spoiler :
A combined Bolivarian and Norteno flotilla gathered in the Caribbean, the result of years of the People’s Cartel’s efforts to establish a naval force capable of challenging the Cuban government. Alongside, but not in coordination with, the Chinese fleet, they broke the government’s control over Cuba’s coastal regions and opened up badly needed lifelines for the rebels, in addition to a huge propaganda victory. Zayatista forces were able to reinforce and surge forward, driving back the government and reclaiming momentum. Unfortunately this has attracted the attention of European policymakers, who have significant investments into Cuba’s rare earth resources that would be under threat from a rebel victory. European advisors and support began arriving towards the end of the year, staunching the bleeding, and putting Europe and China on the path for direct confrontation for the first time in a decade with Cuba (and the People’s Cartel) caught in the middle.
Spoiler :
The knock-on effects of the rising tensions with Europe already hit home in El Norte, where years of effort to solicit foreign investment were reversed as the European Union leveled targeted sanctions against Cartel leadership for their involvement in the Cuban Civil War. While the specific sanctions had minimal direct effects, beyond ruining some vacation plans, they caused investors to back out of last minute deals that would have expanded international corporate presence in the country.
Spoiler :
A low simmering insurgency in the Aztlani countryside saw its chance this year under the leadership of its generalissimo Estefania Paris, who took advantage of in-fighting within the Aztlani corporate apparatus to seize the once and future Mexico City with his hardened revolutionaries. Aztlan’s corporate elite largely opted to flee abroad with as much of their wealth as they could carry, leaving mercenaries and middle managers adrift. The latter largely pledged themselves to the new regime, while the former were divided: a significant force, largely the corporate police meant to fight the revolutionaries, now work for them, while others have consolidated a rebel government in Veracruz. Dealing with them won’t be quite so simple: Paris’s leadership of the national revolution is challenged by his equals on the All-Mexican Military Council, who head up their own guerrilla forces and are only slightly friendlier to the new government than the old. Besides his own revolutionary cadre his only allies are the defecting bureaucrats and corporate security that make up a fragile skeleton of an administration for the nascent state. Much work needs to be done to secure the revolution.
One perk of retaining much of the administrative apparatus of the old regime is that Mexico has been able to neatly step into control of the Aztlani proxies across Central America. The diaspora governments were very eager to quickly recognize the regime and gain some nominal control over their own countries, throwing their diplomatic staff and reputation behind the new regime. The Mexican revolutionary connections extend beyond their borders as well and Paris has been able to leverage those connections to reinvigorate a pro-Mexican nationalist movement in Pacifica, once part of Mexico.
Many of the corporate assets of the former Aztlani state are now adrift. The most important of these is the floating city of Colossus, at the mercy of pirates in a rapidly destabilizing Caribbean. Already acquired by Aztlan at bargain bin prices, the new rulers of the city have practically stripped the copper from the walls and flown off to Geneva. Its once thriving intelligentsia and business communities are collapsing and the city will likely soon be comprehensively abandoned.
Spoiler :
Cascadia’s build-up along the Californian border alarmed the demarchists, who possessed little in the way of a formal state military. They did have some expertise from the neuroterror conflict and a massive industrial base which they soon put to use, developing an ambitious “Yosemite Dome” plan that created drone caches across the country to provide for civil defense efforts. Californian ambitions were high, but projections were exceeded thanks to a wave of popular mobilization as tech-savvy citizens developed their own domestic manufacturing and crowdsourced doctrinal development. By the end of the year a defensive drone network, centrally coordinated but popularly controlled, had spread through the country, along with a grassroots drone fighting league.
Spoiler :
As a side show to the larger Midwestern conflict, Neo Israelite caravans are growing in strength across the deep plains and drifting further into Reva Aztaran territory. Local experts suggest they are emboldened by a withdrawal of garrisons to the east. Smaller communities are increasingly nervous and are easily extorted for supplies by the nomads due to concerns that the central government won’t be able to support them.
Spoiler :
NOTES
Stats here. Since I was a bit all over the place, there may be some errors.
Immaculate has dropped and been replaced by @gay_Aleks, who is now Mexico. I didn't get orders from @Caesar of Bread despite the extended deadline which is very disappointing.
I'm sorry for the delay here, I try to schedule these so they fall neatly into my writing cycle and I kept having things come up. With this in mind, the next deadline is going to be Noon EST, August 3rd. Which is a bit of an odd time but you get what you pay for.
I will pop back in this weekend to review fiction because there's more of it than past turns and it's late.
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