Attempting to Fulfil The Plan: ISOT Edition

[Teen Spirit]

Mycenae, June 14 A.E

The main meeting room for the Central Committee was a strange place to be at night. The coal gas lights made it light enough to see but they could only do so much, leaving parts of the room shrouded in darkness, various features casting long shadows across the table. Then there was quiet. The city didn't sleep at night anymore, not like it did before the revolution, but it was still so much quieter than Tucson had ever been.

Aitana Freixa may have liked Mycenae far more than the Old Pueblo, but even now, the quiet that nighttime brought unsettled her. Tonight, the quiet felt like the calm before a raging storm.

The Chairwoman had called an emergency meeting of the Central Committee, the specifics were unknown but it didn't take a mind reader to figure out it was about the Air Force. News about New Monthan's invasion of Wilusa had reached the popular Republic a couple of weeks prior. It had been a painful bit of news, the National Democratic Front weren't the most committed to a proper revolution, but they rid the world of the last major remnants of the USA's horrific police system, they were heroes for that if nothing else. New Monthan had ensured they would never get a proper chance to celebrate that win.

The room was relatively empty still, late night meetings, even emergency ones, weren't the easiest thing to arrange, particularly when parts of the Committee were out of town at the moment. Besides Aitana, there were five others in the room.

Sean Gordon sat across from her, his head propped up by one hand in an effort to fight his tiredness. Minister of Military Development, Sophie McDonald, sat next to him. She was far more awake, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, her hand occasionally reaching towards the fresh set of stitches across her head before forcing her hand back down.

Evan Manning, Minister of Finance, sat far away from any of the three, diligently cleaning her glasses before returning them to her face. Normally having the leader of the Maoists, Moderates and Intensificationists all in one room was asking for at least a few rounds of arguments but they were all too uneasy and too tired to do much more than occasionally glare at each other.

Orestes, son of Alektruon, and Commander Elaine Mathis were by the windows, Mathis pacing back and forth as Orestes watched the door stoically. Mathis technically was just an observer for the Central Committee but as Commander of the Home guard, Mathis generally made a point to attend when she could. Something which Freixa always found a bit annoying,

Commander Mathis was loyal, nearly a decade of service had proven that, but everyone knew Mathis was no revolutionary at heart. The moderates were bad enough but allowing a closested liberal to have a voice in the Committee, even a small one, was at best a slide back into the Barker years, at worst it was a betrayal of the revolution.

Tonight though, Freixa was quietly grateful for Mathis's presence. Whatever this meeting was about, it likely concerned the military, and if nothing else Mathis would provide a dissident voice against Gordon that the Chairwoman might listen to.

After a few minutes, Sophie Shaw stormed into the room, a bundle of folders in one hand and a large paper bag in the other. Minister Colin Wong followed shortly behind, along with a woman in a distinct blue suit, only a few frayed bits around the collar marked the otherwise intact outfit. A number of medals were attached to her chest.

The sight of the woman caught everyone's attention and made Freixa stand up, even in the low light it was obvious she was Air Force.

"Everyone please take a seat," Chairwoman Shaw said calmly, "I'll explain I'll guest in a moment."

Aitana and the others quickly took their seats, though Aitana's eyes remained fixed on the Air Force Officer. She was short, with sharp features and short black hair. She wasn't chained, and she didn't look nervous. She wasn't a prisoner, so why was she here?

"Is this it?" Shaw looked around, disappointment etched on her face.

"It's all we could muster on such short notice," Gordon explained.

"No matter," Shaw said dismissively, "I'll brief them when they arrive, not like I'm going to have much sleep tonight anyways."

"Less than two hours ago, Officer Marjorie Brown of USAF Western Command, stepped off of a Naxos trade vessel and into the office of Minister Wong, offering to defect" she explained.

That was certainly a big deal, Air Force defections were rare, indeed the last major one that Aitana had heard about nearly caused a war between Naxos, Crete and the Air Force. But that couldn't be the only reason Shaw called this meeting.

Aitana found herself growing more worried with each passing moment.

"Why would a Sky Warrior defect to us, to the Popular Republic?" Orestes asked cautiously.

"While I'm no socialist," Officer Brown spoke up, her voice full of surprising confidence, "but this republic seems like one of the few bastions of decency left in the world."

'Since when did the US Military ever care about decency?' Aitana wondered as she and the others looked on skeptically.

"More importantly,' the officer went on, "You're the only state in the region that has any chance of putting the information I have to any use."

"Officer Brown here claims to have been a member of Western Command's Intelligence division, and considering the info she's provided, I'm inclined to believe her," the Chairwoman noted as she thumbed through a folder.

"We now have a detailed overview of Western Command's little dictatorship and the myriad of factions and personal alliances that make up its command structure," she went on, "but more importantly, Marjorie here has confirmed our worst fears. Western Command's recent actions aren't just opportunistic scavenging, but signs of full blown alliance between them and the New Monthan regime."

Aitana felt her stomach clench at the Chairwoman's words. That was a Nightmare scenario, New Monthan on its own was one of the most powerful remnants of American Imperialism worth standing, allied with Western Command they'd be stronger than any one state in the entire world.

"That's impossible!" Gordon declared, "Western Command was the first to mutiny, there have been assassinations on both sides."

"And yet, High Command has agreed to put aside their differences with New Monthan's president," Officer Brown spat the word with contempt, "And participate in a joint operation to "restore order" in Western Anatolia."

"This is not just an invasion of Wilusa," Shaw added, "The Juntas are planning to invade Lesbos, the Federal Republic, New Pueblo, hell probably even the Vanguard Cultists and New Washington as well."

That would mean most of western Anatolia, and a bulk of the surviving American population, would fall under the control of a group of mass murdering religious zealots in uniforms. New Monthan would be the most powerful state on earth when the dust settled.

A question suddenly surged into Aitana's mind.

"What does Western Command get out of this?" she asked, "Are they rejoining the fold?"

Western Command was helping to make one of their biggest rivals into a major power. Either some sort of coup had brought a New Monthan puppet into power, or Western Command was getting something out of this.

"The details were still being worked out when I fled and a lot of it was being kept under wraps," Officer Brown explained, "but I believe it was a quid pro quo situation. Western Command helps with New Monthan's rivals, and in exchange New Monthan will help with Western Command's rivals."

"You mean us," Commander Mathis spoke up.

"Most likely, yes." the officer nodded, "Along with Naxos and Crete. I believe they want to divide the whole region between them."

'Well, shit,' Aitana thought.

Their war against New Arizona had proven the Popular Republic was a military force to be reckoned with, but a war against Western Command alone would not be an easy fight. Against both them and New Monthan? Well, Aitana didn't believe it was possible, followers of Mao Zedong Thought had beaten worse odds against imperialists before. But it would be a long and bloody struggle, one that would undo so much progress.

There was no shouting or cries of dismay but all around here, Aitana could hear her comrades muttering amongst themselves in worried tones. Though she noticed that Gordon and Orestes looked unconcerned.

"Are you certain they intend to target us?" Commander Mathis asked.

The officer shook her head.

"No," Brown admitted,"I was forced to flee before I could confirm anything but the sign seemed-"

"It would be my advice to operate under the assumption that we're next on the list once the invasion of Anatolia is finished," Shaw interrupted, "and you should all prepare accordingly."

Aitana began preparing mental lists.They'd have to pull resources away from light industry development, probably infrastructure and even agriculture. Military development was going to need more focus, so much more focus and energy. The goals of the Three Year Plan would have to be balanced against the military needs of the Popular Republic.

"It's not all bad news," Shaw said as she pulled her paper bag open, revealing a number of smaller round bags, tied closed with string. "I come bearing gifts as well. I was planning to save these for Gordon's birthday next week but I think we all need this right now."

Aitana stared at the bag in confusion before gently opening it, the smell was immediate and familiar. It had been years since she tasted the stuff but she had spent most of college living off the stuff.

"Coffee?" Manning questioned.

"Minister Barnett has been testing samples of the coffee trees the slavers left behind, to see if they're viable," Shaw explained, "I figured we could all use a pick me up right, we all have a long night ahead of us."

"Yes we could," Aitana agreed as she stared at the coffee grounds in front of.

Tonight would be a long night, the first of many, Aitana suspected. War lay on the horizon, not now, likely not for years, but war all the same, far bloodier and more dangerous than the wars they've already faced.

A couple cups of coffee would be nice, but it would only last her tonight. And she had a great many long nights ahead of her.

Coffee or not, Aitana would endure, she had to, the revolution demanded it.

 

[Teen Spirit]

"A non-aggression pact with the radicals holding Mycenae is a sound strategic decision, and likely an necessary one if the Emergency Government of New America is to survive the next five years. While Mycenae is ideologically incompatible with American values, those radical beliefs make them a steadfast enemy of both the mutineers of Western Command and the false president of the New Monthan Regime. They are also one of the few groups in the post-Relocation with a proven military strength, which while still well behind modern equipment standards, the arms and tactics displayed by Myceane are demonstrably of higher quality than the average warlord. If nothing else, when war comes they will prove a valuable distraction against Western Command. Long-term peace post war is to be considered highly unlikely but short term needs take priority."
-Excerpt from a report delivered to General Palmer, Emergency Government of New America.

"Lesbos has fallen, New Pueblo looks unlikely to last either. We've never had much in the way of friends but we might soon find ourselves alone in a world of capitalists, despots, and reactionaries. Meanwhile the Air Force junta hold much of Anatolia and are growing stronger by the day. And sooner or later they will come for us, not today, not next week or even next year, but soon enough. We might be able to handle one of them on their own but not both. Thankfully the last remnants of America's imperial power do not lack for enemies. We need not stand alone against the coming storm. The revolution has to survive, our people have to survive, even if it means making deals with people we hate."
-Chairwoman Sophie Shaw, Popular Republic of Mycenae

"We're not giving up land, we never held Mycenae in the first place, and we're long past ever taking it. The name is and has always been a pretense. Look, I know not many here are happy about the deals we are making today but we need to be flexible, flexibility is how this kingdom was built and why it has prospered for a decade.No one here is a big fan of the Popular Republic, I get it, they'd probably kill the lot of us if they ever conquered the island. But in case you haven't noticed, we're not at war with them. Our border has been peaceful for years now. It's Rhodes that is raiding our ships, robbing our merchants, and enslaving entire islands. And USAF Western Command is the one enabling Rhodes to do any of that. We need to wipe those Nazi off the map,and with the Popular Republic's help we can accomplish exactly that."
-Anax Rachel Wilson, Dual Kingdom of Crete and Sicily.

"There was such promise at the beginning, we were building the foundations for a new America, a better America, one that would truly represent and stand up for its people. There were mistakes I confess, so many mistakes, but even still we could have built something truly great. Now all that promise has turned to ash in the wind. The republic is riddled with revolts and unrest, every gain we've made has come at the unacceptable compromises, and burned through so many of our best and brightest just to force a bunch of cultists into a stalemate. The great nation that Lee built is now little more than a hollow husk, dependent on mercenaries just to survive. And now, if we're to have any chance of recovering even a fraction of the promise we once had, we must break bread with traitors, madwomen, and radicals. This is all my fault, isn't it? New Washington is being punished for my sins."
- President Frederick Chard, United States of America (New Washington)

14 A.E would prove to be an important year, one defined by pacts and alliances that until then had been considered largely impossible. It started with the alliance between the most of the major remnant factions of the USAF, and the following invasion would lead to a mutual defense pact between the Emergency Government of New America, the United States of America (New Washington), Crete, and the Popular Republic of Mycenae.

An Unholy Alliance

The pact between the United States of America (New Monthan) and Western Command ( Along with limited support from the 79th Rescue Squadron) came as a surprise to most of the post-Event World. Western Command had been among the first to reject the authority of then Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Davidson, with some elements cutting off communications with Davidson's command even before they landed.The years since had done little to improve relations. Assassins hired by President Davidson were responsible for the deaths of multiple members of WestCom's High Command in 8 A.E, leading to a reprisal attack the following year that would claim the life of Davidson's brother.

Despite the years of bad blood, ever since the Emergency Government of New America had broken away, New Monthan and WestCom have lacked a shared border, which caused many on both sides to consider the other to be a more long term problem rather than an immediate threat.

Another major factor leading to their pact would be the Vanguardist war in Anatolia. The war had lasted for years, killed thousands of uptimers (and many more downtimers), and had brought low all but one of the first wave states. By 14 A.E, New Monthan realized that Anatolia was more weak and divided than it had been since the end of the Cold Summers. When the last remnants of the Trojan police department came begging for aid, New Monthan jumped at the pretense, quickly signed a deal with WestCom, and launched a full invasion.

The agreement between the two was simple: WestCom would help New Monthan's war effort in Anatolia, in exchange New Monthan would help WestCom's efforts to conquer and control their neighbors. New Monthan would get Western Anatolia, WestCom would get Greece. Many in both factions see this as a prelude to a final conflict between the two, whoever wins will rule as the unchallengeable master of the known world.

News of this pact spread quickly through defectors and traders, alarming almost everyone. The Air Force had long been hated for its abandonment of Tucson during the early days, but while many knew of their strength, they had assumed they were too divided to be a major threat to anyone besides themselves. The pact and New Monthan's invasion had proven that belief to be very wrong.

Quickly, the Popular Republic of Mycene made a mutual defense pact with the EGNA, followed by similar agreements with Crete and New Washington. While no true alliance by any means, it did represent a large change in diplomacy for the region. As many states typically treated their neighbors, even those they traded with, as little more than rogue states.

The motivations for each of the four, while similar, differed in many ways.

Surrounded On All Sides

Before the pact, there had always been a balance of power between the three major Air Force Factions, New Monthan had the most manpower, Westcom was able to funnel in resources and food from New Arizona and later Iolcus and Rhodes, EGNA's semi-democratic system gave them the most popular support among their civilian and downtime populations.

The pact had changed all that, whereas before the Emergency Government could strike either of its neighbors if they got a little too bold, it now found itself surrounded by hostile neighbors. Perhaps more than anyone, the coming war with New Monthan represents a fight for its very survival, if it fails there will be little chance to escape and establish itself elsewhere.

Luckily for the EGNA, it has often had a "pragmatic" approach to diplomacy, which has allowed it to become marginally less hated than its neighbors. Despite vast ideological differences, EGNA has had diplomatic contact with Mycenae for years, even hosting a small embassy in its capital. Which is part of why they so quickly agreed to Myceane's defensive agreement. While many within the EGNA worry about the problems the Popular Republic could cause down the line, it was decided the risks of allowing them to gain more land and resources was well worth it for a chance to split WestCom's focus.

The Lone Red Star

Diplomatically, things at the start of 14 A.E were looking well for the Popular Republic of Mycenae. Troy was about to be liberated by a left wing guided popular front, the anarchists on Lesbos were stronger than ever, and the New Pueblo was holding fast in its long running revolt against USAF Northern Command. In a matter of months, this would all change. The Democratic Front would be wiped out just after they took Troy, Lesbos was conquered as many of its population fled, and New Pueblo was facing certain defeat. The Popular Republic of Mycenae is facing the prospect of being ideologically alone in the world. A dangerous position for any kind of socialist state. Thankfully for the PRM, New Monthan and WestCom are far more disliked than they are.

Like the EGNA, PRM's main focus on the coming war is survival above all else. Defeat could see the last light of socialism snuffed out in the world, and would leave its citizens with little means of escape. While many states, particularly Egypt, are content to trade with the Popular Republic, it's widely known that most states distrust even the average citizen of the PRM, viewing them as possible communist insurgents waiting to happen. If Mycenae fell, its citizens may find few, if any, safe harbors in which to flee.

This is part of why even the more ideological hardliners in the PRM's Central Committee have supported defensive agreements with rivals, liberals and even factions of the air force. They may not be friends, but you don't need to be friends to understand you have a common enemy.

The general goal of this defensive alliance is to spread New Monthan's forces across as many fronts as possible, hopefully preventing New Monthan and WestCom from holding any significant advantage on any one front.

Of course the PRM isn't just going to depend on its newfound temporary alliances alone, efforts have already been made to expand and upgrade the already relatively advanced and well armed Red Army. And more than a few commanders have vowed to engage in a protracted people's war against any occupiers should the need arise.

While survival is the main worry for the PRM, it is not the only motivation. Many in the Central Committee see the WestCom Junta as the last major threat to their plans for northern expansion and a Red Adriatic Sea. Many agree that war with Western Command was unavoidable, it's just coming a lot sooner than expected. A war many expected to fight a decade from now seems likely to come in the next five years.

Island Ambitions

New Monthan's invasion of Troy and its success took many in Crete off guard. Previous interactions with New Monthan had convinced most of the Cretan senate that New Monthan lacked the strength to be much of a threat, an assumption that had been proven very wrong.

While the invasion of Anatolia alarmed many, it still proved a rather difficult struggle to get the Cretan senate to sign off on a deal with the Popular Republic. New Monthan was strong, sure, but they still lacked much of a navy and it seemed unlikely either Air Force Faction would have the manpower and endurance needed to push through the PRM and into Crete's mainland holdings.

To Crete, the air force was a problem, but not their biggest concern at the moment, that would be Rhodes. The Nazi pirates of Rhodes and the Zeroth Reich were an open wound upon the Mediterranean that seemed to be growing larger by the day. Rhodes's ties to WestCom also made it likely that in the event of war, Rhodes would do everything in its power to make life hell for those who oppose the air force. If Crete was going to get involved in a war against the USAF, Rhodes would have to be dealt with first.

Thus Crete offered a deal to the Popular Republic, they would agree to a defensive pact against New Monthan and WestCom if the PRM agreed to fight against Rhodes first.

The agreement sees Crete claim the islands of Rhodes and Andros, while PRM will get control of the Zeroth Reich's holdings in Apuila. The latter point proved a particularly hard sell for the Cretan senate, requiring a number of backroom deals and more than one threat of defenestration to get passed.

As part of the agreement, Crete has also officially agreed to drop all claims to the city of Mycenae itself, officially changing its name to the Dual Kingdom of Crete and Sicily. This has been met with indifference inside the Popular Republic.

The Last of the First

Depending on how you define it, New Washington is the last First Wave state left standing, all its rivals annexed or defeated, and it has little to show for it. The Vanguardist war has hollowed out its army of citizen soldiers, forced its leadership to make deals with slavers, and seen much of the land it laid claims to fall into the hands of Vanguardist zealots. The New Monthan invasion of Anatolia has seen the Vanguardist War end in a frustrating stalemate. While New Washington needs time to recover from the years of conflict it has had with the forces of Abiel Wyse, already some of its leadership is beginning to plan for the future.

A war against the air force is not just a matter of survival for New Washington, it represents perhaps the last best chance for New Washington to fully unite Western Anatolia.

As much as the Chard administration sees Christ's Kingdom on Earth as a pack of zealots leading armies of savage downtimers, the war had proven the two states are simply too evenly matched. Any gains New Washington made were often quickly undone by a Vanguardist counterattack. Any sort of true victory against Abiel Wyse has so far proven impossible.

The hope is that by seizing control over New Monthan's conquests in Anatolia, that will finally give New Washington the resources and manpower it needs to beat the Vanguardists. This is part of why New Washington's defense agreements with the Popular Republic and Crete include provisions to acknowledge New Washington's claims over the lands of Lesbos, Troy, the FRA, and much of northern Anatolia. While most factions have agreed to these terms, there are doubts if any of them will keep their end of the deal when the time comes, and if New Washington even has the strength to enforce any of their claims.

Then there's the lingering question of what will the Vanguardists do when war comes? The Dominionist New Monthan has already declared Vanguardist Christianity to be a vile heresy that should be exterminated and Abiel Wyse has already made a number of speeches condemning New Monthan's invasion. The Air Force will find no friends in Christ's Kingdom.

But at the same time it seems unlikely the Vanguardists will just sit by as their main rival tries to expand. Most observers believe the Vanguardists could prove a true wild card factor in any war with New Monthan.
---
Author's Note: I know voting is still ongoing but going with both agreements seems like it's overwhelmingly winning.

 

[SemiRational]

"As Agreed upon, two hundred slaves for two hundred spears, what, that's not what we agreed upon? Tell your enemies that when they come to kill you and take your wives and children as their slaves. So we have a deal?"
Dylan Watts, merchant of Rhodes.


"We must consider it, at least. Yes the people of Lecne have been good friends to us but for how much longer? In this age of war and magic metal can anything truly be certain? Besides better it be us who take their people and lands for should we not, another shall and we will be the victims then ''.
Ccail Eple, Chieftain.


"What were we supposed to do? The moment the first merchant from Rhodes realized they could sell iron pikes in exchange for slaves the cultures of the Adriatic were doomed. If we'd done nothing then whoever the Nazis decided to back would win every battle, and Rhodes and Taras would be getting even richer than they already are off the weapon trade. At least this way our people benefit as well, and theirs have a fighting chance against the Nazi puppets. That's...something, right?"
Aitana Freixa economic minister of the Popular Republic.

The steel wars were a continent ranging series of conflicts which occurred due to a large combination of factors, the greatest of these being uptimer technology and uptimer desire for trade goods and slaves.

The earliest small scale trade exchanges between uptimers and downtimers occurred soon after the event with uptimers attempting to and sometimes succeeding in attempts to trade various items for food. Anything from basic steel tools or spare clothing were exchanged for food with various unmolested downtimer settlements although this tapered off quickly as hunger and desperation set in and all of the settlements next to Tucson were destroyed or conquered and Americans became a less than welcome sight among the various groups inhabiting the western Anatolian coastline.

In the period during and just after the establishment of the first wave states trade was at a very low ebb. Barring sporadic exchanges between border villages and the support of various rebel factions there was no real organized trade between uptimers and downtimers, at least not one sponsored by the upper echelons of various uptimer states.

This would change following the establishment of cottage industries and then later almost universally state led efforts to establish large scale, relatively speaking, heavy industry. This would completely transform the trading relationships between these groups.
The advent of the large scale production of steel allowed for various tools far superior to anything available to downtimers at that time which was initially of considerably greater interest to the various tribes of the region than basic steel weaponry.

This is due to the fact that while steel weapons were traded they were truthfully not so much better than bronze in terms of performance. A bronze spear was just as capable of piercing cloth and flesh as a steel one and a solid bronze breastplate could stop both a steel and bronze spear, generally speaking. What elevated steel was, more than its superior toughness or any other quality of the metal itself, its ease of production.

This was a fact which confused many uptimer would be arms dealers, as they found their outrageous demands rejected in favor of downtimers simply buying more bronze.

Eventually however, uptimer arms dealers would find customers in the form of various ambitious, desperate or vengeful downtime chieftains harboring a grudge against their neighbors. While the worst excesses of this were initially limited by the simple fact that downtimers generally lacked what uptimers would consider valuable as dedicating any appreciable portion of their population to artisanal production or mining would result in starvation as the sheer massive technological difference worked in the downtimers favor in a way.
Additionally the various downtime tribal confederations of the time completely lacked the large scale logistical systems to move tons of tin or anything anywhere. With Europe lacking any kind of road system for example and the most advanced form of naval or riverine transport being very early versions of the Hjortspring boat or canoes and rafts and almost all tribes in the region lacking or making only very limited use of writing for administrative purposes making the logistics of large scale projects of any kind difficult.

Exacerbating this further was the lack of a state apparatus amongst the various tribes, feudalism and serfdom did not exist and, though slavery did it was not the chattel slavery uptimers might associate with that term automatically. There was an upper class of warrior elites in most places however they lacked (among many other things) the fortifications or horses to make feudalism a reality as trying to drive a chariot through the often dense forests of Europe was an exercise in futility. While on the eastern european plains the population was already nomadic.

Put simply if people did not like the current policies of their rulers they could usually simply leave. Often this would involve leaving only with what you had on your back and settling on marginal land, occasionally with other outcasts, however it was very much done.

This put an initial limit on how heavily a given tribe or tribal confederacy was willing to or able to exploit their own population. Things would likely have remained in this metastable state of merely simmering conflict instead of a raging one until a warlord of some kind conquered their surrounding tribes and adapted the tools and methods to actually govern and control such territories or new and disruptive technology was introduced through some other means. Assuming that the various uptimer or more advanced downtime states did not conquer them first, of course.

Then came Rhodes and the Nazi pirates realized that there was something they desperately wanted that the downtimers of Europe could absolutely provide, slaves.

-----------------------​

Rhodes had access to the same heavy industry that other uptimer states possessed and had no compunction against using it to sow as much strife and chaos in the region as possible.
While various uptimer states could and did exploit the natives of Europe to some degree this exploitation was limited by their border and/or the aformentioned material factors of the tribal population of Europe.
Additionally, since most of the uptimer states were not interested in actively importing additional slaves they benefited more from a state of relative peace among the tribal population. While an individual tribe was limited in how many resources it allocated to mining or production there were thousands if not tens of thousands such tribes in total, together they could amass an industrially useful quantity of resources.

Rhodes wanted war and slavery, and they acted as befits that. Sending more advanced weaponry to select tribal leaders with loyalty and results being rewarded with even more advanced weapons.
All the chieftains Rhodes favored had to do was attack people they already hated or cared nothing for, in some cases even former allies would fall victim to the rising tide of war however this would usually prove to be a poor decision on the attackers part.

This was due to one simple factor, Honor. Although considered an outdated concept at best and absurd nonsense at worst by most uptimers, downtimers generally took a person's honor extremely seriously. Without a system of physical hard currency, a system of soft social currency had naturally arisen. A person's honor was their bank account and credit in one and it determined how willing others were to lend things to him or her. Whomst that individual could marry and much, much more.

Betraying your allies was extremely dishonorable and even being known to have come from a tribe which did such a thing could lead to ostracization. Even more important than that however was the role of honor in what passed for justice amongst downtimers.

There was no police or even court among the vast majority of native Europeans and as such matters of "law enforcement" were a strictly personal matter. Should you fail to defend your family there was a massive societal expectation that you avenge them or die trying. This was already a problem and could result in multigenerational feuds between two clans or tribes until one side was destroyed or both were so exhausted they agreed to either peace or merely an armistice.

The introduction of new and disruptive technology into this situation was akin to throwing a lit match into a pile of tinder soaked in oil and this was responsible for the vast majority of early conflicts, however as Rhodes entered the arena these conflicts became far more existential and desperate as defeat meant your entire adult male population was massacred and the rest sold into slavery.

While this was not unusual in and of itself as tribes would be destroyed wholesale, especially smaller ones conflicts were also often settled between two groups of warrior elites who often lacked the manpower to kill large tribes even if they wanted to.

Now tribes which had formerly relied on a small relatively disciplined warrior elite mobilized their entire male adult population and sometimes more. Arming them with cheap and easily accessible steel spears. This era would see battles totally eclipsing anything before it in scale, complexity and brutality. As armies of conscripts with wholly insufficient leadership did as they were wont to do and threw additional fuel onto the fire through rape and pillage.

A new era of strife had begun in Europe but chaos is a ladder and a massive disruption was occurring as traditional tribal structure was thrown into complete chaos. And as tribe after tribe was thrown into Rhodes moloch of Appulia a power vacuum was forming.

Soon inevitably people would tire of this perpetual conflict and insecurity and seek safe harbor, whoever could provide that, uptimer or downtimer might be able to unify significant parts of Europe.

 

[Lord_Abaddon]

It was a bustling day at the Laurion Silver Mines, and much had changed. There was an air to the workers there now, one that was much different from the years past. Instead of being 'criminals' that existed to be thrown in a deep hole to do hard work with poor tools to dig it deeper and hopefully die, these men were asked politely to go into the hole to do hard work with good tools to dig it deeper and hopefully come back alive. That last distinction made a world of difference.

Incredibly, many of these men were happy. Well-fed, well-clothed, well-equipped, they socialized leisurely as they chipped away at walls, filled the carts heavy with rocks of lead and silver, and sent them up to the surface to be processed. They still griped, it was hot, sweaty work deep underground, the length of the day, the idiocy of shift work, the overbearing nature of their managers, yet in the back of their minds they still remember when simply grumbling in the wrong tone could get them killed, and they worked from dawn to dusk.

Some loitered on break, smoking their weed rations, speaking of the gossip they'd heard from the newspapers. They grumbled about the airforsoi, and the nazis, and the disasters the gods sent to punish them. They praised the news of advances in the name of the people, like the new flavorings, clocks, and cement. Many of them discussing what they'll build through the People's Self-Modernization and Rural Construction Initiative.

Much of that silver would be sent to Egypt, many of these men knew this, but also knew that for every pound of relatively useless silver their comrades could receive many times that in grain and cattle. They also knew that most of it was lead, which was actually useful, as pipes or bullets.

By the froth flotation filters, priests in fiery red robes argued and gesticulated over the proper rites for replacing the agitator, while the supervising American engineer pinched his nose. He explained the proper procedure to do so, and the priests nodded with his words, adapting them to treat the Makhina with the proper respect.

At home the miner's wives went about their chores, many of them pregnant, taking care of infants and toddlers, while the older children ate during their school lunch break. They sewed new tie-dye dresses, cleaned their homes and furniture, conversed with their fellow women. A few even practiced instruments, plucking away at lyres, or whistling through flutes.

In school children learned, taught how to read, how to do math, and the glories and advancements the revolution had brought to the people. How socialism was the future of mankind and how it was their duty as the sons and daughters of the people to carry the torch ever forward.

And onwards the world turned and the people toiled.

 

[Chimeraguard]

Matters of Faith
With the success of the Sermon of Sfard and most of the warlords either removed or brought to heel, Abiel Wyse had a much freer hand to reform Christ's Kingdom on Earth from a collection of religiously charged warbands occupying territory and into a true nation-state. To do this, he would embark upon a project to officially codify both the Vanguardist faith, and the government of the Kingdom.

In some ways, the work on the faith was a much simpler task, since as the prophet of the religion, his word was universally acknowledged as the final say on such matters. Nevertheless, the rapid spread of Vanguard faith had led to a number of idiosyncrasies developing, which had resulted in no small amount of conflict when branches met. Most well-known was the Trojan brand of Vanguardism, which, due to the games of missionary telephone, believed that Christ was an American Uptimer who had been killed by the Tucson Police.

Furthermore, it must be remembered that Abiel Wyse had no real religious education, or even, in truth, experience beyond knowledge of a few well-known topics of the Christian faith in general. What he did have however, was a certainty in his own validity as a prophet for Vanguard Christianity, and thousands of well-armed zealots who were equally certain and had proved quite willing to enact violence upon skeptics. This in turn meant that when Abiel Wyse dictated the Vanguardist Bible, it was quickly accepted as fact across most of the CKE.

The core of the Vanguardist Faith was built on the idea that God had sent Tucson into the past for a purpose. This was essential, as what had drawn Americans in the hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands to Vanguard Christianity and its boy prophet was the promise that all the hardship they had endured had a purpose behind it, and that they had a purpose within it. The new Bible codified this: God looked upon the past before the sacrifice of Jesus Christ - where men were damned through no fault of their own, and the future - where Christianity had sunk into both ignorance, arrogance, and corruption, and sought the salvation of both. Tucson's journey back in time was a divine mission to save the souls of Downtimer and Uptimer alike, to forge a new Christianity away from the sins of the old.

One interesting effect of this affirmation that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has not actually happened yet has been an explicit rejection of the Old Testament (once someone with enough knowledge of Theology to explain the difference between the Old and New Testaments got Wyse's ear.) Neither Testament, they argue, has actually happened yet. But from the New Testament they can base their beliefs on what Christ, rightful King of Earth, would want, and so better prepare the world for his arrival. Needless to say, this is infuriating to virtually every non-Vanguardist practicing Christian, doubly so as it is becoming clear that the CKE's existence has ensured Vanguardism is likely to become one of the most well-known branches of Christianity in this new timeline.

Theology in the Kingdom was complicated by the presence of the Downtimer deities. The Luwian pantheon was still popular and worshiped among the Downtimer population, and Vanguardist Christianity emphasized that Uptimers and Downtimers were equal in the eyes of God, and a significant portion of Vanguardist military strength came from pre-revolution Downtimer resistance groups that, thanks to the cold war between New Washington and the NAR, were quite well-armed, and whose opposition to most things American made them unlikely to take the idea of abandoning their Gods for an American one well.

Fortunately for Vanguardist Christianity, another arm of its theology had the solution. The Gods of not just the Luwians, but many other civilizations across the world, were not some heathen spirits. No, they were Angels of the Lord, sent across the Sea of Time to shepherd Mankind until Tucson's arrival. This, Abiel Wyse proclaimed, was the great failing of pre-Event Christianity, for it had been unaware of, and so disregarded, the burden and sacrifices the Angels undertook for God, and so declared their flocks Pagans. This was to be the great undertaking of the Vanguards of Christ, to unite the Angels that had been so scattered across the world and hearts of man back under the unified banner of God, and create a true Kingdom of All Under Heaven in preparation for Christ's arrival.

This theology of Abiel Wyse was crude and basic, and with no small amount of its own holes, but to the people of Anatolia left desperate and resentful of their treatment by the nations of the First Wave, both Downtimer and Uptimer alike, it was solid enough for them to rally to its banner by the tens of thousands, pledging themselves to the aggressively evangelistic, militant faith that, in many ways, sought to actively define itself by its break away from being "American."

A Kingdom of God
The New American Republic that the Vanguardists had overthrown was essentially an alliance of warlords locked together in a web of feudal alliances imposing dictatorships over the nation's population. Christ's Kingdom on Earth in the early stages of the war was little more than a collection of religiously charged warbands and popular uprisings. The former had been, at best, reluctantly tolerated as better than the alternative of chaos and insecurity. The latter had been accepted (by the Vanguardists' supporters at least) as a temporary yet necessary sacrifice to bring about a new world. But for any sort of long-term stability, Christ's Kingdom on Earth would have to at least begin resembling a proper nation-state.

Abiel Wyse himself had little idea of how to run a nation. Granted, the argument could be made that the same could be said of the leaders of many other nations in the Age of Rust, but nevertheless, the largely illiterate teenager would need substantial assistance in setting up a proper governmental structure. Some of this aid was provided by former New American Republic Intelligentsia, particularly those who had joined up after Dean Baker, known for his persecution of anyone deemed too "Liberal", became president of what remained of the NAR.

Abiel Wyse was also heavily influenced by his personal experiences and those he had made his most fervent supporters: Young Americans - those mere children when the Event happened and whom Wyse felt a kinship towards (with many having struggled in the post-Event world due to a lack of education compared to their older peers) and Downtimers, who feared that without Wyse's influence they would be quickly returned to their prior post-event status of third-class citizens at best and slaves at worst.

The uppermost strata of leadership was, naturally, the Regent himself. It was made very clear that the only worthy King of the Kingdom would be Christ himself, and until his arrival all other rulers were mere regents. Alongside the Regent was the Synod, an assembly of high-ranking figures of the priesthood who carried out day-to-day national policy and interpretation (and, in theory, advising) the will of the Regent. Shortly after this was codified, the Regent and his hastily assembled Synod busied themselves in reforming the Kingdom into something functional.

One of the first reforms carried would be the institution of local level democracy, at least for Vanguard Christians. The lack of and real democracy had been something the American population had resented in the NAR, and even relatively token reforms in this regard easily garnered widespread support. The new "Communions" would be able to elect leaders for local level affairs, with control over local taxes and policies for development. This, alongside a land-to-the-tiller policy, redistributing the land across the NAR that had been seized by the ultra-wealthy agriculture barons like Chuck Wise, made the CKE an immense improvement in the eyes of the former citizens of the NAR.

One should not mistake these reforms for an institution of true, nation-wide democracy. Non-Vanguardists were disenfranchised (though still promised freedom of religion), and only Vanguardist Christians could have positions of authority and power, whether by appointment or election. Even for Vanguardists, while these institutions had teeth, it was clear that the policies of the Kingdom, its Priesthood, and Regent would take priority in any dispute. Nevertheless, to people who had been under the authority of warlords and their private militias since the foundation of the NAR, these were still great improvements in their personal liberty, particularly for the Downtimer population.

Non-Vanguardists had their own rights. Though barred from positions of power or political influence, they were free to practice their faith. Vanguardist doctrine had argued that such faiths that either worshiped God without His Angels or Angels without God were not wicked so much as they were incomplete. As such, they would be allowed to continue their faith, so long as they paid an additional tax (either a conventional one, or providing some special service to the Kingdom, the latter implemented to attract and make use of educated and skilled American personnel.) Comments that this was little more than reinventing the Jizya were studiously ignored.

Above the various Communions and their Lay Priests (as the elected officials who were not part of the official priesthood soon became known as) was the official Vanguardist Priesthood that administered the Dioceses (which generally included multiple Communions, particularly in cities.) Each Diocese was administered by a Bishop, elevated to the position by a mixture of approval from the Regent, the Synod, and their peers, and confirmed by a yes/no popular vote amongst the Vanguardist population in that Diocese (with a majority voting "no" requiring a new candidate be selected.) These Bishops served as administrators of the central government's will, enforcing its policies across their Diocese as well as seeing to region-wide needs.

A side-ranking of Bishops were the so-called "Prelates", largely consisting of early CKE warlords who had agreed to follow Wyse. These Prelates were given more autonomy over their Dioceses so long as obedience to Sfard and the Regent remained, and the understanding that their position was not hereditary (though the family would receive a generous stipend) and the Diocese would be transferred over to a Bishop upon their death or retirement. The existence of the Prelate was something of a pragmatic move, as despite the centralizing effects of the Sermon of Sfard, there were still warlords who held enough influence that the Kingdom could not afford to war with them and the anti-Vanguardist coalition at the same time.

Aside from governmental structure, another major reform would be education. Education within the New American Republic had been a ramshackle thing, with inconsistent curriculums varying depending on the beliefs of the ruling Senator. Downtimers meanwhile, were only rarely educated at all, and when they were it was usually in the sense of boarding schools meant to "Americanize" them.

For the Vanguardists, for whom young Americans left at a disadvantage due to their lack of education were a major supporter demographic not just within but outside of the nation's borders, this was unacceptable. Moral considerations aside, the long-term survival of the Kingdom required as educated a population as possible. A committee was formed to plan up a curriculum to be established nation-wide, with old schools renovated and new ones built so that every child (in theory) and a decent number of young adults (at least once the war stopped drawing up so many as soldiers) could receive education in first basic literacy and mathematics and, hopefully, more advanced subjects in the future.

Though trumpeted as a major success, the program was not without its hiccups or glaring flaws. Theological classes were baked into the curriculum alongside more practical skills, and while bilingualism in both English and Luwian as the spoken word was encouraged, written classes would be done primarily in English. Nevertheless, the effort to at least recognize the Luwian language and even translate the New Testament and the Vanguardist Bible for Downtimers was a marked improvement in their treatment and rights by the scale of light-years.

Other reforms ranging from law enforcement to drug laws (which were quite restrictive) were also made in the weeks and months following the Sermon. By the beginning of 13 A.E., Christ's Kingdom was at last beginning to look like a functioning nation, albeit one heavily built around the Vanguardist faith and Abiel Wyse.

Stalinism with Theocratic Characteristics
To many of the more politically astute in other nations, Christ's Kingdom on Earth was beginning to resemble a single-party state, if one replaced a political party with a religious priesthood. Influenced by the initial Globe Uprising and Sermon of Sfard, Abiel Wyse had become firmly convinced that the success of Christ's Kingdom on Earth had come from its ability to mobilize the masses, American and Downtimer alike, via religious fervor. This task, and the overall running of the Kingdom, would be left in the hands of the priesthood.

While the upper rankings of the priesthood worked to form regional and national policy within the Dioceses, the rank and file members of the priesthood acted as the clergy's political footsoldiers. These preachers were organized into cells within their environment, ranging from a village to a factory to a school dorm to a corvee work gang, with size varying depending on the size of the structure they were expected to oversee. They were the priesthood's eyes, ears, and the arms, working to mobilize support and action towards the Kingdom's policies.

While some cells (particularly those close to major centers of power) had their leadership appointed those further up the hierarchy, many more were, like the leadership of local Communions, elected by the cell membership. This was something of a holdover from the start of the CKE, where these cells formed the nucleus of various Vanguardist uprisings, most notably in the territories of the Emergency Commission and American Republic of Turkey. (The case of Mary Wilson's cadre of closet Vanguardists that spearheaded the uprising of their town's Downtimer population, as well as disenchanted sections of its American one is a particularly well-known example, for the name of the cell's ringleader if nothing else.)

The first members of the priesthood were particularly devoted Vanguardists, or at least those with skills it would need to govern the Kingdom. Those who were involved in the early risings, those who took over control of the various towns, industries, and bureaucratic administration after the Vanguardists seized control. Abiel Wyse personally elevated many into the priesthood both after the initial revolt in Globe and again in the aftermath of the Sermon of Sfard.

With any luck, future appointments to the priesthood would occur in a far less ad-hoc fashion. While some level of raising to priesthood would remain constant (though now usually accompanied by various qualifying exams), the main structure of recruitment into the Priesthood was expected to be from the Young Vanguards, essentially the priesthood's youth program, most comparable to a more religious Boy Scouts, or a theocratic version of the USSR's Komsomol program. The Young Vanguards served as a program to educate future priests and promote political/religious activism for the Vanguardist cause among the Kingdom's youth, both American and Downtimer. Indeed, one of the key points of the program was to encourage a step away from the viewing of people as "American" or "Downtimer" in favor of an identity based on their shared faith.

Graduation from the Young Vanguards directly promoted into the priesthood, ensuring a steady supply of new, young members. Abiel Wyse paid particular attention to the formation of the Young Vanguards, viewing them as something of a pet project owing to his origins and personal feelings of attachment to the young demographic of Americans.

Perhaps even more important than this look at the rank-and-file of the Vanguardist priesthood however, is a view of the still-teenage boy who was at its unsurpassable top. Abiel Wyse ruled Christ's Kingdom on Earth as Regent in the name of his Older Brother. This alone would have granted him significant power, but the title of Regent alone fails to account for the sheer expanse of Wyse's influence across the Kingdom.

Simply put, Abiel Wyse was the Prophet of Vanguardist Christianity, its founder, codifier, and the leader who had taken it from a tiny cult of a few hundred to a nation that was taking on every other First Wave nation in Anatolia…and winning. His political position after the Sermon of Sfard was effectively unassailable, having eliminated any major power bloc within the Kingdom that could have actually opposed him.

With that in mind, a key part of anyone else wanting to institute nation-changing policy was gaining the favor, or at least avoiding the disfavor, of Abiel Wyse. Even without an actual purge (which Wyse seemed to wish to avoid after the Sermon of Sfard), a word of his support could guarantee an edict's passage, while a hint of his disapproval could strangle it in the crib. The sheer amount of influence Wyse had as effectively unquestioned prophet of the Vanguardist faith, the adoration of much of the Vanguardist-aligned masses, and what many had come to realize was a genuine talent for public speaking gave the still largely illiterate teenager far more influence than the still-substantial seat of the Regency had officially.

But despite the internal jockeying for favor (a downgrade from the prior purging and mob violence that characterized the pre-Sermon internal factionalism), the overall Vanguardist movement was far more focused on the enemy in front of them, for even as Christ's Kingdom began to organize into a nation-state worthy of the title, there was still a war to be waged across all of West Anatolia.

 

[Chimeraguard]

The Post-War New Washington Military​

"Look, we're not Troy and we're not the NAR. We're not gonna go around shooting anyone who looks at a policeman funny. But when your job is internal security and rebels come at you with muskets, a club and handcuffs just aren't gonna cut it."
-Lia Houston, United States of America (New Washington)

"The heart of America's army used to be the citizen-soldier. I suppose in a way, it still is. But it's all gone wrong. Lee managed to make the people believe in New Washington, get them to sign up for the sake of their country. Now they sign up for their town, their union, or whatever other local group they're part of, and we've got dozens of armed bands all across the country who hate each other. God help us if they start interfering with the elections."
-President Frederick Chard, United States of America (New Washington)

Shattered Sword
At the start of the 2nd post-Event decade, the military of New Washington was untested, but respectable. Whereas most other nations of the First Wave had to supplement or rely entirely on mercenaries or private troops sworn to warlords with outsized political influence, the New Washington government had assembled a volunteer military of citizen-soldiers sworn to the nation itself.

The pre-Vanguardist War New Washington army was divided into Class A and Class B formations. Class A formations were full-time professionals that could train and operate distant garrisons year-round and were equipped with Pre-Event weapons. While what exact weapons those were could be irregular at times, most platoons were at least able to standardize around a cartridge, and every soldier could count on at least having an Uptime sidearm. These formations were also known to be staffed with whatever Americans could boast some level of pre-Event experience in the military (or at least knowledge in the general theory.)

Class B formations meanwhile, were formed with the knowledge that for much of each year, large sections of the nation's manpower would be busy in the fields, even with the use of Downtimer labor. As such, Class B formations were practically reserve units, with cadres of officers operating full-time, while those who volunteered for these formations doing so with the understanding that they would be mobilized after the harvest and stood down before the next planting season, save the case of a national emergency. These part-time soldiers (sometimes nicknamed the National Guard) were less well-equipped, with Uptime weapons and munitions largely replaced with post-Event guns, often muskets and pipe-guns, though Class B volunteers who could provide their own weapons and ammunition were encouraged by use of bonuses.

Naturally, there were far more Class B soldiers than Class A ones. While the combined number of Class A soldiers before the collapse of the First State of New Arizona is generally agreed to be slightly over a thousand at most, there were thousands of Class B part-time soldiers that could be called up if needed. Regardless, the military had no shortage of volunteers. Military service, even part-time military service, offered a way out of a life of subsistence farming and a guaranteed wage. The risk of death was not considered that much worse compared to the risk of a bad harvest, and the early New Washington governments had done well in providing at least some level of belief in the nation that was the only functioning democracy in West Anatolia.

The collapse of the old New Washington military (a term that somewhat exaggerates what happens) began after the 11 A.E. elections. Though the failed invasion of New Arizona was a blow, it was more of one to national prestige and pride than the actual functioning of the national military. The contentious election however, saw a number of army officers side with the Conservative Party in its attempted coup, bringing a few hundred soldiers along with them. When the coup failed, these army units, like the rest of the Conservative Party, joined up with the nascent Christ's Kingdom on Earth. Unlike the rest of the Conservative Party however, these army officers and their soldiers were not purged, as the addition of a few hundred trained soldiers, many of whom had pre-Event weapons, was a valuable bargaining chip.

This would not be the last major instance of desertion amongst the New Washington military. When the Labor Coalition Revolt occurred, several army units redeployed to put down the uprising mutinied rather than fire on their rebel countrymen. Disillusionment with the Chard administration and New Washington in general led to a steady stream of desertions and even outright defections, which both Labor Coalition rebels and the Vanguardists wasted little time trumpeting to encourage more such incidents.

The old, pre-war New Washington army has not ceased to be, but it has been ravaged, its ranks gutted by thousands of combat casualties and desertions, while a decreased faith in the government has made it harder to find replacements. By the final stages of the war, New Washington was relying heavily on alternate sources to supplement the army enough that it could stand up to the Vanguardists. Despite this, the old pre-war army is still probably the most potent military force available to New Washington, having first priority for new, semi-modern weapons and artillery, and has had its ranks somewhat refilled with the incorporation of the American Republic of Turkey's small standing army. Provided New Washington can stabilize from its wartime missteps, it can be rebuilt, perhaps better than ever if the lessons of the war can be learned and passed down to its new recruits.

The Thin Blue Line
Law enforcement was a touchy subject during the founding of New Washington. Though not as harsh as the backlash against the USAF, there was a general sense among much of the population in New Washington that the police had abandoned their duties during the Fall of Tucson. This attitude only became more common when tales of the repression in the Republic of Troy arrived in New Washington, alongside the existence of the New American Republic, one of New Washington's two main neighbors and thus rivals and one that had heavy ex-police influence.

When the militias of the various New Washington aligned settlements were reorganized into military and police, the police would be a national-level organization, and their level of militarization was given strict oversight. Some level of militarization was unavoidable given the expectation that the police would be used to put down rebellious Downtimers, but the level of arms the police were given was something watched with a wary eye, and strict differences between acceptable uses against Citizens and against non-American Residents.

The role of the police would change during the Vanguardist War. Between increasingly armed and organized Downtimer rebels and widespread Labor Coalition revolt, the police increasingly argued for increased militarization to deal with the increasingly well-armed rebels they needed to suppress. President Chard, desperate for a larger armed force to fight the Vanguardists agreed with this argument, forming the National Gendarme, a department of the existing national police force. This formation would be trained to military quality and equipped similarly (including SWAT-like units armed with pre-Event weapons) for the purpose of fighting the various insurgencies of both Uptimers and Downtimers.

To say the formation of the Gendarme was controversial is a colossal understatement, and it quickly became an additional argument for revolt against New Washington. Nevertheless, the Gendarme seems to be here to stay, and has fought numerous battles against both Vanguardist and Leftist rebels, and has seen a major deployment to Arzawa in the wake of its complete annexation.

Guns For Hire
While before the war New Washington had largely done away with mercenaries in favor of its own national army, the Vanguardist War rapidly drained the nation's domestic manpower reserves, forcing the Chard administration to turn back to guns for hire as an alternate source of military reinforcements.

The earliest and most well-known mercenaries in the Vanguardist War actually came from the other American nations that New Washington annexed. The Port Limberlost Guard Services, the main mercenary security force of the Emergency Commission, was put on a long-term contract after the Commission was annexed into New Washington. Another military force that skirted the line between mercenary and more regular soldiers were the militia of former NAR Senator Chuck Wise. Known before the Vanguardist Revolution for his stranglehold on agriculture and holding one of the largest armies in the NAR, Wise's militia had remained prominent even after most of his land was seized by the Vanguardists. Part of the Treaty of Metropolis that led to the annexation of the NAR on generous terms included a clause making Wise's militia the de-facto state military for the new State of Arzawa, as the NAR rump state was renamed, turning the militia into an effectively nationally subsidized mercenary force.

Other mercenary units tended to be much smaller than the PLGS or Chuck Wise's militia, but New Washington employed hundreds of other would-be soldiers for hire, ranging from former New Arizonan soldiers (both first and second), Cretan adventurers, Tucson bandits, former Mycenaean nobility, and even Rhodes pirates. By the late stages of the War, an entire department had sprung up around the hiring and maintenance of mercenaries by New Washington, as well as organizing smaller groups and even individuals into proper combat units, officially known as the United States Foreign Legion. Aside from the pay, service in the Foreign Legion for a tour of at least 3 years brought with it the possibility of citizenship, a reform that Chard pushed through heavy opposition as a way of encouraging yet more foreign manpower to sign up to fight the Vanguardists.

The use of mercenaries has declined somewhat as the war has ended and New Washington has, to some extent, stabilized. During the Arzawan Crackdown, Chuck Wise's militia formed the bulk of resistance against New Washington, and though it inflicted heavy casualties, was largely destroyed in the fighting with the survivors fleeing. The Port Limberlost Guard Services meanwhile, has been redeployed to Arzawa after the fall of Port Limberlost in the final stages of the Vanguardist War, and now serves as part of the occupation force, though similar to Chuck Wise's militia it has also become the unofficial state military of the remaining Emergency commission territory held by New Washington.

The improving domestic situation has led Chard and other members of the government to hope that New Washington can recover and wean itself off the need for mercenaries and return to its national army as the dominating military force once again. Even if that is the case, the utility of being able to use foreigners instead of risking the precious manpower of the nation has been made obvious, and it is unlikely the "Foreign Legion" will fade away anytime soon, and with a war with the Air Force looming, New Washington is still hiring as many mercenaries as it can afford to.

An Armed Society
Common across Anatolia, locally raised and supported militias were something New Washington had hoped to have moved further away from, but as the army bled itself white across the battlefields of Anatolia and faith in New Washington waned, its citizens began looking to their own defense.

These militias were a mixed blessing at best for New Washington. Besides the fact that they often tended to only pay lip service at most to following the military leadership of New Washington proper, many of their number formed specifically out of a lack of faith or even hostility towards the Chard administration. In fact, some of the first irregular militias of the Vanguardist War were organized by the Labor Coalition during their revolt. The addition of loyalist militias only complicated matters, and New Washington tended to encourage such militias to be used for defense purposes only, fearing that letting the militias fight each other too much would cause New Washington to collapse into regionalist feuds and an escalating series of retaliatory raids on each other.

The quality of these irregular militias varied, with most being generally poor from a lack of professional training or even semi-standardized equipment. A handful however benefitted from leadership figures with military experience, while the militias of the American Republic of Turkey were more organized from years of being mobilized to put down Downtimer uprisings. The exact effect they had on the war effort is difficult to measure, but most agree that their presence across New Washington is a grim sign for the nation's stability.

Despite the overall stabilizing situation in New Washington's top-level politics, many grassroots-raised militias have refused to disband. From labor unions to local communities, these militias remain a steady presence, with armed standoffs and the occasional exchange of gunfire still occurring across the nation's core. Many look fearfully towards the oncoming elections and the possibility that the more politically charged militias might interfere with them, something that could be fatal to the nation's recovering stability.

 

[Lord_Abaddon]

@garphield i have written an omake.

The Promethean Magisterium

In the early years of the Promethean Cult it was an ad-hoc and disorganized affair. Originating in the Kopos coal mines, the American-introduced stories of Prometheus, told in order to provide religious backing to propaganda and safety instruction much to the confusion of the Mycenaeans, who had never heard of Prometheus before, mutated and formed into something that fit into the new and terrifying world that the workers in Mycenaea had been forced to face. The Cult mostly consisted of "priests" that were the oldest surviving members of the workforce that had ritualized various safety procedures and popularized various superstitions.

However a tonal shift would occur in the religion with the construction of the Prometheus Heavy Machinery Plant in Mycenae two years later. The religion had spread through word of mouth from the coal miners to the barge workers transporting the coal, to the factory workers in the city, gaining their interest as they burned the flesh of the god to melt and refine his bones.

The Prometheus Plant quickly became something of a holy site to the Prometheans, who viewed the 'Temple of Tools' as an embodiment of the wonders given to them by their god. And as those working in the plant became more aware and cognizant of the knowledge needed to merely survive in the presence of such power the veteran worker "priests" slowly became priests in actuality. These workers, usually the most literate and willing to learn, often subordinated themselves to the American engineers assigned to the factory, acting as seconds in command and "translators" for the Americans, often couching the engineer's instructions in religious or mystical terms in order to more easily convince skeptical workers of their necessity.

These priests then, fueled by religious fervor, started seeking out engineering educations themselves, wishing to know the objects of their worship as well as their American counterparts did. However, with so little paper and educational material available at the time the few books that they could requisition were not enough for everyone interested to be able to read by themselves, but the solution to this was simple: study groups.

Promethean priests would gather together after work hours and pour over engineering and mathematics textbooks. Much of the difficulty in understanding these textbooks came in the fact that Mycenaean simply didn't have the words to apply to the concepts involved, forcing the prospective students to learn English in order to gain true access to the information they sought, despite the best efforts of the Republic to make such effort unnecessary.

Often taking turns reading the texts aloud and discussing the principles and math involved, then taking their understanding of the subject to the American engineers to fact check their work, these Prometheans slowly cobbled together an understanding of engineering that, while much inferior to American-taught students, far exceeded anything a typical Mycenaean laborer was likely to receive. The result of this expertise meant that instead of immediately deferring to the local American engineer the Promethean priest could intuit a solution to many minor problems or maintenance issues that occurred in the plant, and the other factories that were being constructed. This formed a positive feedback loop where the priest would become an authority on the Makhina and would be asked to fix it, thus gaining more experience in fixing Makhina, thus proving he was an authority to be beseeched. (Though certainly some believe it, the idea that all Prometheans believe that the machines they administer are possessed by spirits is overblown. They do certainly worship machines, but mostly in the way one worships a mountain. The 'machine spirit' explanation is mostly used to translate the needs and maintenance of the machine to the less educated workers.)

These half-religious, half-academic conclaves would then form the basis of the Promethean councils, as their scope would expand from discussion of engineering, maintenance, and workplace safety instruction, to religious doctrine itself.

Alongside the practical textbooks they read to gain engineering knowledge they also gathered the much more common books on socialist theory, seeking to understand the philosophical underpinnings of their state's ideology. Mostly unable to conceive of the industrial world described in the books except in the most theoretical sense, these discussions quickly turned to the world that they did know, and the gods that they thought inhabited it.

For centuries before Tucson arrived rituals, and the methods to appease the gods and assuage their wrath had been practiced to ward off famine, disease, drought, and other natural disasters, to varying degrees of success. The councils started to view industry and industrialization as a grand ritual itself, one discovered far in the future and brought back with the Americans. A belief they felt was vindicated by the vaccination of the population during the smallpox epidemic, the immensely successful military victory of the Republic during said epidemic, and the rapidly increasing quality of life afforded by the tools and products being created by the factories and chemical plants constructed by the Republic.

The difference in the rituals, they claimed, was that industry placed Man first and foremost. Something many decried as hubris, to which the Prometheans replied 'yes.'

They viewed hubris not as a grave sin, but as a law passed down by the gods, one that was unjust. The true sin in hubris is to not just place yourself above the gods, but above your fellow man as well. Only by raising all of humanity above the divine, they claimed, could humanity truly prevent the wrath of the gods. This, they said, was what made capitalism and monarchy so evil.

The Prometheans were perhaps lucky; had they made this claim before the purge of the priesthood by Aitana Freixa it is likely that they would have used the power of their bureaucratic positions to harshly punish and forbid their literal blasphemy. As it was, the state found their willingness to learn engineering, and pro-state, pro-socialist theology if not desirable, useful, and so took a policy of benign neglect.

So, as Promethean doctrine slowly solidified, so did the structure of the councils become formalized. Based off of the theory they read the councils elected a leader, called a Magister, whose duties were to organize and arbitrate meetings, record decisions, and coordinate with other councils. The local council as a whole is responsible for the administration and enforcement of safety procedures and rituals.

These Magisters gather together to form the Promethean Magisterium, a council of councils formed to codify and coordinate the practices and doctrine of the Promethean religion as a whole.

The Magisterium quickly formed councils in every major city and mining site in the Republic, the rust-red-robed priests becoming respected figures among factory workers and noticeably decreasing death rates from workplace accidents. The PRM government was both dismayed and appreciative of this development, viewing the religious nature of the group with heavy skepticism, but the half-educated personnel with relief, and decided to take a policy of benign neglect. Priests would regularly hold safety instructional sermons to the new hires to the factory, however more veteran workers would also attend these sermons in what quickly became a religious service where the priests would perform auguries for what types of accidents would happen that day, and provide blessings to prevent them.

Prometheanism became an accepted, if not revered, cult in the culture of the PRM, though its thoughts on the gods, ritual, and industry were controversial with the rural and non-industrial population. The Prometheans decried the current rituals conducted by the population as routine societal sabotage, empowering the gods with little in return.

This meant the Prometheans were often harassed outside of the cities for their denigration of the gods and inside the city many were shunned for it. They decried this harassment as anti-socialist sentiment and used their popularity among workers in the factories to stabilize their reputation in the cities, leveraging the government's anti-religious sentiment and success in famine-prevention to demonstrate the people's lack of need for gods. They weren't successful in deinstituting the rituals, but were accepted as 'designated skeptics.' As well, they withheld their expertise in maintenance of agricultural machines to pressure the rurals into mere suspicion and backbiting.

The low simmering tension between the rapidly changing cities and the farms that fed them was not helped by this sniping.

The cultural impact of the Prometheans was not widespread early on, mostly concentrated around the industrial workers and spreading out from them, the most important of their effects being the spiritual traditions built by this new class of workers. However their influence began to grow with the organization of the New Model Farms and the proliferation of agricultural equipment, to the horror of the Maoists pushing these policies.

This caused an early split in doctrine in the cult, as the Prometheans who became successful in the rural areas were much more moderate on their view of the gods, saying that they should still be honored so that they do not punish the farmers for the urbanite's hubris. They viewed society's current lack of industry as described in the theorist's books as a reason to continue to at least appease the gods and encourage the proper rituals that most empower men among the traditional ones.

The row that arose between the Appeasement faction and Abdication faction would become the main political-theological dispute between the various councils for the formative years of the Promethean Cult.

 

[RadicalCali]

Drawing of a Mycenaean Infantry Soldier before heading off to liberate Attica


[ Art commissioned in discord ]

 

[Teen Spirit]

Knossos, November 11 A.E

Rachel was not prone to rage, life had taught her that anger just led to her getting yelled at by her parents, or later on accused of being "hysterical" and thus ignored. Rage rarely accomplished anything for her, charm and determination were her main tools.

But she was not immune to rage. Rachel screamed after her parents slammed the door in her face after she tried to reconcile with them, she lashed out viciously at the people of Wilusa after they had tried to kill her and there was Norton. After Norton had killed her friend, Aranare, Rachel strangled the man in front of dozens. Screaming bloody murder at the traitor as squeezed his neck so hard she thought her arm would break.

So when news of what Kikera had done in Sicily reached Knossos, that Crete was barely holding onto the island due to starvation and rebellion, rage filled Rachel's mind once again. But such things were beneath the dignity of her station. So the Anax excused herself and made her way to an attempted part of the Palace-Complex, one of the old storerooms currently being remodeled. The empty room soon became filled with the sound of wood breaking, fists pounding against plastered walls, and Rachel's screams.

Rachel was furious with Kikera, that damned moron had done so much to hinder Crete's efforts in Sicily that Rachel would have honestly thought her a traitor had she not gotten herself killed in the process. She cursed the Senate, for getting selfish and greedy and denying the aid that could have prevented this mess in the first place. And of course she saved a fair amount of anger for the one most responsible for this mess, the one who accepted Kikera's appointment to Sicily, the one who masterminded the invasion in the first place, herself.

How many thousands would die because of her? How many parents would curse out her name as they knelt over their children's grave?

By the time her wife and daughter found her, the rage had faded, leaving Rachel sitting on a stool in the corner of the room, head in her hands.

"It made sense at the time, right?" Rachel asked as she stared at them with gaunt eyes, "That wasn't just me talking, right?"

Jessica pulled her to her feet, strong arms wrapping around her in a quick but warm hug.

"It made sense, we all agreed," she assured Rachel, "New Washington had Malta and there was every sign they weren't going to stop there. Sicily has resources everyone wants, if we didn't claim it, someone else would have."

Jessica placed a reassuring hand on Rachel's shoulder.

"You had no way of knowing New Washington would fall flat on its face," Jessica went on, "And the drought took everyone by surprise. We got unlucky, had to happen sooner or later. Regretfully our bad luck hurt a lot of people in the process."

"We did what was best for everyone," Kiya stepped in, "For us, for Crete, even for Sicily."

Rachel looked at her daughter skeptically.

"You still believe that?" she questioned.

"I do," Kiya nodded, "I'm not trying to pretend we did what we did for purely benevolent reasons. But our rule was the best option Sicily had. They never would have been able to stand alone even with help, and any other power would have done worse than Kikera did. We are still the best option that the island has."

"This isn't what I set out to do," Rachel said mournfully, "This isn't what I was trying to build."

Rachel had blood on her hands since the first day of the Event, but it was always justified. There was always something to justify both the means and the ends she achieved. But now? Thousands were dead because of her and all she had to show for it was the promise of more suffering.

"If you abandon Sicily now, all of those deaths will mean nothing," Jessica said, her voice growing stern, "Everything we did on the island, the good and the bad, will be wasted. Thousands will starve and sooner or later some other power will conquer the island."

"I know," Rachel sighed, "I just, I just hate this so fucking much. This isn't what I set out to create when I came here, this isn't what I wanted when I told the various priesthoods what became of their culture. I thought I taught them better than this."

"Well not everyone is going to do what you want them to do, even downtimers." Kiya said, her voice tinged with annoyance.

Rachel wanted to punch herself, on top of everything else she was starting to sound like some sort of domineering overlord who treated all of her downtimer subjects like children.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Rachel said regretfully, "It's just I'm the one who told the priestesses about Crete's fate, I'm the one who approved sending Kikera. Her actions are my fault."

To a very extent, Rachel felt like she had directly shaped Kikera's actions.

"I disagree," Kiya said as she folded her arms, "You gave her the knowledge yes but she promised you she would uphold your laws in Sicily, she lied to you about her intentions. Her actions are hers alone."

"Kiya's right," Jessica nodded.

Rachel was conflicted, if she didn't bare some of the blame for what happened she would feel like a sociopath but Kiya had a point, Kikera hadn't exactly advertised what she was going to do in Sicily and if it had been up to Rachel alone, aid would have gone to Sicily. It was the Senate that blocked those efforts.

"Alright," Rachel said, taking a breath to steady herself, "What's done is done. Now, how to we weed out Kikera's weird brand of nationalism?"

It was definitely nepotistic to depend so heavily on her family for advice on political matters but Jessica usually had good advice and Kiya had always been a sharp girl.

"Jadikira's is having Kikera's allies interviewed as we speak," Jessica explained, "Kikera's bizarre nationalism seems to be a rarity even among those close to her but we're being cautious. I'm preparing an inspection of the officer corp as well."

"Purges would just make things worse," Rachel reasoned, "But we need to make clear what Kikera did and tried to create is not acceptable."

"Anyone who militarily aided Kikera is either dead or fighting to stay alive at the moment," Jessica observed, "So unless Kikera was part of some conspiracy we don't have anyone really we could bring to trial."

Rachel groaned in frustration.

"So thousands are dying and the best we can do is lecture our people on the dangers of genocide and nationalism," Rachel muttered, "Great, just great."

"You know how arrogant they can be," Jessica said assuringly, "It needs to be tempered for sure but lashing out violently won't help matters."

"We should focus more on helping the people of Sicily rather than punishing our own," Kiya stated, "Once the rebellions are crushed we'll ram aid through the Senate, donate a generous amount of next year's harvest, and provide tax exemptions to the hardest hit areas, reward the Palermo King. Show the people while Crete can be good for the island."

Jessica's face went tense.

"Regretfully, Kiya, that's far easier said than done," She replied with a shake of her head, "Don't get me wrong, aid absolutely needs to be given, but if my days in the Army taught me anything, winning over hearts and minds after you've pissed them off this much is no simple task."

"This is not becoming another Afghanistan," Rachel said indignantly, "We're better than that."

"I'm not saying it will be," Jessica nodded, "For starters we have allies there on our side who are actually competent. Palermo's king is going to make reconstruction a lot simpler if he survives. My concern is the areas we've directly annexed and places like the mines…"

Jessica trailed off a distant look in her eyes.

"Jess?" Rachel voiced in concern.

Her wife snapped back to reality.

"Sorry," Jessica shook her head, "Got lost in thought for a moment. Frankly it's too early to make an assessment of eastern Sicily right now. If we're lucky, the rebels will give us Kikera's corpse and we'll be able to give her bones the trial the people there need."

"And if we're unlucky?" Rachel asked.

Jessica and Kiya shared a worried look.

"A lot of bad things will happen to good people who don't deserve it," Jessica said as she turned away, sounding slightly ashamed of herself. "We'll do the best to mitigate the damage but some ugly decisions will have to be made."

It didn't take a genius to see what Jessica was hinting at. Mass starvation would likely continue, and those that survive might need to be deported just to make the area viable for Cretan use.

"Fucking hell," Rachel muttered to herself.

So much death and pain, so much suffering, and no end in sight it seemed. All because of one damned priestess.

Rachel was starting to understand just why Paris hated her so much. She could already see herself cursing out Kikera until the day she died.

Instinct in the past had told her to cut her losses and run if the group was in jeopardy. It worked in Tucson and again in Wilusa. But much had changed in the decade since, she was tied to Crete now for better or worse, and if she cut her losses now, it would only hurt everyone, friend and enemy alike.

"You trust the men you're sending back to Sicily, right?" Rachel asked.

"Sijapuros has been by my side for a decade now," Jessica nodded, "He's got a good head on his shoulders and he understands he needs to fix the mess that's been made. He won't repeat Kikera's mistakes."

Rachel ran her hands through her long blonde hair.

"Suppose it's out of my hands then," Rachel sighed.

"You're not a monster, mother," Kiya said warmly, "Paris would have killed the whole island if she could, and most Americans wouldn't spare a second thought for the island's people, remember that."

Sad part was, Kiya was entirely right even if she was damning with faint praise there. Rachel could count the number of other states in the world who would actually care about Sicily's plight on one hand, and none of them could do anything to help.

Crete created this mess, and it was up to Crete to fix it, as screwed up as that was.

A shard knock interrupted the family meeting.

"Is it important?" Rachel growled, "I'm having a family meeting."

"Apologies, my Anax," The guard said urgently through the door, "But High Priestess Jadikira is calling an emergency meeting of the Senate and insists you head there at once,"

Rachel's eyes went wide as she felt like someone had just punched her square in the chest.

The Senate was becoming a fickle beast, one easily slighted or annoyed. Calling an emergency meeting of the Senate was a good way to annoy many within it, Merchants didn't like being pulled away from their trade and Priestesses despised having rituals interrupted. You didn't ask for an emergency meeting unless you were damn sure everyone would agree it was an emergency. That was a lesson Rachel had learned all too well some years back.

To make matters worse, Jadikira was a cautious soul by nature. So what had her spooked enough to do this?
////

The Senate chamber was filled with conversation, merchant patriarchs muttering among each other as American expats loudly declared their annoyance over being summoned, Rachel barely acknowledged any of it, fidgeting uneasily with her crown as she waited for Jadikira to speak.

The chambers were barely half full, Yun and many of the others were too far away to be summoned on such short notice. Hopefully they wouldn't be needed.

Rachel's eyes focused on Jadikira. Alcippe's high priestess was busy talking with two others on the far side of the chamber near one of the exits. She was talking to Priestess Rusa and Lily-Mae Pratt, wife of Senator Alexander Pratt. What could she be talking about with those two?

Things were chaotic in the world, there was Sicily of course but beyond that you had unrest in New Washington and the Vanguardist rebellion, the Air force was fighting a rebellion as well, rumors of an outbreak in Assyria, building tensions between New Arizona and Myceane, and of course Troy and ART often experienced unrest. In theory any of those could spell trouble. If the Vanguardists had surrounded Tucson for example,that could cause a great many problems.

Jadikira finished her conversation and motioned to one of her students, who quickly ran to the center of the room, the conversations petering out as everyone's attention turned towards the young woman.

"Glorious Anax and noble Senators, I humbly thank you for agreeing to join us," The young woman stammered nervously, "May I present, Jadikira, loyal servant of Alcippe!"

Few clapped as Jadikira stepped forward, most simply stared at her, waiting for whatever bombshell she was about to drop.

Rachel could feel her heart begin to hammer inside her chest.

"Ladies, Gentlemen and others, I thank you for coming on such short notice," Jadikira began, "I bring dire words from the east. Merchants from Rome have just arrived on our shores with dire news from Assyria. The rumors are true, an outbreak has ravaged their kingdom, an outbreak of the disease known as Smallpox."

Most of the Americans, and a few Cretans, erupted into shouts of fear and anger the moment Jadikira finished.Some calling her a liar, others cursing wildly in fear.

Rachel remained silent save for her anxious breathing. Smallpox was a disease that could spark terror by name alone, it had killed millions in the Americas and ravaged the world until it was eventually conquered. While it wouldn't be as deadly here as it was to the Mayans, there were only maybe five or so people on Crete who were vaccinated against it.

If they were caught unprepared the island would be ravaged.

Rachel quickly motioned to one of her royal guards.

"Have the priestesses pull up all of the cattle records from the palace, immediately," She ordered in a hushed but urgent tone.
Rachel didn't know much about smallpox beyond its deadly reputation but there was a fact stuck in her brain, something about cowpox and its effectiveness at providing immunity to its more dangerous cousins.

One of the former medical students or nurses would know more but the sooner they started preparing the better.

"Pardon, my Anax?" The guard questioned as she tilted her head.

"Do it," Rachel insisted, "Quickly"

The guard nodded and urgently walked off.

The room was filled with a cacophony of noise. Order was beginning to break down.

"Silence!" Rachel shouted, "this is not the time for panic."

Rachel's yell silenced the chambers for the moment.

"Now," she went on, calmer, "High Priestess, what do we know about this outbreak? How widespread is it?"

"It does not seem to have spread further west than Assyria," Jadikira explained, "but it has apparently ravaged much along the Euphrates river. Assyria's king is dead and mass graves are being dug outside of Babylon."

Rachel buried her head in her hand for a moment, the metal of her crown pressing against her palm.

"Do we know if it has reached Rome yet?" Rachel questioned.

If it reached Rome that meant everything from Egypt to Western Anatolia would be hit soon, and considering the state of Western Anatolia, Smallpox could easily kill almost as many people as the Event itself.

Jadikira shook her head.

"The merchant has sworn up and down that it has not reached their borders yet," She explained, "The Consuls have apparently already declared a state of emergency."

Well that was something at least.

"Where is this merchant?" An American Senator blurted out.

Rachel shot the Senator a withering glance. Interrupting while the Anax held the floor was bad decorum and an insult to her power.

"Under quarantine," Jadikira assured the room, "As are any who had contact with him."

Rachel sighed in relief. For the moment the pox hadn't reached Crete. But sooner or later it would, the amount of trading they did made it unavoidable. Cutting off trade with Anatolia and the Middle East would be economically painful in the extreme. The Senate would not go for it easily, but they may just need to.

Panicked voices began to fill the Senate chambers again. The threat of an outbreak made many of them realize just how vulnerable they still were.

"Senators, please remain calm," Rachel urged, "I know the threat of a pandemic terrifies all of us and rightfully so. But Smallpox is an enemy we can prepare against. And thankfully our best weapon against it comes from our sacred cattle."

That sparked the attention of many of the priestesses in the Senate.

"While vaccinations against Smallpox ended decades before the Event," Rachel explained, "It is well known that cowpox provides resistance against its far more dangerous cousin. Preparations for vaccination are to begin as soon as possible."

Mutterings of relief and agreement filled the chambers. Thankfully Rachel had taken the step to screen against Anti-Vax types when she first hired Americans to conquer the island. And the idea of cattle helping to fight the outbreak would appeal to the more religious among the downtimers.

Rachel stood up, making sure all eyes were upon her now.

"Chaos grips the American states, disease ravages Mesopatima, drought blights the land and our own conquests are plagued by rebellion and extremists," Rachel intoned, "These are perhaps the most trying times we have faced since the Kingdom's founding some eight years ago."

"The days ahead will likely not be easy," she admitted, "Nor will they be profitable. But we will survive, endure and grow stronger for our trials, as long as we are united. Division will leave us crippled and overcome by disease. Remember that in the days ahead, remember that as I ask you to put aside your own desires for the sake of the kingdom we have built together."

Rachel knew she would need unity in the days ahead, if the Senate let its greed get the better of it like it had with famine relief for Sicily, things were going to get so much worse before they got better.

She could only hope the others would understand that.

 

[Chimeraguard]

Total War: Age of Rust: Vanguardist War Unit List​

American Militia
It is the tradition of Americans to fight for their homes.
In West Anatolia, it can generally be relied upon that most Americans will have some sort of firearm, and the majority will have experience using it, generally from the brutal early months of the First Wave and its aftermath. While the majority of Uptimers are happy to hang up their guns and do their best to forget those horrific times, others are part of militias who are still willing to use them in defense of their new homes. The training of these combatants is less reliable than that of professionals and the guns are often simple, post-event muskets, but even with rudimentary training and less advanced weaponry, a gun can allow a man to be a match for many times his number of more primitively equipped combatants.

The importance of militiamen varies depending on the nation. Two notable extremes are the New American Republic and the Republic of Troy. For the former, military power rests heavily in militias that owe allegiance to their local Senators, many of whom are trained and equipped to the standards of professional soldiers. The Republic of Troy meanwhile, has been fighting a constant political battle to dismantle the militias of its American population, hoping to restore the monopoly of force to the police who make up the nation's political elite and military.

American Soldiers
The ability to shoot a gun does not a soldier make. That takes training, time, and hard-earned experience.
As the nations of the First Wave established themselves across West Anatolia, so too did the rag-tag gangs of armed civilians coalesce into more organized military units. The first official military units often came from groups that would have had a similar level of organization pre-event, such as policemen in the case of the Republic of Troy and New American Republic, or the most well-organized militias of the founding towns of their nation. Equipped, trained, and standardized to the best of the nation's ability, these professional soldiers remain a far-cry from the American military of uptime, particularly as concerns of expending uptime ammunition limit the amount of marksmanship training. Despite this, being given the best weapons, generally Uptime rifles available makes them some of the deadliest infantry in the world.

Professional armies among the West Anatolian states are generally limited in size much like their counterparts elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Part of this is due to economic concerns, but often the reasoning is political as well. Events such as the Air Force Mutiny and the Sanford Expedition have cooled opinions for many on what was previously a high opinion of a large, professional army akin to that of the Uptime USA, and made the average American wary of the outsized influence its leaders can have on the policy of the nation.

American Sharpshooters
Only artillery can outrange a marksman with a good rifle.
When used by a properly trained marksman, even civilian Uptime rifles can have ranges in the hundreds of meters, and fire faster and more accurately than anything else that can be put in the field. Many American nations have taken advantage of this, assembling sharpshooters for picking off high-value targets with precision fire. The origins of these marksmen tend to vary. While some are professionally trained and drilled soldiers, others are militia and hunters, having honed their skills against the large and dangerous predators of Bronze Age Anatolia, or while keeping bandits away from their farms.

Technical
Before the Event, a humble truck. After it, a god of war made manifest.
Though most vehicles have long since broken down or run out of fuel, a dwindling number, mostly trucks, remain at least somewhat functional across the West Anatolian states, modified to run on wood gas or ethanol and militarized with bolted-on armor and heavy weapons. What would have been a laughable attempt at a military vehicle to all but the most desperate of Uptime armies is a weapon of mass destruction in the Age of Rust, capable of speeding across the battlefield with a roar, gunning down its opposition with impunity. Technicals are carefully husbanded, as a lack of parts makes each one irreplaceable, but while they last they are dominating figures on any sort of open battlefield.

SWAT Troopers (Republic of Troy/New American Republic)
When law ceases to be relevant, force remains an easy method of dispute-settling.
The Pre-Event police force of Tucson and its surroundings were some of its most heavily armed denizens, with the exception of the Air Force. Few things embody this so much as the Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) units, equipped with body armor and weapons that would not have been out of place in an Uptime military. Their successors are primarily found in the Republic of Troy and New American Republic, both of whom have large numbers of former police officers. Better equipped and better trained than most American forces aside from USAF veterans, SWAT officers and equipment represent the elite of those nations' militaries.

US Marines (New Washington)
Honing one's skills against pirates of the Mediterranean may seem unimpressive, until one remembers that said pirates have machine guns.
As the only First Wave state that has managed to support anything remotely resembling a respectable Navy, New Washington has also taken the step of founding a Marine Corps, both to protect ships rivals, and to project New Washington's influence overseas via troop deployments. Though their occupation of Malta is the most well-known activity, the majority of Marine postings have been protecting New Washington trade and fishing from pirate attacks, and many have experience in gunfights against the Neo-Nazis of Rhodes. As such, New Washington Marines have extensive experience fighting opponents that can fire back with pre-Event guns compared to most of the regular army, in addition to their skill at amphibious crossings.

Vanguards (Christ's Kingdom on Earth)
Religious zeal, constant training, and extensive combat experience make for a terrifying combination in a soldier.
Well before their uprising, the Vanguards of Christ trained for combat on a regular basis. Combined with numerous skirmishes against various militias who saw them as crazed cultists (or in the case of the more religious, outright heathens), and by the time they arrived in Globe, the Vanguardists were likely some of the most battle-hardened soldiers in West Anatolia. This was later proven quite firmly when they easily overcame the Globe militia and police, seizing the NAR capital as their own. While many among their number have been divided across the rapidly growing army of Christ's Kingdom on Earth to provide a core of veterans, others have been organized into their own units, taking with them the most promising of the new recruits. These formations of Vanguards are not only well-trained and equipped, but fanatical and ready to fight to the last in service to the Younger Brother of Jesus Christ.

Crusaders (Christ's Kingdom on Earth)
The Americans have sown the crop of warriors that shall drive them from Anatolia.
In the years that preceded the Vanguardist Rebellion, the New American Republic attempted to sabotage New Washington by arming Downtimer rebels within its borders. In retaliation, New Washington would do the same, kicking off a small arms race as each side attempted to better equip the rebels of its rival in hopes of destabilizing the state. This policy proved disastrous once the Vanguards of Christ launched their revolt, as these well-armed Downtimers flocked to the Vanguardist banner, bringing with them an eclectic but vast collection of weapons ranging from blackpowder muskets to pre-Event pistols and swelling the ranks of its army by the thousands. Unlike their rivals, the Vanguardists have no objections to the inclusion of Downtimers, so it is unlikely this influx of recruits will stop so long as there are resentful Luwians and Lukka within West Anatolia.