For years dismissed as nothing more than pests, easily sent running by a gunshot in the air, the avian species on the 3rd of November 1932, suddenly showed to the world their true nature. With a single devastating attack farms across Western Australia were overrun and families slaughtered, with only a few veterans of the 1st World War escaping the brutal massacres.
However, this was not an isolated incident – in fact, it seemed to be preceded by a large scale disappearance of Emus from normal activity across the country – and where they were seen, they were often more aggressive and possessing far more strength than one would expect.
While it is not known to many of the humans, the truth is that a government biotech research team based far away in Port Moresby had been attempting to engineer a virus that would strengthen a certain species, to be used for the advantage of Australia as a whole (this research will be elaborated on later). While testing it on a seemingly harmless emu in the outback of Western Australia, this experiment quickly backfired – the virus was meant to be contained but quickly became airborne and spread through the countries whole emu population, creating a hive mind of intelligent emus with an end goal to destroy their biggest threat – humanity.
However with this information not widely known, only questionable theories exist to explain what exactly has happened, but it is clear something has changed – the Emus have awoken.
Welcome to the Menace Down Under: An Emu War GSRP.
These are some plan/order formats – while you do not need to follow them, if you are new I would recommend you do to help get a hang of it. When nations are allocated I will communicate forces available in a PM.
YOUR NATION: the name of your nation ALLIES: any allies COMBINED FORCES: the total number of men you are sending and however many men your allies are contributing OPPOSING NATION(S): who you are fighting THEATRE(S): where you are fighting MILITARY DOCTRINE: the style of war your military is orientated towards, about a paragraph MILITARY GOALS: what you are fighting for STRATEGY: how you will fight on a strategic level – don't bother listing battlefield tactics, this should just be about where your men go and what they try to capture
YOUR NATION: the name of your nation TARGET: who your espionage is aimed at MISSION: what you want to do METHOD: how you plan to do it MOTIVE: why you want to do this OTHER: anything else relevant to the mission
YOUR NATION: the name of your nation TARGET: What technology you want METHOD: how you plan to do it MOTIVE: why you want to do this OTHER: anything else relevant
FOLLOWING the events of last week, in which an industrial accident occurred at a research facility in PORT MORESBY, by order of the LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR SIR HUBERT MURRAY all of Port Moresby and the Territory of Papau are to be put under MARTIAL LAW
FURTHERMORE, in accordance with this new state of affairs, the Lieutenant-Governor has created and activated the ROYAL PACIFIC ISLANDS DEFENSE FORCE in order to help keep about order and stability and react to this crisis
Target Alpha Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, leader of the United Australia Party and, to many, the man who led Australia on its recovery from the horrors of the Great Depression, was concerned, and not by the things one would expect. While indeed the telegram from the office Lieutenant-Governor Murray was confusing to say the least - martial law in Papua? It was odd that Lyons had not been asked first, but Murray had been in charge of the territory for decades longer than Lyons had led the country, and he surely knew what he was doing. Nor were the clearly exaggerated reports of Emu attacks in the west particularly alarming - Emus stole crops all the time, and it would surely be a simple thing to send some of the Royal Artillery with a machine gun to scare them off. No, Lyons was most worried about the severe lack of milk in the Lodge on that fine Saturday morning of the 11th of November, 1933. He often struggled to function without a good cup of tea, and given the earliness of the hour for such a day this was clearly going to be necessary.
Lyons was startled out of his search for a carton of milk by the arrival of his assistant. "Sir! Sir! We're under attack!"
The cup of black tea fell to the floor. An attack? By who? How? But the assistant was so serious, so... scared. "Explain yourself. If this is some joke..."
"No sir... come with me outside, you must see this..."
What the Prime Minister and many other Canberrans saw that day would leave them scarred, both mentally and physically, for the rest of their lives. Thousands upon thousands of Emus - simple-minded flightless birds - overrunning surprised and for the most part still sleeping military and police forces. One survivor, upon reaching Sydney, recounted a tale viewed from across Lake Burley Griffin of what soldiers and police were left, defending Parliament House, firing shot after shot into the swarm, seeing one fall only for more to take its place. Stories of the massive birds ramming doors with no sense of self-preservation, until finally they caved in and those inside the buildings would be left to the mercy of the attacking birds.
These stories, frankly, sounded ridiculous to Sydney and Victorian authorities when they first heard of it. But soon after failing to make contact with the capital, both governments sent gyrocopters and small military squads to investigate. What they found was carnage. The birds - and the dispersed Emus throughout the streets confirmed this fact - had seemingly massacred the population of the city south of the Lake Burley Griffin, wiping out most of the Federal Government including the Governor General in the process. The Prime Minister's body was not found. However, some residents have survived - Canberra's veterans were found housing survivors at the Australian War Memorial while the Australian National University cared for the numerous wounded, the attackers seemingly in too much of a rush to finish the job they started, leaving the city devoid now of living Emus. However, this tragedy left Australia without its central government, with its capital slaughtered, and with a population searching for answers. Now, it must be up to the individual states to find them, and most importantly, be ready to defend their people when the next attack takes place.
Summary
Prime Minister's residence runs out of milk
Emus of Eastern Australia come together to attack Canberra
Government slaughtered, although some politicians survived, especially those not in Canberra at the time. Prime Minister missing
Population killed indiscriminately, however a bit over half of the previous population (9000) has survived
Military units stationed in a state/territory will for now respond to the state government. It is up to the Leaders how much independence they wish to make use of, with the lack of an organised Federal government - all are still nominally part of Australia but lack an organised federation to respond to.
Tasmania Premier, John McPhee, holds a press conference for his thoughts on the new of the Emu attack on Canberra
" My thoughts and Prayers go out to the poor families caught in the city, but there will be a time for mourning after this crisis is dealt with, I swear to both God and Haven that Tasmania will protect it's shores from these vile birds"
True to his word, McPhee has begun to implement ways to keep our fair island safe, and in this humble reporter's opinion is dead set on keep it that way. Story continues on page 15
Join the Costal Watch, be part of the Vigilant, Protect your home from the Feathered Menace
Learn more on page 20
To: the Administration of the United States Government and associated manufacturers.
From: The Western Australian Government, associated manufacturers, and mining interests.
Tragedy has recently struck our country but in this tragedy we see an opportunity. Currently tensions are high in our province and our people are looking not only for jobs but also for security. Our own research interests are nothing to scoff at but American minds and manufacturing coupled with our peoples desperation and resources can bring to fruition a very profitable enterprise. We wish to send to you our researchers and other industrial interests in hopes of creating a new era in warfare a new era we can license and profit greatly from. We wish to form a cooperative initiative between our two nations to produce what we have dubbed project tankhead, to sweeten the deal we are willing to offer very favorable rare metal agreements and offer to send our researchers to the US.
To: the Administration of the United States Government and associated manufacturers.
From: The Western Australian Government, associated manufacturers, and mining interests.
Tragedy has recently struck our country but in this tragedy we see an opportunity. Currently tensions are high in our province and our people are looking not only for jobs but also for security. Our own research interests are nothing to scoff at but American minds and manufacturing coupled with our peoples desperation and resources can bring to fruition a very profitable enterprise. We wish to send to you our researchers and other industrial interests in hopes of creating a new era in warfare a new era we can license and profit greatly from. We wish to form a cooperative initiative between our two nations to produce what we have dubbed project tankhead, to sweeten the deal we are willing to offer very favorable rare metal agreements and offer to send our researchers to the US.
We send our condolences to the people of Australia, after this disastrous event.
We feel, given the news coming out of New South Wales, that your researches might be best off remaining where they are needed most for the time being. In fact, we are interested in sending several American researchers to investigate the events in Australia - several scientists feel this may be the result of unfortunately failed bioscience, a field we are far from experts in.
Secret
As for your Project Tankhead, President Roosevelt has given us permission to tell you that the United States is already in possession of a somewhat similar construction, in fact several of them. The main differences are that they have four legs, for increased stability, and are less... animated. While the United States seeks to maintain its neutrality in terms of wars, these birds we have heard of are not a normal human threat. As such with the Australian Federal Government in disarray we are willing to loan 3 of our Model IX Walkers to West Australia, for Australia as a whole and their defence against these birds - we will want them back, along with some bird samples, when the outbreak is contained. However, the process of making the walkers is highly classified. As for your minerals, we feel you may be wisest to instead evacuate isolated mining settlements.
Public
We are sure you will triumph over these elevated avians with ease. Australia has the thoughts and prayers of the United States of America.
Turn 1 - The Home Front (decided to post this first - will post 'The War' when I get it finished) Tasmania @SteelWriter77
From around Christmas of 1933, a small amount of Tasmanians began spreading anti-mainlander sentiment and going as far as to push for independence, but this tiny minority are at best ignored and in rare occurrences threatened with physical violence by most of the population. These Anti-Mainlanders are generally criticised of, among other things, being uncaring for the deaths of fellow Australians and taking advantage of a crisis where unity is needed to push for discord. The Labor Party opposition has been vocal in their dislike for these agitators, and even louder in commenting on the Nationalist Government's silence on the issue.
In scientific news from the island to the south, Tasmania's government commissioned engineers from around the state to begin designing improved naval artillery. While originally the Premier requested a new ship altogether, the makeshift Tasmanian 'Defence Ministry' decided it would be far easier to modify existing ship designs. Unfortunately for the Premier, what few ships were in Hobart's Naval Base left soon after the reported attacks, most likely for Jervis Bay and the rest of the fleet. These guns have barely entered a testing phase in March but progress is slow.
Otherwise, Tasmania saw a flood of panicked refugees primarily from Victoria and NSW -these have taken up much of the islands limited space and forced it to continue importing additional food from the mainland and overseas – another cause for those pushing for Tasmania to provide more support to the mainland struggle.
Far removed from the crisis to the south, the Mandated Territory of New Guinea nevertheless underwent the Emu Panic seen elsewhere. While one of these effects was some immigration of scared mainlanders to Rabaul (although far smaller than in other locations), another came from the attitude of Administrator, who with the Territory Defence Act ordered tests to create 'Emu-proof' fortifications. This was facilitated by the few (still passive) Emus in Rabaul's biolabs – they were given drugs to make them hostile and set loose on fortified artificial targets. It was found that concrete walls were easily enough to stop an ordinary Emu, however given a run-up the bird would be able to smash through a standard wooden door or even a structurally weakened (by rust for example) wire fence.
Lieutenant-Governor Murray was perhaps the most active of the islander leaders. His first action upon hearing of the attacks on Canberra was to create the Royal Pacific Island Defence Force, a volunteer army that was supposed to consist of three divisions – however, despite the force being opened up to the natives of the territory, they remain far understrength and underequipped with only the meagre resources of the colony. Outside of a few white volunteers most do not have guns, and already the colony is struggling to feed these assembled men. However the idea is sound and has reassured many of the people of Port Moresby, alongside the results of Murray's other project.
While the people of the mainland fled to some of the other islands, Papua was the only territory to actively encourage this – resulting in a flood of mainlanders moving north from primarily Queensland and New South Wales to hastily built housing in Port Moresby. While these refugees were grateful, an unpopular policy was the confiscation of the boats that took them to the island for use in patrolling the waters of Papua – however, as refugees there was not much these people could do. Many men signed up for the RPIDF for a stable income and in the hopes of helping their homelands. While others remained unemployed and living on what they could bring with them, many also took part in an expansion of Papua's elusive bioresearch laboratories, now seemingly operating under the direct authority of Lieutenant-Governor Murray.
However, food remains a major issue for the Territory with the loss of imports from the mainland and an almost 60% increase in population from the many desperate immigrants. Port Moresby has managed to scrape through for now, but action is needed if problems are not to occur in the very near future.
With the beginning of the Emu Threat and the collapse of the Federal Government, the South Australian parliament was quick to negotiate trade with the United Kingdom, a deal quickly accepted – not long after the first telegraph correspondence, ships leaving Britain headed to Adelaide (along with other Australian cities) with supplies such as diesel fuel and steel with the aim of bringing a quick end to this avian attack through the facilitation of new construction of advanced weapons.
For South Australia, the construction of said advanced weapons would prove somewhat more difficult but still widely successful. Emu activity remained quiet in South Australia long enough for the first shipments to arrive and replenish the state's stockpiles of vital construction resources, and during this time the local engineer community had been hard at work on two projects, with varying success.
Relatively simple were the miniature turret-walkers, designed to be crewed by one and carry a heavy weapon with allowance for mobility. Savvy engineers modified the chassis of existing motorcycles to based on foreign designs for walker legs, allowing for effective prototypes to become reality by late January and for the first batch of fifty to be produced over the next month with the state's limited industrial capacity.
More difficult were the small exoskeleton contraptions – however, with the focus mainly on increasing the speed of the user, the issues were primarily with minimising the size of the engine and fuel storage. These problems eventually found a solution of sorts, but not until mid-February, setting back prototyping.
While South Australia did not see any direct assaults aside from occasional raids on rural areas by rogue Emus, it could not be said that their government was not prepared – the military forces stationed in the area established a command centre at the isolated opal mining town of Coober Pedy, where is was thought that the conditions may be too inhospitable for Emus to even bother attacking but the underground accommodation made at least decent for the Brigadier of the 11th Brigade. Elsewhere the brigade's units were deployed to defend some of the smaller rural towns but primarily South Australia's main population base.
Like the rest of the country Victoria would begin preparing for this avian threat. Scouting expeditions reported the Emus having supposedly retreated from the Canberra area but did not see more than a couple of the birds themselves, suggesting a relocation of activity away from the Murray River and the Victorian border. Scouts also reported chaos in the surviving population of Canberra itself, with almost 500 more of these survivors following the scouts back over the Murray to Victoria.
Nevertheless, Victoria underwent significant steps to protect its people and, by extension, its food supply. Several Battalions of the 3rd Division were deployed to regional areas to protect the valuable farmland, while the rest went into the defence of Melbourne and the Port Phillip Bay area – with the permission of the occupants, the rooves of the outer suburbs of Melbourne were turned into platforms for small teams from the army to fire into an emu horde in case of attack.
Alongside several military actions to directly counter the Avian Threat (which will be described later on), the government in Brisbane would commission expanded biotechnological research, primarily into the expansion of procedures to create intelligent, fast-breeding and domesticated animals. These preliminary test were primarily aiming to test the boundaries of what the state was capable of with its domestic resources. Dogs were an easy project with many of similar style (although lacking increased breeding) already existing in Australia's military; similar were projects with various birds, many of which are used to carry messages in isolated areas (although birds of prey such as eagles were a new addition). Some other attempts, such as cats, rats, mice and kangaroos saw success although it was more limited, with the kangaroos (when encouraged to act protectively of human trainers) especially proving to have good military potential. More difficulty was found with experiments on spiders, jellyfish and several crocodiles, which were put on hold after injury from the spiders, death from the crocodiles, and discovery of the jellyfish's completely foreign brain – or should I say lack of one.
Noting from interviews of Canberra survivors that the Emus often took multiple rifle shots to kill, the NSW Government endeavoured to find more powerful weapons. While factories were still being prepared for internal production, the Government put out a call for imports of high calibre rifles. The largest response was an offer from Holland & Holland to sell at much reduced prices three thousand of their .470 Nitro Express Elephant Rifles. 1000 of the guns arrived in Sydney in late December, another thousand in mid-February, and the rest well on their way, after the Government voted to accept this.
However, another later offer was received from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to send 5 thousand Mauser 1918 'T-Gewehr' Anti-Tank Rifles for a somewhat below average price, in addition to licenses for the designs for these guns and engineers to help with their production – in exchange New South Welsh industry would export a yet to be discussed amount of these guns back to Germany when the birds were 'dealt with'. While a tempting offer, especially given slow results of converted factories in Sydney producing their own, unique elephant guns, to accept it would break Article 170 of the Treaty of Versailles – although for a good reason, from Sydney's perspective. Furthermore, many in the government have reservations against associating with one with Hitler's views, many of which word has already reached Australia of. This means the issue is still yet to be decided upon.
The Government was quick to begin evacuating civilians from regional areas and towards the more populated coast, in a stark contrast to Victoria's strategy of defending its farmland – one effect of these relocations was a scramble for companies to import foreign food and a general increase in prices, as was happening across much of the country. The evacuation itself was mostly successful, although like in the Victorian Black Sunday bushfires several summers ago, many also chose to stay behind and protect their homes despite government pleas otherwise. Many of these 'remainers' were in the regional city of Dubbo, where the people remain committed to keeping their homes safe.
Western Australia in mid January saw the arrival of several American Model IX Walkers – however, by then they had more to worry about…
(to be continued)
The Northern Territory was the slowest of the Australian states to react and the least effectively, initially sceptical of the reports and faced with a lack of an organised military force of any significant size and a dispersed and drastically undersized white population whilst largely indifferent to the large indigineous population its initial response was directed not against the Emu threat but instead devoted to preparing for a large scale campaign to attract European immigration and to downplay the threat.
Events began to undermine this complacency yet still the state government was unsure how to react, eventually the commander of the 10th Battalion was ordered to assume positions around Darwin though life largely continued as usual with no serious preparations being undertaken, distance from the threat and incredulity both playing a part.
While the assault on Canberra brought the Emu Threat to the front of Australia's minds, in hindsight Western Australian farmers were the first to face the devastating raids that marked the beginning of what would go on to be known throughout the world as the Great Emu War. The revelations from the east however did not yet worry the government in Perth as much as it would in the future. As much as it maybe should have.
This is not to say that Premier Phillip Collier did not begin organising the defence of his state, and his people, soon after news reached him of the devastation in Canberra. The 13th Brigade, already stationed in the populated Perth vicinity, remained there for the most part and establishing fortified outposts around there and nearby towns – however the government also sought more knowledge of the enemy movements, inspiring a policy of motorised scout teams to observe and disrupt potential emu activities.
Unfortunately, the military units stationed in Western Australia had barely any cavalry and limited armoured cars of any kind, this not having been a priority for the brigade stationed in WA especially during the Depression. This would have severely inhibited the mobile defence, if not for the widely applauded generosity of the Holden corporation factory in Perth. With sales down during the Depression, Holden was only just seeing increased sales in Australia especially for its new utility vehicles, which would one day become known as pickup trucks, or 'utes'. With a large stockpile, Holden executives made the decision to lend five hundred of these sturdy automobiles to assist the motorised scouting strategy.
Powerful engines humming with power, the trucks left Perth in convoy, to the cheering crowds of grateful residents. Their mission was simple but dangerous – however, many were nevertheless crewed by civilian volunteers. The departure of this convoy was filmed by a recording crew in the city at the time, but it would not become famous until after it played its role in the battle for the west. While Henry Ford initially mockingly named the new Holden trucks 'Kangaroo Chasers', they would quickly be known by a new nickname – Emu Runners.
For several days after the scouts were deployed primarily around the southwest of the state only rarely sighted the now much feared birds – however, this changed when the regular train from Adelaide did not come smoking into Perth on time, or hours after on time. A small convoy of motorised scouts, primarily civilian, was sent to investigate, hoping it to be nothing but a breakdown. It wasn't.
The scouts found the train derailed just past the small, empty town of Southern Cross. They also found the Emus – or more, the Emus found them. Not just a few as had been seen before, but a horde many times larger than the one that hit Canberra, stretching across the empty plain.
Understandably, the scouts turned back and drove towards Perth as fast as they could. Thanks to the experienced but desperate drivers, the powerful civilian cars and the developed 'Great Eastern Highway', these scouts were able to make it back to Northam and the Mortlock River, not far outside of Perth, several hours ahead of the Emus giving the defenders vital time to prepare.
However, even with reinforcements from Perth and most of the 11th Battalion assembled, when the horde arrived it seemed almost hopeless. Modern day estimates predict there may have been 100,000 Emus present when the battle of Northam began. The defenders showed valiant spirit, and are often said to have made their country proud – but after an hour and thousands of avian deaths, the Emu assault succeeded in pushing past the narrow river and breaking the defence of the Western Australians. Northam had fallen with barely any survivors from the defenders escaping; the only fortune was that the civilian population had for the most part already been evacuated to the main target for the Emus – Perth.
The horde made their slow way through the sparse forest that separated Perth and Northam – like the latter town, Clackline, Wundowie and Gidgegannup, among others, had been evacuated. It was in the late morning that more than 90,000 Emus reached the outskirts of Perth itself.
Most of the rest of the 13th Brigade were assembled (alongside thousands of civilian volunteers almost doubling the numbers of the defending forces) on the western banks of the Swan and Canning Rivers; the population of Perth's eastern suburbs had for the most part fled towards the city centre with the coming of the Emus.
Many stories could be told of the First Battle of Perth, but it could be said almost everywhere that the humans fought valiantly against their inhuman enemy, killing after several desperate shots any bird that dared attack the hastily erected fortifications along the bridges, or that flapped its way slowly through the wider waters of the rivers. Finally, as if realising the amount of casualties it would require to take this prepared and fortified urban area, the birds fell back, and the First Battle of Perth was over.
However, this was not the end. The following morning, small units adventuring back out to the eastern outskirts of the city found the Emus still remaining and barely escaped back into Perth with their lives. After similar events were reported in the northern suburbs and south past Fremantle, the people of Perth realised a terrible fact – they were not safe yet, simply under siege. While Perth still has contact with the outside world through their port, land connections to the rest of the country had been cut off, and lacking the power to counter this siege the city would remain in this situation through the following months, barely acquiring enough rationed food for its people by sea.
Meanwhile, the smaller towns of southwestern WA fell, one by one, to the hordes – many had already seen their people flee, but others were the sights of brutal massacres by these birds. Rockingham and Bunbury were placed under similar sieges to Perth, while northern and more isolated settlements such as Broome remain untouched.
The first months of the Great Emu War saw mixed results in the west – scenes of great heroism managed to prevent the fall of Perth and inflict great casualties on the Avian Enemy, but with the massive numbers of bird surrounding the city and most regional towns having fallen and seen their people slaughtered by the incredibly aggressive Emus. Furthermore, most of the scout units have been overwhelmed and the rest struggle to contact Perth, leaving the government blind to happenings in the rest of the stae. The arrival of three American Walkers in Perth, however, provides a new hope for the people even as they grow hungrier by the day and rationing is introduced. Maybe, just maybe, the west will survive this never-seen-before threat. (Not an entirely accurate picture) "Woah, I can see why they kept these secret…"
The Eastern Front
The Great Emu War was, at least in its beginning, split between the two halves of Australia – the far less populated west, with most of its people and thus most of the fighting concentrated in the southwest of the state; and the more developed east, where a far greater population was spread continuously across the coasts from Adelaide to Brisbane. Modern historians often debate what effect these core differences had on the success and failures of the fronts, but none can doubt that it caused the war as a whole to be fought in a different manner.
Even the involved states themselves, Queensland and New South Wales, took different approaches to defending themselves with no real coordination – Victoria did not play a part in the opening months due to the lack of Emus in Victoria in the first place, with most concentrated in western Queensland and NSW.
Queensland chose to focus on defending their land – including the rural farming areas – with prepared defensive structures, while using the 1st Cavalry Brigade to actively hunt down Emus. This strategy began somewhat successfully, managing to hold the land against small raids even before the fortifications were finished, while the Cavalry hunted down 'rogue Emus' east of these defensive strongpoints. These rogues seemed to be behaving more aggressively than normal and still commonly outpaced horses, but not subscribing to the wider Emu 'strategy' of launching small attacks to find weaknesses in Queensland's defence in depth line. While ideally the Premier would have liked a line of trenches and machine guns covering half of the state, this was impossible due to its size and thus defences were established in towns bordering the 'danger areas'.
One of these towns was Roma, 515km roughly west of Brisbane and just west of the Great Dividing Range that cuts the eastern states in half. After weeks of unsuccessful small attacks (almost all being stopped by reinforcements before more birds could arrive to breach the gap and too much damage could be caused) a large flock of Emus was sighted and estimated to be up to 50,000 strong, and quickly approaching Roma. Fortunately, as these particular Emus were sighted from a Gyrocopter coincidentally passing nearby, the 13th Battalion was able to hastily assemble at Roma, with more reinforcements well on their way. This would not be an easy battle – the humans were still well outnumbered – but, unlike for the defenders of Northam on the other side of the country, the situation was far from hopeless.
Initially, 'not hopeless' would not be enough for the defenders of Roma – while they put out an impressive resistance, with their fortification works still a work in progress the humans would soon be routed by the sheer mass of birds, who went on to take the already evacuated town. Fortunately, the Battalion was able to reform in time to destroy the pursuing group of Emus sent out after the town had been secured, a somewhat lengthy process of smashing down doors and taking any visible shiny objects (which were then, as reported by a well hidden observer, carried off to an unknown location). Soon after, the vast majority of the birds moved out of the town and performed similar sacks of, Taroom and Durham Downs and Kinnoul – before coming up against the Great Dividing Range.
Across the ridges of the mountain range in the growing towns of Theodore and Eidsvold the opposition to the birds was assembling – the 33rd and 35th Battalions had finally arrived at each location, and arranged to cut through the forested but flatter passes. However, based on information received when they were called together, they were still outnumbered almost 20:1. On their side they had a rare Queenslander Military Gyrocopter – however due to the trees the observations from this would be useless if the birds passed into the forest. Additionally, the 13th Battalion had reformed and was, after radio communication with the other Battalions, making its way back past the garrisons of the sacked towns.
The 33rd and 35th passed through the trees with relative ease, emerging to find the rich farmlands of Spring Creek filled covered in hungry Emus; tens of thousands of them. After communication to ensure both units had arrived, they began their attack.
The human strategy involved luring the birds into the forest where their speed and strength could not be used effectively, before using concentrated rifle fire on the birds to kill them off, one by one. However, this quickly proved to be, while helpful, not enough to stop the Emus – while there were many casualties, the humans found themselves quickly pushed back to avoid meeting the birds one on one. The nature of the forest, while slowing the Emu advance, also slowed the retreat of the soldiers, allowing some to be caught by the birds and swiftly come crashing down as they were knocked aside before anything could be done by their bayonets.
The one thing that saved the Battalions was the arrival of the 13th at the Emu's rear. This attack seemed to confuse the avian attackers, allowing for the 33rd and 35th to swiftly reorganise and attack once again as the birds flooded out of the forest to face the new threat. This avian confusion allowed the three Battalions to deal significant damage to the Emus, so much so that the birds retreated back out to Roma, although in an organised fashion, and did not again attack in such numbers – a victory for humanity at the Battle of Spring Creek, even if Roma itself remained in feathered claws.
However, the fall of Roma did, while not allowing a massive group past the mountains, indirectly caused the downfall of many western towns such as Longreach – after a demonstration of the inability to counter large groups of Emus in grass and farmlands these towns past the Great Dividing Range were for the most part abandoned.
In New South Wales, the action was similar but different – with Sydney ordering the evacuation of regional towns, after the initial evacuation the largest military presence would be concentrated almost solely on the coast. As a result regional areas quickly fell to very large concentrations of Emus, taking advantage of the easily available food from abandoned farms. Additionally, holdouts of those who refused to leave their homes were quickly slaughtered by the avian menace. The exception to this was the large 'remainer' town of Dubbo, which had a population large enough to fight off an assault but were starved out in weeks by a surprisingly well organised siege. Coastal areas however escaped most raiding, with the birds having sufficient targets further inland and avoiding the natural barrier of the Great Dividing Range.
The opening months of the Eastern Front of the Great Emu War saw more success than the west, but this does not make them successful entirely – Queensland succeeded in protecting most of their farmers east of the Great Dividing Range, while New South Wales protected the majority of their regional people, but this came at the cost of the western areas of both states. With New South Wales acquiring new high caliber guns to take down Emus, there was still a feeling of hope and determination in the east – to defend their homes, to avenge their losses, and to take down this horrific threat.
(A rough map of the current situation. Central Australia is safe mostly due to how dry the area is than anything else.)
