Imagine the following being written by a bunch of anxious bureaucrats back in Chicago, desperate to do
something while this massive brawl is going on just a couple hundred miles away. All footnotes are In Character.
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Pre-Written Speech (First Draft)
Earlier today, forces from the Commonwealth of Free Cities met and engaged with hostile forces belonging to the nation of Victoria, in our fledgling countries first true conflict. But while this war of aggression Victoria has declared against us for daring to exist outside their control may not be the first armed conflict
they have engaged in, it marks the first time they have faced anything remotely resembling a peer adversary in a fair fight.
Against the Federal Government, they were merely the straw that broke the camel's back, the spark that at last set off the powder keg, the crack that finally ruptured a pressure cooker that had been seething for close to a decade. Against the New American Confederation, Russian hands were hard at work hacking apart the timbers that held their foe together*, and it was the Texas Rangers who committed that unforgivable act of detonating a nuclear device on American soil. Against the Pacific Republic, international opinion is that the garrote placed around California's economy, once again in Russian hands, would have been more than sufficient to bring an end to things, and that the presence of Rumford and his cronies was a mild accelerant at best, and utterly superfluous at worst%. As for assorted instances of Victoria ineffectually flailing at pirates, one would have to be delusional or a liar to call these victories, and the nation that now stands as our foe has both of these in spades.
(* Hold up. Do we know this or are we just guessing?#)
(%I think they did more than that...#)
(#This is basically pure propaganda, facts are secondary.)
[IF WE WIN]
And now, standing against us purely on their own merits, we have taken Victoria's measure… And we have found them wanting. In their outlandish hubris, they dove directly into the teeth of our waiting forces, fully expecting to win on nothing more than raw numbers and sheer force of will. When they were left to fight with nothing but small arms and blades, they ordered the troops to advance anyway, leading them to die in droves against entrenched machine gun fire. When they realized our reserves were still very much in position to respond, they ordered the troops to advance anyway, leading into the exact sort of battle which they are absolutely the least equipped to engage in&: A knock-down drag-out fight to the finish against a foe inclined neither to panic nor to rash and hasty action. Even as I speak, our forces work tirelessly to repair the damage inflicted upon Detroit by these recently concluded hostilities, and by the same token prepare for the inevitable second wave. And mark my words, there will be a second wave, as Victoria's continued existence relies on the terror they cast upon the whole of this land, and the continued existence of any polity capable of dispelling this effect represents an existential threat to them, without the need for so much as a single counter-attack.
(&I'm...
Pretty sure that if we win, it'll end up looking like this.)
[IF WE LOSE]
And now, having managed to drown Detroit's finest in a tide of bodies and cult-like fanaticism, even in their so-called victory their weaknesses are made apparent. In our best estimates, it will take them several years, possibly even the better part of a decade, to recoup the losses they have suffered as a result of their reckless disregard for the lives of their troops. Though our own losses are painful indeed, we have the infrastructure and knowledge to rebuild our armed forces in a fraction of the time it will take Victoria, and furthermore to prepare ourselves for when the attempt at doing what the Nazis could not finally comes. $So I have myself full confidence that if all do their duty, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we should prove ourselves once more able to defend our home. We shall ride out the storm of war and outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years. And if necessary, alone. For this is the will of our parliament and of our nation, The Commonwealth of Free Cities, linked together in its cause and in its need, shall fight to the death to defend its native soil, all members aiding each other as good comrades should, and united we shall stand until the end. We will defend our home, whatever the cost may be. We will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the landing grounds, we will fight upon the waves of the great lakes, we will fight in the fields, and in the streets, and in the hills and swamps. We will never surrender. And if, which I do not believe for an instant this will be the case, our homeland or some large part of it should find itself starving and subjugated, then those others who have been wronged by Victoria and desire justice for this should carry on our struggle, until, in God's good time, some new or extant state should rise to the challenge of rescuing and liberating these lands from the scourge that now plagues them.
($ Yes this entire segment is lifted from Winston Churchill. Seems apropos to me. And what are the brits gonna do, sue us?)
