The Dakota Offensive (Imperium Americanus)

[Zor]

This is the same universe as a perious peice of original fiction, Manta's Dawn. This peice of fiction was created by Leighton White and i will not allow unauthorised duplication, yadda yadda yadda.

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The Dakota Offensive

Constructed between 1893 and 1899, the Montana Line, also known as (misleadingly, walls were not a major component of the design) the Great Wall of America, was a line of fortifications built by the United States government along the west US/EGA border in Montana. The Montana Line was designed to hold back an EGA offensive, but from day one it faced problems. The Logistics of the line was the big matter, it required the construction of a railway to keep supplies and workers coming in, as well as bitter winters. This, combined with appalling safety conditions, disease and waning political support led to the Montana Line being uncompleted when construction stopped, with only sixty percent of the intended fortifications up and running. Despite this, the line was still one of the most impressive and up to date lines of defense created. It had hundreds of bunkers for artillery, machine gun emplacements, anti panzer weapons and anti aircraft positions along with two airfields to provide air support and a garrison of 100,000 soldiers backed up with 500 Panzers. It was seen and advertised by the US government as impenetrable. But the Empire of Great America did not see it this way…

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-February 18th, 1916, 16:46, Imperial American Army Forward position near the Montana Line, Empire of Great America

Four Star Legate Carl Fitzgerald sat in his Rover sipping at his hot cup of Tea as he observed the enemy lines as continuous loud thuds of Cannon Artillery roared as they pounded against it. While they were spaced out considerably, US forces had dug in deep in several places. Even at this light point labeled Gap-12, the American Forces had a decent amount of guns to repel attacks that were well dug in. Even with the Incendiaries, it took a while to see if a gun was really down. However, they faced a heavy bombardment for over a day now and one by one there major emplacements had gone silent and for the last half hour he saw several of the major holdouts stop firing as well. He was waiting to see if it did anything, which his patience had revealed that it had not and as such he picked up the speaker on his Radio and gave the order.

“Send in the first wave, have the flails cut a path for the main force, have the Vortexes on standby and keep the Cougars overhead and on alert for enemy armor.”


Half an hour latter, a slow moving line of armored fighting vehicles was advancing across the snow covered terrain that lay ahead of it. At its head were seven Panzer-IV Grizzlies, each with a special attachment, a quickly rotating steel barrel with a large number of chains welded onto it that ripped into the soil and destroyed whatever mine it came across. Four of them were at the very front and three trailed four meters behind them, covering what was missed by the first line and making a god awful mess wherever they went. However this made the path the hundreds of armored fighting vehicles behind it. Progress was slow, but it was safe. Great America could not afford to waste Panzers and their crews on charging blindly through minefields. For the entire night the vehicles moved forward at a snail’s pace, but they got through without a singe casualty. But on the other side, they had to face a new and far more mobile threat.

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-February 19th, 10:36, US Army Force, East side of the Montana Line, North Dakota, United States of America.

Two star General Mark Walsh looked at his armored forces from the top hatch of his Panzer and let out a sigh. When they had reports that the Shellheads had hit Vancouver and over half a dozen US and Canadian Air Bases many at the base thought it was a joke, but that illusion was broken when the bombs fell down on their asses. Even with the bombardment done by Great America’s devastating Bombers to his base, he had taken considerable looses in moving his armored forces their, not from enemy fire, but from the environment they were in. The M8’s and M10s were tested and approved for duty after tests on soil somewhere in the eastern states, but the miserable snow and cold of this Dakota February was a different beast altogether. Their treads were too thin for the cold and several vehicles had gotten stuck or refused to start and had to be left behind. They had lost contact with the area the EGA had decided to hit and the planes that were not bombed to hell faced dozens of the EGA’s Lethal Timberwolves. In Lieu of mechanized recon, his US force had fallen back to a method of getting information that dated back to before the City of Troy fell to Greeks, which had made use of a wooden recreation of the animal that gave said scouts their speed. A scout was sent out armed with a Sub Machinegun and an automatic pistol with a well trained stallion as means of transportation. He heard the hoofed beast return to the camp and turned his head just in time to see the rider salute.

“Report”

“Sir,” the Scout answered “they have pushed through about thirty miles ahead with at least three hundred vehicles including Panzers have gotten past the line with some infantry. They have not dug in, looks like they were planning on moving against us as soon as possible.”

“In that case my good boy, we will hit them before they can move out. Williams, tell the forces to move out!”
___

-11:03

On the eastern border of the Empire of Great America is the USA, a nation that had at its disposal a much greater population and is quite hostile towards it.

From the time the future emperor Stephen Walker broke California and Oregon off of the United States, this fact has been a major part of the Empire of Great America. An enemy that can field a vast army and desires to send it off to rain death and destruction upon its cities and people, a perfect target for Propaganda. To make up for it, the Walker Dynasty had enacted a series of tools and tricks to close the gap between the US and the EGA. One program the EGA had enacted since its beginnings was the recruitment of peasants from China to bolster its ranks. In Return for serving in the Empire on the land or at sea, they got along with there pay and supplies free transport to the Empire, three extra tickets to the Empire and free citizenship all four of them upon the completion of the term of service or his death. Although a few skeptics and bigots did not like this plan at first, the plan went on and in the words of Emperor Stephen-I “They are willing to fight and die to keep their new homeland safe, helping them set up is the least we can do”. Even in times of peace and military inactivity, a few hundred soldiers were recruited every year in this fashion. It also had a noticeable effect in the Han population of the EGA, with families developing a strong military tradition. As result of that, Senior Optio Stephen Wei’s Century was more than half Chinese. Not that it mattered to him or that he could make that out on more than two of them the moment, as they had hidden in the cover of the hills and scrub in their heavy white felt winter uniforms. They and their battalion were among the first to get past the Union’s defenses and had set themselves up in the path of the advancing American armored forces and they laid in ambush. He remembered seeing a scout go by a while ago and in some dark corner of his mind he was tempted to put a bullet into him or his mount at the safety of a few hundred meters with his Type-2 Rifle, but the poor bastard was not the target and he never gave any serious thought to trying to do it. The real targets were coming across, a large group of enemy Vehicles, including Panzers rolling towards the hill. But his century would not be the first to draw blood against the approaching armored column.

He heard a roaring coming from the sky and quickly looked up and saw the planes in the sky flying towards them. About twenty GA-1 Cougars, Doubled engine planes specially designed for attacking ground forces that began to descend upon their targets. While they could not match a Timberwolf in Speed and maneuverability or a Manta in bomb payload, they were (for aircraft) heavily armored and carried a decent load of bombs, either as gravity bombs and rockets, two heavy machine guns and most importantly here a nose mounted 50mm autoloading Cannon and the rockets were equipped with HEAT heads. From some flatbed AA Halftracks came up some fire, but the 0.50 caliber AA shells used by the US AA, while making many holes just did not have the stopping power. Before the Cougars was a big mass of armored fighting vehicles and they hit them hard with a massive salvo from their cannons and rockets, Stephen watched through his scope as several Vehicles hit by the harsh airborne pounding burst into fire and stopped dead in their tracks before they were hit by the bombs. They had done the deed and pulled back but the damage done was impressive, but still a good deal of AFVs was still advancing. He knew that a large Panzer Force was coming up but the hills had obscured his view in their direction. It was a nerve racking experience waiting as the enemy vehicles came closer over the hills. After about twenty minutes he saw the vehicles coming towards quite well and followed one of the lead Medium Panzers with his rifle, blindly moving forward, unaware of what they were in for. They could see the Cougars when they swooped down to destroy their vehicles, but what they faced now was unseen until it struck.

Suddenly, from behind hills, the Imperial Infantry struck a blow against the US Panzers as the lead Panzers were hit by a wave of Anti Panzer rockets that erupted from the RLAPs. The Rockets hit the sides of the Bluejacket’s armor with shaped charges that on impact fired a super hot jet into the armor, cutting into there innards and doing massive damage to their innards. The first salvo took out the front ten Panzers quickly and from their various hatches came dozens of Panzer men; he quickly saw the one to jump out at the turret hatch, clearly the commander. He lined up the shot and put a bullet into his chest. He fell down dead and Stephen Emptied the spent cartridge and moved onto the next one of over thirty dozen fleeing panzer men in the chaos. Many RLAP armed infantry relocated, but did so purposefully and in a meaningful, cautious manner while reloading. He was not the only sniper in the mix and in haste a pair of men took cover behind a downed panzer, only to expose them to his fire. As that happened, another salvo hit and downed another five panzers were downed. To deal with the ambush the US had sent out an infantry force from their halftracks, as well, dozens of Machine guns from the US panzers blazed blindly against hills in hopes of laying down some suppressive fire. Dozens of soldiers ran forward as fast as they could despite the snow towards the Imperial Forces, but they stuck out against the snow and he turned his rifle on them and began taking them out. Not every round hit and not every round that hit was lethal, but even so, he did get manage to rather efficiently cut down a good deal of Union soldiers. He saw a few of them stumble across an RLAP patrol, but they did not find them. Instead they faced a surprise hail of bullets from a pair of Type-4 Assault Rifles, within second the US army soldiers had been taken out of the picture. A third salvo went off as this happened, taking down another four panzers. As that happened, he heard a flare burst in the air. He knew what that meant and after firing one more round off, he pushed himself backwards got on his knees and walked low to the ground away from the area. The rest of the skirmisher force did the same. What awaited the American forces now would hurt them more.


-11:35

Centurion Alex Catinni observed the battlefield with his finely made German binoculars as his Panzer advanced and saw the smoke coming up ahead of him, the battle was clearly well underway. He had his doubts about how effective the skirmishers would be, but even so, the RLAPs seemed to have done there job quite well. That sent the thought of American force’s with RLAPs going up against them through his mind, which was something that sent shivers down his spine. But still he stood resolute, if the Bluejackets loose the battle, the US military can’t find out they did the deed and all the longer before they can develop something comparable to the Empire’s infantry anti panzer rocket launchers. He then turned his head over and saw what he wanted to see. “Driver, take us up that large hill to the east and tell the rest of the century to do the same”

“Yes sir” the driver and radio operator said at once.

“This is Command Panzer eleven to Century eleven, move up over the large hill four hundred meters ahead of command panzer”. The Thirty One tonne metallic beast advanced on the hill, as did the force behind it until it reached the sides and began its assent up the hill’s light slope. After a few short minutes it was at the top, the Century Stopped and before it was a comparatively flat area and Alex grinned when he saw what he saw about a kilometer and three quarters away.

“Jim, Bring the gun to bear on the lead Panzer on the nearest formation, let’s show those bigoted morons why you don’t fuck around with the Empire of Great America!”

“Yes Centurion!” the gunner said with enthusiasm. The Turret of the vehicle came to bear upon the enemy Panzer as it approached with its high power 75 millimeter gun ready to strike. The M8 was not easy to hide as it was very tall and the Panzer Man easily brought there gun to bear upon it. After a few seconds, the gun was ready to strike…

BLAM! The air around the tank was shaken by the firing of the cannon as a 75mm shell ripped through the air at more than half a kilometer per second. The round was a high velocity projectile with a hard tungsten steel shaft in it’s center that went straight through the forty three millimeter frontal armor of the American M8 and right into its ammunition stores. The vehicle stopped while fire and smoke belched from the various cracks and the turret jumped two meters into the air and crashed into the snow while the rest of it smoldered. Another went down a second latter as another grizzly fired its cannon at the US forces three seconds latter, followed by another one as the rest of his century came in and began firing. At the same time three other Centuries had taken their places on other hills, beginning to form a broad several kilometer wide V that the enemy was moving right into.

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-11:41

“Sir,” blurted out General Walsh’s radioman “we have received word from Major West, the Imperial armored have set themselves up right in front of our main line and have been taking out our Panzers from over a mile away. At least twenty M8 Custers are down already.” The General gave out a slight sign of shock. They had already lost forty panzers and at least four hundred men to EGA Raiders and their aircraft and now Panzers that could take out their panzers at such distance, it was quite a shock. He spent a moment pondering what course of action he should take.

On one hand, he could retreat across North Dakota and head for Fargo. It would save many panzers and many good well trained men from the wrath of the Empress’s Forces and strengthen a counter attack to be done at a latter date. However, even with the retreat, he would still loose a considerable amount of Panzers and men in pursuit, let great America ready itself for a push eastward and have him labeled as a coward by the media.

On the other hand, he could press on; throwing everything he could at the Shellheads and hope for a victory. He did have a numerical advantage on them and even if he lost he could inflict grievous wounds upon the invaders and give the US forces much needed time to defend against further assault but such an attack would be costly and there was a very good chance of Defeat.

He weighed the pros and cons and variables in his mind and eventually came to a conclusion. “Tell all forces to converge on the Great American position and to drive those half-breed bastards back to their precious empire!” If his life ended here, he would die like one of those three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae.

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-11:43

“Sir, we got more incoming.” Jim bellowed “Looks like they are throwing everything they can at us. Panzers and infantry, sir.”

Alex let out a brief chuckle “makes you feel wanted, doesn’t it? Keep on firing,” he cocked his machine gun “the grunts are mine.”

The Panzer-IV’s guns kept firing, sending shell after shell into the enemy’s ranks and one by one, they were stopped dead in their tracks. Not every shot hit, but still a good deal of M8’s went down and many of their burning remains now littered the hills. The M8’s fired back, but their 50.8mm and 38.1mm guns simply could not pierce the Grizzlies’ iron hides at the same range. Into the mix was thrown another type of Panzer, the M10 heavy Panzer, which was a colossal sixty tonne beast with two side mounted Cannons to augment their frontal and turret cannons. But they were little better armored than the M8’s and much slower. Here, their size meant nothing more than that the M10 was a tomb for twelve brothers instead of the seven when a Panzer-IV brought its cannon to bear on it. The infantry bravely charged the enemy Panzers, but equipped only with Semi-Automatic Rifles, Sub machine guns, Squad automatic weapons, Fragmentation grenades and bayonets, they could not do anything of significance against the Imperial Military.

However, the Imperial forces were not completely immune from casualties. At 11:51, a force of six M8’s snuck up on the west end of the imperial line and managed to get into range and to the side of a Ten Panzer strong Panzer Century and at a distance of four hundred meters fired at the Imperial Panzers with everything they had. Three of them caught fire and their crews had to ditch, but they were quickly taken down in response. But these small losses paled in comparison to the loss of men and lives the US Military was suffering.

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-11:54

Despite the personal risk, General Walsh had a romantic view of Cavalry charges and believed that the general should be in the charge with his men. As such, instead of directing the fight from behind the lines as most generals would have, he was in the command seat of his M10 command panzer pushing on. He was considered odd by the rest of the Brass in the United States Army, but was well liked by his men for his hands on approach. However, at the moment, part of him wished he was a bit more conventional.

“Sir, I have been getting a lot of messages from the commanders, losses are heavy and they have not been able to stop the Great American forces.”

He got angry at that moment, “Tell them to press on, lest they want their children to pledge allegiance to some Walkerian half breed king every day at school!” He snapped.

“Yes sir.”

Meanwhile, a new Imperial Panzer had just reached the Imperial Lines, a beast known as a Panzer-V Zhao. It brought its massive 90 mm cannon to bear upon its mark from over two kilometers away and fired. General Walsh was just about to say something to inspire his men on, but just as he was beginning to open his mouth, he was hit by a spray of metal splinters, each causing him intense pain, which was followed by a sudden wave of fire a few seconds latter. The universe would never hear his words of inspiration.

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-12:00

Centurion Catinni looked at the carnage the first wave Panzer force the EGA had sent through the border had wrought upon the US army. Dozens of burning wrecks and thousands of bodies now littered the battlefield. It was an awesome scene of Destruction, and he saw something. Many of the US Panzers had begun to turn back, along with many infantrymen.

“Radioman.” Said the commander.

“Yes sir?” he responded

“The enemy is broken and in all likelihood leaderless now, Request permission form Legate Fitzgerald to pursue the retreating enemy forces.”

“Yes sir.” About a minute passed before the response.

“Permission has been granted, sir.”

“Alright, driver advance against the enemy forces, and Radioman tell the century to do the same.”

“Yes sir.” A few seconds latter his Century began its pursuit, and a few seconds after that, the rest of the panzers in the force following after them. One by one the EGA armored fighting vehicles picked up the stragglers and the Union infantry were mowed down by machinegun fire, or hid in some brush or behind rocks. The next six hours the battle proceeded as a pursuit. A few Union Panzers managed to get close and did some damage to the Imperial AFV’s but all in all, only fifteen out of over three hundred EGA Panzers were taken down in battle and only six were damaged beyond repair. The US Army had lost nearly four hundred Panzers, an additional three hundred Half tracks and other vehicles and over thirty thousand soldiers were either killed or captured. In the end, the infantry from the battle proved to be the biggest thorn in the side of the Imperium after the battle and it took three days before the last company laid down there weapons. But never the less, the battle was won, and a stream of Imperial men and equipment began flowing through the pass

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-February 20th, 13:32, Fargo, North Dakota, United States of America

Police officer Jeff Watson sat back to relax on a bench to gain a second of relaxation, he was over his head as the town was in state of chaos. When word hit that the Shellheads had begun its attack on the United States, people were scared shitless and had thrown themselves into a state were all kinds of uncivilized behavior was the norm. Fearing a siege, many began looting stores for supplies, stealing from each other and many were shooting each other for defense. Others were blowing there savings on beer and whiskey and had gotten piss drunk, which resulted in many brawls, many of which had poured onto the streets and there were ten acts of drunk driving yesterday alone. To keep things in order, martial law was declared and the National Guard had been brought in, but still there was some violence even with them around.

Suddenly, he heard the air-raid sirens blare. Around him the civilians dropped what they were doing and made for the cellars and the AA weapons and searchlights were readied. He checked around, making sure that everyone had a place to go; fortunately, people were doing what they were supposed to and seeking cover. It was cloudy in the sky and even with the searchlights, identifying were they were was not easy. However, as he ran through the town, saw no bombs fall and felt no thud of falling explosive devices. There was some rattling from machine guns and big AA Flak cannons, but nothing was hit, nor did any bombs fall. However, he soon saw a large number of paper slips fall from the sky and land in the ground. He picked one up in curiosity and read it. What was writen on it was shocking…

The Montana Line is now destined to go down in history as one of the biggest displays of military stupidity. We have broken through it and have defeated its garrison. The Iron Dragon marches through your puny defenses and towards your city; do not provoke his wrath.
-Adria

[Sidewinder]

A good chapter. I'm curious about the background, however. Is the US in this universe dominated by southern aristocrats? Is it full of slave states? (This was the impression I got from the description of US Army personnel as bigots.)

[Zor]

A good chapter. I'm curious about the background, however. Is the US in this universe dominated by southern aristocrats? Is it full of slave states? (This was the impression I got from the description of US Army personnel as bigots.)

While slavery has been banned, you are partially right about the Southern Aristocrats. A sizeable chunk of the OTL Western US (Including the entire west coast, Alaska and much of the OTL American rocky mountains) is now the Empire of Great America, as such Dixie has alot more say in congress and the senate. As well, the Civil war went much worse for the north and had fought a costly war with the EGA in the late 1870s, slowing the development of the Middle Class in America and the overall growth of America's population and (by extension) of Northern Industry.

As well, the States is a bit more bigoted. There is a good rivallry between the EGA and the USA and racism plays into that. In the EGA they has been a rather steady stream of asian immigrants and if you were caught posting anti chinese posters like in OTL California and Oregon in the EGA, you would spend the next six months in a Labour Reform Camp (or Laogai as they are called in the EGA) making bricks on charges of premoting bigotry and racial confrontation and inter-racial marage is universally Legal. Politians in the states make frequent attacks on the EGA for 'Impurity' and such.

Zor

[Sidewinder]

I just read 'Manta's Dawn' and your page on Omniverse Zero. Does the EGA intend to conquer the entire US? If so, wouldn't it have been easier for Stephen Walker to support Lincoln, become Lincoln's Vice President, and after John Wilkes Booth assassinates the President, declare martial law and lay the foundations of the US's transformation into the EGA?

And does the EGA intend to intervene in the European theater of the Great War?

[Zor]

I just read 'Manta's Dawn' and your page on Omniverse Zero. Does the EGA intend to conquer the entire US? [/code]

That i will not talk about, you will have to read what i post.

If so, wouldn't it have been easier for Stephen Walker to support Lincoln, become Lincoln's Vice President, and after John Wilkes Booth assassinates the President, declare martial law and lay the foundations of the US's transformation into the EGA?

The reason why are as such,

1, because he was afraid of said event NOT happening. There were collosal forces draging the north and south to war, but he was afraid of him causing him to somehow not get assination. I am personally undecided if he was.
2, He had a firm base of power on the West Coast, including a rather strong cult of personality. He was seen as a great progressive leader that took a backwards colony into an up-to-date Industrialized Center and brought wealth and prosparity.

And does the EGA intend to intervene in the European theater of the Great War?

No, the EGA has its own, rather large front to fight on now. Although it is attacking Canada as well, which will take a not insugnifigant force of Canadian soldiers out of France.

Zor

[Battlehymn Republic]

A demographics side-question: I understand that the Walker family and EGA gov't encouraged massive immigration from China, but why not from Mexico as well? It seems like having a 18% Chinese population and only a 8% Latino population is a bit odd for the time period.

And why did he turn it into an Empire?

[Zor]

A demographics side-question: I understand that the Walker family and EGA gov't encouraged massive immigration from China, but why not from Mexico as well? It seems like having a 18% Chinese population and only a 8% Latino population is a bit odd for the time period.

Generally because...
1-Mexico at the EGA's founding had a comparitively small population which was growing slowly (although the EGA did start a program to accelerate said growth latter on via medical aid latter on, but they did not start showing real fruit until 1890), while china was, well, china. No shortage of peasants there.
2-There was alot of upheaval in China, causing a good number of people to desire to take their families away to saftey. The EGA Capitalised on that.

And why did he turn it into an Empire?

One of Stephen Walker's goals from day one of his temporal movement was the creation of a suitable legacy for his children and their children and so on. The Second reason was that he is a modern man with a modern outlook on many social issues, he did not want human vermin like white supremacists getting into power in his nation after he died and he thought to prevent that was rasing a son with modern beleifs and put him in power was the best way to do that (which did work).

Zor

[FedRebel]

What safeguards did Stephen Walker install to keep a future descendant from destroying the Empire?

[Zor]

What safeguards did Stephen Walker install to keep a future descendant from destroying the Empire?

First off, the EGA is a constitutional monarchy and the Empress can't imprison anyone for any reason, it even has a nominal (if currently rubber stamp) parliament. The Empire of Great America is for the most part non totallitarian, Autocratic and Authoritarian yes, but not Totallitarian. Second is an education in OTL history for his kids (a ciricula that covers what worked and why in OTL economically and socially and what did not, technological developments and on OTL's worst dictatorship), to ensure that it would be that way Stephen intrusted that duty to a special Elite Imperial Tutor under a non disclosure contract that was written into the lawbooks soon before his death.

Zor