Global Peak (Part 11.0 up 05/29/09).

[The Duchess of Zeon]

2047, Salt Lake City,
July 20th,
Free States Territories.


"And they still won't surrender. The damned fucking morons," People's Commissar Julius Whittaker ground out angrily, pounding his fist against the map-table. "We hold the heights and half the damned UoU campus and we've been hitting them with a thousand shells a day, half of them gas. The reports say a thousand civilians are dying every day from starvation alone. But they still won't yield."

"It's the fact that they're still holding Ogden that is more problematic to our interests," General Catherine Tang answered. She was known to the Mormon defenders--every single ward raised as a volunteer militia by this point--as 'the demon eunuch of castro district' on account of being a transexual from San Francisco, but the demon part was well deserved: She was one of the 'new generals' of the Government Army of the West. In the early years of the war that had now dragged on for seven years, most of the Army and Air Force had sided with the Walker regime in Texas which had proclaimed the Free States' Union to resist 'government collectivization on the pretext of peak oil'.

In desperation the government had used its control of the security services to draft anyone and everyone; millions of untrained workers had been thrown against the more prepared veterans of the Free States Union and millions of them had died. Most of their commanders had died with them or had been sacked. By the brutal calculus of general combat, however, a certain small percentage of the leaders had survived to gain experience and become professionals, and with elections indefinitely suspended and political reliability officers everywhere, these had actually been preferred as commanders to the old loyal officers of the US Army. Catherine Tang was one of these, a painter who had been voted by popular ballot as commander of a battalion sent to the defence of the Tahoe district from a Free States' attempt to seize Donner Pass by coup de main, and ending up now, six years later, commanding the whole Army of the Wasatch Front. She was young, too; only about thirty.

"And what about the loss of life?" Among Whittaker's other duties was to try and do as much as possible for the population of the occupied districts, but here he could only manage so much. The Mormon resistance had been utterly incredible. "We all know we have to chastise them, but..."

"They're going to die anyway, Julius," Catherine answered with a snort and toss of her head. "Colonel Hui?"

Her chief of staff stepped forward. "Yes, General?"

"Do you have the projections for how much food we'll be able to bring to the Wasatch Front when we've reduced their resistance?"

"Of course." A document was handed over, written on paper, now, as not even field headquarters could afford electronic document handling easily. Catherine pushed it to Julius' side of the table with a bitter look. "A thousand people a day may be dying inside the siege lines of Salt Lake City, but we're still losing a thousand people a week--and that's free citizens, nobody except the internal security directorate knows how much of our forced labour battalions are dying each week--in the Western Loyal States," by which she referred to California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, the Yukon, Hawaii, and the reestablished Loyalist regime in Alaska after the separatist movement had been defeated by a rush deploy in the first year of the war there.

"Suffice to say, we only have enough surplus food for one-tenth of the population of the Wasatch front. Gassing them and blasting them apart in open combat is a mercy compared to that. The blood is already on our hands either way. We can send them out to the fields once they've surrendered to try and grow their own food like they were doing before, but it's to late for a goddamned harvest."

"And the political authorities in California would never permit water diversion of the Colorado's flow from the Imperial Valley," Whittaker answered and sighed. "Very well. It must be done. We can only hope that we can increase production again and stop relying so much on labour battalions once we've secured and repaired the Albertan oil infrastructure."

"And that's why this offensive is of secondary priority. Five million forced labourers on the farms of California, western Washington, and the Willamette valley do not enough food for sixty millions make, even with all the volunteers. My army troops have been fighting continuously on half rations since the moment we went on the offensive!"

A black man wearing a Marine uniform with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel stepped into the dilapidated 'McMansion' which had once been in the exurbs of Salt Lake City and now served, in the blistering head, as the centre of the command facility for the whole nation. An orderly gave him--he was sweating profusely, and with good reason, for it was damned hot--a glass of lemonade with precious ice in it.

"General, Commissar, Sirs," he saluted, and grinned broadly. The grin was returned.

"Jay, did you get that photo reconaissance I ordered?"

"Yeah, I did, General, and, good news." He tossed the pictures onto the table, and in a moment the bitter conversation of the Commissar and the General was forgotten: They could clearly see the smashed spire of the Mormon Temple and the shattered gleam of gold on the ground before it.

"Hah! We finally got it. Two damned months of shooting at it, leaving it hanging at a crazy angle and everything, and we finally knocked down the damned statue of the Angel Moroni."

"I can't wait to get our hands on it, either;" Whittaker added, "the plunder of solid gold from the temple precincts will buy more than a small amount of Russian oil to keep the counteroffensive going. As soon as we've cleared Ogden we can have supply trains prepping for the drive to Cheyenne and our best chance to outflank the Moffat Line," as the tremendous defensive network in the Colorado Rockies was being called. "And maybe we can make up some for General Wallace's rapid progress after he isolated Boise."

"Not our fault, there, Julius. Boise isn't on the old UPac transcon, it was much easier to bypass. They're still holding out, though. Probably eating each other by now. Don't have as tough a moral will as the Mormons."

"Sometimes I think you admire them, Catherine."

The woman looked up, annoyed that the political officer had used her name familiarly. "They've fought very well. They may still, in fact, overrun St. Louis before we can divert enough of their forces west that Operation Jandarma Valley can commence to try and restore the lines of communication. Hell, they're still holding Gary, and we've taken, what, a million dead trying to clear them out of greater Chicagoland? The FedGov has been obsessed with taking it back, foolishly, ever since God's Will Governments in Indiana and Kentucky committed the Louisville massacre."

Colonel Jay Hassan blanched at that. With the considerable latitude given to state governments, when Indiana and Kentucky had managed to suppress the pro-government counter-secession in Louisville they had taken fifty thousand African-Americans, ten thousand suspected homosexuals, and twenty-five thousand general 'communists and environmentalists', loaded them all onto barges in the Ohio river while chained together, and then sunk the barges. None of them thought much of the response, where Terence Farlow, the People's Commissar of the western districts, had ordered fifty thousand anti-government baptists in the labour camps shot.

None of which really mattered, objectively. The point which Catherine Tang had been trying to drive home earlier was that there was no food to feed the people who were being massacred with anyway; they were going to die no matter what. It was simply human nature and the insane, bloody war which had gripped the former United States of America for the past seven years, which led to such atrocities. And perhaps a desire to make sure that the people you hated were the ones who died, instead of seeing those who supported your cause starve to death to feed someone who thought you deserved to be tortured to death.

You do realize you're a monster, right? You only joined the cadres to protect the family you love, but you've become a monster, some nasty little voice in Catherine Tang's head reminded her. How many times have you thrown away the lives of your own soldiers, let alone authorizing the use of gas shells against Salt Lake City? Well, there was precious little to be done for it now.

"Fuck this discussion," she growled angrily at last. "It's time for us to do something to cut Ogden off from the city proper. They should be demoralized by this, at least, the religious fools. And we only need Ogden; Salt Lake City can rot. But we need Eastern Utah for the uranium if nothing else."

"There are fourteen new reactors in the Yolo area which aren't online yet because of a lack of fuel," Colonel Hui interjected at that, in agreement. "They could provide the energy for several tractor and AFV factories to triple production and restore some limited electricity to the Bay Area. We need those uranium deposits, badly."

"Commissar Whittaker, I'm formally requested permission to halt the attempt to take Salt Lake City. I want to instead concentrate on an amphibious operation to seize Antelope Island and place artillery there to support an effort to cut through the neck of the Mormon defensive position, and isolate Ogden for reduction."

"And what happens to Salt Lake City?"

"They starve. Just like they would if they surrendered today."

Whittaker sighed. "Very well, I'll sign off on it, General. You're right. Even ignoring Denver and the Moffat Line, the moment we get the Utah uranium supplies, we can start to restore a normal life for the West Coast Loyalists."

"And then we start pushing further east," Catherine agreed. "Because the people in the eastern Loyal states are suffering even more than our own people. A lot more."

Then a dispatcher entered and caught all their attention with her eager, breathless strides. "General! There's news from Central Gov. General Taipal has secured the surrender of Calgary! Advanced units have been ordered forward into Saskatchewan. We may meet up with the Army of Canada," the country had joined with the FedGov as a matter of necessity on the secession of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, "in a matter of weeks."

"Two transcons in operation..." Whittaker was breathless.

"And a way to get more grain to Minneapolis and Chicago," Catherine agreed. "Nevermind that this means we'll have control of the oil sands in a matter of days. Maybe, for once, we'll have enough trucks in operation that I won't be stepping over a show-horse's carcass every half-mile from using them to try and pull supply wagons," she added with a tint of bitterness. "Anyway..., Alisa, grab us some one of those Napa wines, hmm? It's time for a toast with this news you've brought us. And feel free to have some yourself." Small kindnesses were all that was left in a world gone mad.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Anyone who wants to will get an appearance in this charming fic, my more optimistic counterpart to Surlethe's "Global Mean Temperature".

I'll just generally move your birthdays about 20 - 40 years forward in time and give you charming roles in whatever is happening in your home country/region.

Do enjoy!

It will be done in the same style as GMT, i.e., a bunch of vignettes without any main characters or story arcs as such, just a unifying theme of a single potential future world-history.

[Surlethe]

I like the idea of a peak oil vignette series. They're a handy way to illustrate plot outlines without having to develop characters and go into specifics.

I also like the execution in this first vignette, although the info dumps are a little obvious. And if I might be a little vain, I'd like an appearance, too.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I like the idea of a peak oil vignette series. They're a handy way to illustrate plot outlines without having to develop characters and go into specifics.

I also like the execution in this first vignette, although the info dumps are a little obvious. And if I might be a little vain, I'd like an appearance, too.

I've already got two requests--your's is number three and ALL will be met. And yeah, intros of mine tend to get a little infodumpy.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Very nice. I've always loved vignette collections, and this makes an interesting, well, counter-point is not the word, but interesting comparison-thingy to Surlethe's stories.

And as a self-obsessed teenager, I do wish to have a little part in any upcoming stories. Saskatchewan uber alles, or something!

[The Grim Squeaker]

Looks interesting and a bit more optimistically readable than its nemesis (Sorry Surl ).

And is there any place there for a 58 year old Jewish capitalist/Academician? (Assuming I wasn't myched in the first wall street riots )

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Looks interesting and a bit more optimistically readable than its nemesis (Sorry Surl :P).

And is there any place there for a 58 year old Jewish capitalist/Academician? (Assuming I wasn't myched in the first wall street riots ;))

Possibly. The current Federal Government is a combination of the Canadian Liberals and NPD and the Bloc, with the US Democratic party and the Socialist Fourth Internationale. The actual collapse of economic growth and the poor getting poorer in real terms (rather than relative ones) along with the essential end of the suburbs, the functional capitalist system, and the death of the American Dream gave neo-Marxism a huge boost in the government, though it is by no means a bolshevik dictatorship yet.

The Free States' Union is very heterodox--some states in the Bible Belt are actual theocracies with goverments similar to that of modern day Iran, while others are reasonably decent. It was their loose organization as a Confederation which allowed the FedGov to survive.

The situation with the FedGov is that basically the army and government and society were like a mix of those found in Kerenskyite Russia of 1917 - 1918 and then in early communist Russia where all sorts of things were experimented with. At the same time that centralized command-economics were implemented a considerable legalization and legitimization of alternative beliefs and practices in society were permitted, and their army was initially communalized with elected officers and no formal ranks. This changed rapidly as the small core of the old American Army in the Free States' Union tore through the FedGov troops--we're talking casualty rates like those of the USSR in WW2. The old discipline was reinstituted and anyone who failed was shot. By such brutally darwinian practices the most competent--regardless of background--rose rapidly to the top in an army which was essentially a new force and lacked the bureaucracy of the original Federal Army. During this period the Free States' could have won, but the states controlled their National Guards to much and wouldn't let them participate in offensives, and the Minnesota National Guard had seized the Dakota missile fields, which combined with the Navy staying loyal to the FedGov meant they have a preponderence of nuclear weapons. They have been used very sparingly because nobody wants to contaminate any farmland--sparingly inside the USA. I'll reveal more of the broader situation later.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Preferred names for your characters and your current locations in the world, so that I can accurately portray what's happening to a person like you in that location at the time I choose?

Not everyone is fighting, after all. Many people are also working in factories, being worked to death in gulag-mines and factories, farming, being used in labour battalions which are being worked to death to help farming, or, in some areas, being put in KZ Camps for extermination based on their particular beliefs. Some people still even have normal civilian service jobs, and plenty work for the government. More simply scavenge to live on the fringes. Proportions, of course, vary.

[Redleader34]

How does the electrifed rail tracks of New York and the nearby region go? Are the subways functional, albeit rebuilds of 50+ year old technology?

[Sea Skimmer]

I don’t suppose I can command USS Olympia, after she is refitted at the ex Philadelphia Naval Yard with coal burning boilers, and new turrets mounting 8in howitzer barrels salvaged out of some scrapyard? Or that might just be too absurd?

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

{Redacted}

[The Duchess of Zeon]

How does the electrifed rail tracks of New York and the nearby region go? Are the subways functional, albeit rebuilds of 50+ year old technology?

For the most part. Military traffic of course has priority, and so there are some pretty abominable improvisations going on. Electrification is proceeding apace, with massed labour gangs putting up cantenary and plenty of wire available. Another important mode of transportation are however canal systems, with a lot of abandoned ones being put back into use, and more being built (using hand tools and thousands of forced labour battalions).

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I don’t suppose I can command USS Olympia, after she is refitted at the ex Philadelphia Naval Yard with coal burning boilers, and new turrets mounting 8in howitzer barrels salvaged out of some scrapyard? Or that might just be too absurd?

Hewing to the loyalist line? We'll fix you up a flat-bottomed fire support monitor in Chesapeake Bay.

[Alferd Packer]

Well, around this time, I guess I'd be, oh, sixty-five or so. I plan on staying close to New York my entire life, so that's where I'll be. We already have an electrified commuter rail that movies upwards of 800,000 people a day, to say nothing of ferries, buses, light rail, etc.

And Alferd Packer will be fine. It's not my real name, but it's good enough.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Well, around this time, I guess I'd be, oh, sixty-five or so. I plan on staying close to New York my entire life, so that's where I'll be. We already have an electrified commuter rail that movies upwards of 800,000 people a day, to say nothing of ferries, buses, light rail, etc.

And Alferd Packer will be fine. It's not my real name, but it's good enough.

I'll be arbitrarily setting ages for thematic purposes.

[Sea Skimmer]

Hewing to the loyalist line? We'll fix you up a flat-bottomed fire support monitor in Chesapeake Bay.

Only if it meant commanding Olympia, otherwise I'd say I’d defect to the rebels very early in the war, and oversee the some kind of cornfield-casemate ram construction operation. I'd expect such a ship armored with steel and concrete could be rather effective once stocks of modern ammuntion are expended. That in turn would take only months.

[Xess]

I like it so far, very good. I'd love a part in this. You could use my first name ,Andrew, for the character and I'm studying physics going for either nuclear physics or engineering. I figure I'd be sent wherever the government needs someone with those skills.

EDIT: I also currently live in Manitoba and I would be a loyalist, but I also see myself in either BC or Ontario

[Ford Prefect]

Because I recently wrote something which is on the same sort of theme (peak oil), I am rather interested in this. I'd also like to be in it, because my ego is more massive than Jupiter. Better still, I live in Mad Max country, and in a state (Tasmania), where a significant percentage of the population is half way to mindless barbarism already (bogans). Dylan Richards, last sane man in a place gone totally fucking insane? I'd laugh heartily.

[Redleader34]

I would not mind, Uchenna Kema, a rail engineer in the New York, hauling convoys from the coast to the Heartlands sounds nice.

[Agent Fisher]

I would like some sort of infantry officer role.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I'd be a geologist somewhere in the west, either in the Free States or more likely in and around California, possibly a veteran of Donner Pass. Resource extraction or environmental cleanup are fine by me, as is engineering/construction. As for a name, most folks call me Chewie or Grizzly, though my name is Peter.

[Master of Cards]

Could I be in it?
Thomas Lang I'm a Good old Missouri Boy so like a consript from Missouri or something would be prfect failing anything

[The Grim Squeaker]

Preferred names for your characters and your current locations in the world, so that I can accurately portray what's happening to a person like you in that location at the time I choose?

A modified version of my real name would be "Dan Gattegno".
Feel free to put me in London, England, Cambridge, England, Canada or Israel, wherever your sadistic heart deems it most amusing . (Some sort of civilian role, probably in service to the government such as future trends prediction, national defense or forcibly re-enlisted officer should be realistic enough ). Thanks .

[Coalition]

Very nice beginning, showing what might happen when the oil starts to run out. Of course, once the gold from the temple runs out, they better have the electrification started.

I don’t suppose I can command USS Olympia, after she is refitted at the ex Philadelphia Naval Yard with coal burning boilers, and new turrets mounting 8in howitzer barrels salvaged out of some scrapyard? Or that might just be too absurd?

I am sure they will name a missile after you.

[Duckie]

Put me in if you like, Florida, named Amy.... ah, fake last name- Young, translator/linguist/interpretor if possible (I suppose I can be translating for native mexicans/cubans if I haven't fled Florida? By 2050, if white folk are to believed, we'll be drowning in them. )

And I dearly hope that Florida isn't one of those evil theocracies because I'm a quadruple threat as far as anti-fundie minorities goes.