The Railroad Wars (1878-1923)
The
Railroad Wars, also known as the
Railroad Wars of 1878 to 1932, were a series of nuisance wildlife management military and police operations undertaken in the United States as attempts from the federal government to exterminate a mutant variety of emu that had become an invasive species in the state of Colorado (and also New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada at later periods) and skirmishes linked to them in various ways. The main reasons behind the failure of the military to initially exterminate the emus are believed to be the lack of troops that were sent due to the volatile economics of the Reconstruction era and the years immediately after it and the increased corruption and bribery in the federal government caused by various political machines expanding their influence across multiple states that led to a lack of funds being placed into the operations.
The emu's ability to survive in various US states was increased by their mutations that biologists and historians believe originally came from a flock that was exposed to excessive UV light, causing them and their offspring to develop cancers or other health conditions, but would cause an unknown alteration of their DNA that allowed their offspring's offspring to have a slightly increased intelligence. Most of these emus took refuge in various abandoned or sparsely used buildings and were easily exterminated, although a few decided to traverse on stock cars with doors large enough for them to pass through and escaped the task forces sent to hunt them down. The emus subsisted on (mostly) wheat, as well as other crops.
Eggs containing these emu were accidentally brought to the United States by a circus whose name has been lost.
Taking advantage of the many soldiers and police officers being forced to spend time hunting birds, train robbers and various desperado and outlaw groups struck more than ever and most of these bandits were never traced or arrested. After the task forces gave up the first of what was later nicknamed "the Railroad Wars" in 1879, many of them decided to stay together and stop the hijacking of trains and other crimes. With a little help from Pinkerton and some British private detective organizations, these units received approval from the federal government and the government of Colorado to read letters sent through trains in the state, which caused a large debate on the role of privacy in the nation.
These efforts stopped in 1881 after this led to little change and the amount of crimes in the state involving trains and small towns decreasing on its own anyway, and the task forces were disbanded in the same way after their simultaneous attempts to wipe out the emus failed.
As emus were occasionally still spotted in Colorado, the duty of many police forces in the area were simply expanded to include hunting them down. They stopped being seen in the state from 1885 to 1913, and most assumed they naturally died out, although later investigations later proved these assumptions wrong.
In 1914, emus started being seen in the state once again, along with New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada, and similar task forces were sent to exterminate them, although with greater success, given the time and advancement that had gone on since the last major attempts to do this. The task forces encountered resistance in the form of white supremacist terrorists that infiltrated various local governments and businesses to cause the task forces and other businesses to be misdirected in various ways. They did things such as plant certain crop fields near train stations that emus would possibly attempt to take shelter in, which was used by the terrorists as a failed attempt to scare passengers away, and pretend to be concerned townspeople that gave fake information about emu nest locations. Their goal was to establish what would now be called an ethnostate where African-Americans did not live, but they failed miserably, and were all arrested, although some only consented to being arrested after engaging in shootouts with the task forces and local police forces that endangered civilians they did as a way to prove their masculinity.
The terrorists had kept a reserve of emu eggs that hatched when the federal government thought it had exterminated the emu population. In 1931, a fascist organization attempted to take over Denver to create a city-state dictatorship where there was no racism, but in which they had ultimate power and would attempt to distribute propaganda that yearned for the time when votes were limited to those with what was deemed proper education. However, the emus ate a substantial portion of their foodstock, and they lost yet another shootout with police.
Finally, in 1932, a local Jewish mafia family in Las Vegas attempted to breed emus to sell their eggs, but the hatched ones escaped in the same year and the task forces, after all this time, finally exterminated the last bits of the emu population and destroyed the eggs that were left over.
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