Scorpions in a Bottle: 'For Want of a Nail' Expanded

[SpanishSpy]

France as of 1974

In 1971, French President Jean-Baptiste Tremblay signed an agreement with the Chancellor of the German Empire Reinhold Kiermaier, in which France would join Russia, the Netherlands, and Arabia with Germany into a Greater German Empire. Tremblay, a noted pro-German political figure in France, elected in 1969, was chosen by the French people to bring about peace with Germany and a possible end to the riots breaking out across the country.

After the formal accords of union with Germany were signed, a massive riot broke out in Paris near the Elysee Palace by a radical nationalist group calling themselves the 'Sons of Fanchon," named after the radical Marshal of France in the early parts of the 20th century, noted as the instigator of the Hundred Days War with the United States of Mexico. His nationalism continued to be popular among radical sectors of the French population, and had exploded in popularity after the occupation of the country by Germany after the Global War.

Riots in Paris after the new unification, calling itself the 'Greater German Empire' with Kiermaier as its first chancellor, killed ten in the initial rising. Shortly thereafter, a large mob of people, led by an insurgent nationalist by the name of Stephane Pascal stormed the French parliament building and held several legislators, many of them pro-German, hostage. Pascal said in a speech to his faithful, rapidly picked up by the French vitavision channels, that he would not release the hostages until 'this bastard union be destroyed, and the rape of our homeland be ended by the German military and government!"

The German military's forces stationed in Paris, led by General Vester Kreuse, the commander of all German military forces in France, dispatched a large armored force, including warmobiles and terramobiles, to the Parliament building to stop him. To aid him came the forces of the Parisian deployment of the French Self-Defense Force (FSDF) under General Christian Deniau with a similar force composition. Rioters loyal to Pascal threw improvised explosive devices, made out of vulcazine in a glass bottle with a flaming rag from the opening, dubbed 'Bruning's Chardonnay' during the Global War, at the coming forces, destroying both terramobiles and warmobiles, destructions of the latter causing the deaths of the troops inside, usually numbering approximately ten to twenty.

Eventually, a commando raid by the German forces succeeded in rescuing the captured legislators and killed many insurgents, including Pascal. The mob was eventually dispersed and many were arrested and put on trial in the coming months. President Tremblay decried the Sons of Fanchon and said that 'such haughty, arrogant nationalism has no place in our new state of brotherhood with Germany and the other countries of the new confederation."

Otherwise, the accession of France to the Greater German Empire was met with mostly apathy. One French citizen in Lyon, interviewed by a CNA news network, said that "I suppose that it can be troubling that we're joining with the Germans on an international scale, but we still have our internal autonomy. I don't see how it'll change much for us average people."

It did change, however, and it appeared to change for the better. Many trade restrictions were relaxed between France and the rest of the world, as French international trade would now be considered part of German international trade. Immigration between members of the Greater German Empire were liberalized, as was internal trade between member states.

However, what was immediately controversial was the German plan, in accordance with the French armed forces, to establish a German naval base in the northern French city of Calais. In 1973, the naval base, started the previous year, was completed, and German Admiral Arthur Tifft arrived to take command. British ambassador to the Greater German Empire Palmer Varnham denounced such an establishment of the naval base as 'an apparent act of hostility,' and was followed by similar statements from Prime Minister Gordon Perrow. However, neither Tifft, Tremblay, or Kiermaier refused to relent.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Channel Arms Race of 1974, Part I

With the opening of the Calais Naval base in Calais on the north coast of France by the German navy commanded by Admiral Arthur Tifft, the British press went into a panic, thinking that the Germans under Chancellor Reinhold Kiermaier were preparing for a possible invasion. The Times of London's James Parker, a noted anti-German editorialist and political commentator, wrote in an editorial entitled Reinhold's Sinister Plot, that "Germany seeks revenge for what happened during the Global War, no matter how irrational that may be. Anatolia, Persia, and Arabia all follow their lead, as does France. I don't see what they'd want from attacking us, but apparently the Chancellor does indeed want to. There is no other explanation."

German-British relations after the Global War had been tense to a point for a good deal of time, but never had they reached this level of worry in London. Prime Minister Gordon Perrow hastily held a conference with his admirals, including First Naval Lord Isidore Morris and the other admirals in the highest echelons of the Royal Navy, such as Admirals William Delaney, Archibald Allen, Owen Spellman, and Jackson Myers. The general consensus of the staff agreed that the German base at Calais was not necessarily a sign of warlike intentions from Berlin, but could be used to great effect should Germany and Britain go to war. They also cautioned that any war between Germany and Britain would be heavily in Germany's favor, as the only ally Britain had outside the UBE, the CNA, would not be able to send troops immediately to aid them should Germany attack, combined with the fact that France and the Associated Russian Republics, two of Britain's stalwart allies in the Global War, were under the Greater German Empire.

Noticeably worried by such an assessment, Perrow ordered several increases in spending on the Navy and Royal Aviation Corps (RAC), measures approved by both the Parliament in London and the general public. However, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Allan McOuat, cautioned that such exorbitant increases in spending may put large amounts of stress on the Exchequer and as such the general financial situation of the country. Perrow responded that "Britain is worth a trillion pounds and even more than that. I am willing to spend it should it be necessary to defend this nation from the Germans."

Over the course of early 1974, many new ships and airmobiles were constructed by the Royal Navy and RAC, while navy bases in Portsmouth, Brighton, and Dover were upgraded with the most advanced Remote Surveillance and Detection, or Remsurv, technology that the Pound could buy, many from companies based in the Confederation of North America (the Royal Navy considered buying from Mexican companies, but Prime Minister Perrow himself vetoed such a move, as there were already no relations between Mexico City and London at this time).

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Channel Arms Race of 1974, part II

On March 10th, 1974, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Perrow addressed a session of the House of Commons with widespread coverage by the press, with both radio and vitavision recorders present, regarding the state of the British armed forces, their role in India, and the German naval base in Calais. The latter in particular had the British public worried, and many Global War veterans had made clear their desire to prevent another war of that nature.

In his remarks, Perrow noted the "disturbing signals put out by Chancellor Kiermaier and Admiral Tifft in establishing such a base so close to Britain," going on to state that it "worries me [Perrow] and my general staff, Admiral Morris in particular, that they have decided to deploy some of the most powerful ships of the German Navy so close to British shores." Perrow continued his speech on the same theme, and how, given the situation in India, the British armed forces were not at their optimal state to defend against a theoretical invasion.

Leaving the podium to cheers from Parliament and from the press, First Naval Lord Isidore Morris stepped up to the podium and began his address about how the Royal Navy and Royal Aviation Corps were preparing to upgrade the aforementioned bodies with the most sophisticated technology available, including Remsurv and, more controversially, calculator technology for the aim of producing guided missiles to be used against a theoretical German invasion. Most controversially of all, however, was the decision by the Royal Navy to consult Kramer Associates about a partnership to develop such weapons.

True to his words in his address to Parliament, Admiral Morris met with Carl Salazar, President of Kramer Associates, and the three scientists responsible for Kramer Associates' dominance in IPAM and calculator technology: Samuel Herring, considered the father of electronic calculation, Chester Findlay, the inventor of the Cathode Ray Calculator (CRC), and Charles Hodder, considered the father of modern ballistics, in Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The exact details of the meeting are hard to discern given the secrecy of the terms, but after the meeting Salazar announced to the press that the Royal Navy and Kramer Associates would be collaborating on the development of calculator-guided missiles. IPAM technology was already guided by calculator, but tactical, rather than strategic, weapons were a problem that Kramer Associates had not tackled. With a backer like the Royal Navy, this seemed much more possible.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Channel Arms Race, Part III

The announcement of First Naval Lord Isidore Morris' agreement with President of Kramer Associates Carl Salazar was met with utter shock by the British Press, but the initial reaction changed to a form of sullen approval. The Manchester Tribune's Jackson Williams deemed the announcement "a tragic necessity of the current geopolitical situation, a demonstration that desperate times call for desperate measures." The British press of the time was generally opposed to Kramer Associates; acceptance of the measure was generally dependent on the political affiliations of the person in question.

The deal at Stornoway had serious implications for international politics of the day; it cemented the already nascent alliance between the United British Empire and Kramer Associates that had been building since the last century, incredibly prevalent in the Union of Australia in particular. The Prime Minister of Australia, Elmore Lewin, welcomed "Britain's agreement with the man who has defended Australia for several years," and that it would be 'beneficial for the entire United British Empire to do the same." In late March of 1974, Lewin traveled to London to meet with Prime Minister Gordon Perrow of the United Kingdom to advise him on cooperating with Kramer Associates.

In Germany, the agreement was met with utter outrage. German Minister of Defense Guntram Falk denounced such cooperation as "conspiracy against a nation that means you no harm." Chancellor Reinhold Kiermaier, in a speech to the Imperial Diet in Berlin, urged Britain to "cease all actions in a course that would bring Germany and Britain to a Second Global War." Shortly after Kiermaier's speech, the German government agreed to officially boycott Kramer Associates in all of the Empire's constituent companies, and their assets were seized by the nation in which it was located.

Governor-General of the Confederation of North America Theodore Worden also applauded Perrow's actions, as the CNA and Kramer Associates had been on good terms since the beginning of the Invasion of India. The nations of the Osaka Agreement other than Australia were in accord as well, as Kramer Associates had been a significant backer of the various nations of the Agreement (more or less controlling the member states of Taiwan and the Philippines), Japan in particular. Japanese Prime Minister Shotaro Ogino visited London shortly after the announcement and conferred with Perrow and Levin.

The reaction of the President of the United States of Mexico, John Paul Lassiter, was understandably cold. "The despots in London and Taichung even now conspire to oppress other nations of the world and start a Second Global War against Germany, bloodshed the world simply cannot afford in this day and age." Lassiter sent Mexican ambassador to Berlin Guillermo Herrera to speak with Kiermaier. It is unknown what precisely occurred with the two met, but shortly thereafter Kiermaier recalled German ambassador to London Rochus Foerstner back to Berlin.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Channel Arms Race, Part IV

The alliance between the United Kingdom, and by extension the United British Empire, and Kramer Associates, was met with panic in the German capital of Berlin once it was announced in April 1974. Chancellor Reinhold Kiermaier said in a public speech outside the Reichstag building that "this is a threat. We have done literally all we could to show we are not threatening them, but inviting them in noble cooperation into the future of Europe and the world. Perrow, I regretfully say, is now a hostile leader." This chilling statement was the precursor of a German rearmament on the northern coast of France.

The German Navy's base at Calais, led by Admiral Arthur Tifft, was put into combat readiness should there be a rocket strike coming from England. Nevertheless, nothing happened. Isidore Morris, first Naval Lord of the United Kingdom, likely knew that a war between the United British Empire and the Greater German Empire would be catastrophic and most likely perpetrated by IPAM-delivered nuclear weaponry, something certainly neither side had no vested interesting in causing. However, there was noticeable (to German scout vessels masquerading as civilian craft) construction at the various British naval bases at Dover, Hastings, and Brighton, confirming Tifft's suspicions that there was an increase in British naval activity.

Later in April, the Diet passed the Imperial Naval Expansion Act, allowing for the construction of several new ships, including the construction of two Airmobile Carriers at the port of Siebethsburg on the North Sea, among other construction in ports such as Geestendorf and Ritzebuttel on that same sea. German Chancellor of the Exchequer Engelbert Moser echoed his opposite number in London, Allan McOuat, in saying that such a form of rapid construction was a waste of money and resources that could be used to develop other parts of the Empire, such as rebuilding the still-damaged parts of France or the Associated Russian Republics, or the smaller nations such as the Netherlands or Poland who were also members of the Empire.

Kiermaier opposed Moser's objections due to an economic objection between the two. Even though they were both members of the Deutschland Party, Moser was a Democrat who remained in the cabinet from the chancellorship of August Muhlfeld due to his popularity and general competence. Kiermaier was a staunch believer in the Connor-Grahn theory of economics (a system that looked favorably on government intervention in the economy), while Muhlfeld was an advocate of the Provezano system, which favored a more permissive, "free-roaming" economy free of such intervention. In this regard, Kiermaier was similar to Mexican president John Paul Lassiter, whose economics were decidedly within the Connor-Grahn system (as have most Mexican presidents).

The German flagship at the time, the R.K.S Hamburg, was deployed to the naval base at Calais. A well-equipped battleship with the most advanced technology of the day, the Hamburg was the crown jewel of the German Navy. Its movement to Calais was meant as a signal: that Germany meant to ensure that no Second Global War would break out on its watch.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Battle of Bombay

On April 17th, 1974, the Indian Liberation Movement ordered a cell in the Indian city of Bombay to begin attacks on the city. Previously during the occupation of India, the city of Bombay had only suffered from a series of small attacks, nowhere to the extent of other cities such as Jaipur or Pondicherry which had undergone an onslaught from the ILM and were the site of some of the most brutal engagements of the war. Bombay was India's premier port on the Arabian sea and connected it economically to the Levant, such as German-ruled Arabia, Anatolia, Persia, and the various states of East Africa such as the State of the Benadir.

Of note was the German position on such matters. Chancellor Reinhold Kiermaier, despite his hostility to Britain, understood the economic importance to the well-being of Arabia and hence the Greater German Empire. The German consul in Bombay, Ruprecht Thorsten, urged the local government and military establishment to ensure that the ILM would not be able to disrupt trade between Mumbai and the Arabian ports of Aden, Muscat, and Dubai. The General in charge, Vincent Pauling of Britain, understood the diplomatic necessity of this request given the current state of affairs between Britain and Germany on the English Channel, and promised he could do whatever he could.

General Pauling, however, was much like the mostly discredited General Sullivan Wyndham and the Supreme Commander of Coalition Forces Jared Ethan in that he was stuck in Global War-era modes of thinking of war, rejecting the ideas of the firebrand novice Beauregard Stanton. The defenses of Bombay were deployed in such a manner to defend against standing armies and not insurgencies, and his attempt to stop locobombs from striking was the deployment of anti-tank weaponry throughout the city, in addition to regular terramobile and warmobile patrols both day and night.

The morning of April 17th was clear, but it was disrupted by a freightmobile rigged with explosives and destroyed the opening to Fort Wilkins, the major military base in the city. Soon thereafter, captured omnimobiles carrying ILM militants zoomed into the base and used a variety of explosives to destroy dormant terramobiles and warmobiles, as well as destroying barracks and other buildings, indiscriminately killing all personnel, both civilians and military, English and Indian. However, the target of their assault was something much more important, only realized as they got closer: the command building where General Pauling had his office.

The militants stormed the building and slaughtered the security forces, using improvised incendiary weapons and captured armaments from previous attacks on CNA and UBE forces. However, the alarms were only sounded after a good deal of guards were dead, and General Pauling was captured by the militants under their leader Kishore Harsha, who boarded him onto an omnimobile and drove out of the city limits to an unknown location outside Bombay city limits. Improvised landmines and fire from the militants from the vehicles thwarted the attempts to rescue Pauling, and they successfully escaped.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Search for General Pauling

With General Vincent Pauling's kidnapping by the Indian Liberation Movement's commander Kishore Harsha, the joint CNA-UBE coalition's leadership in Pondicherry had an emergency meeting, with the majority of the commanding officers in charge rushed to the city via railway. The kidnapping of General Pauling sent a deep shock to the general staff: if they could be kidnapped, the security of the coalition's mission in India - the destruction of the ILM and the securing of its leader, Shamba Pandya - was put into serious jeopardy.

During the morning of April 18th, 1974, the general staff was divided between two factions: traditionalists, usually veterans of the Global War and thought of warfare in the paradigms of that war, and progressives, followers of the new ideas of modern warfare put forward by Brigadier General Beauregard Stanton, who had made himself an enemy of the Coalition Supreme Commander Jared Ethan, a general now under intense press and military scrutiny for administrative incompetence, to the point that CNA Grand Council Member Austin Kingston pleaded to Governor-General Theodore Worden to remove him and replace him with Stanton, or at the very least consult with the members of the UBE to do so, offering British general Eustace Levitt as an alternative. Worden considered the offer but declined, saying that Ethan was competent enough for the operation.

General Ethan knew very clearly about the possibilities of his removal, and from there issued a speech to the generalship, Stanton and Levitt included. As an attempt to restore his dignity, veiled in the trappings of displaying the best that the Coalition could offer, Ethan said that he would personally command the force that would be sent to find Pauling and hopefully find a link to Shamba Pandya. As a deliberate affront to his opponents, Ethan stationed Stanton in Goa, a city with not much ILM activity as it had been eradicated early in the war, deliberately positioning him away from the fighting and away from General Ethan, who would be commanding forces from Mumbai and into the countryside.

General Albert Vaughn of Victoria, another traditionalist general, would assume command in the meantime. Vaughn, widely considered a partisan appointment by the Victorian government in Rutledge, was similarly derided by the progressive generals as Ethan was; Stanton had said that "General Vaughn was only appointed because of giving exorbitant amounts of money to the previous election campaign to the governing party; he is just like General Ethan and the other fools in charge."

 

[SpanishSpy]

General Ethan and the Battle of Silvassa

On May 1st, 1974, General Jared Ethan took his forces from Pondicherry to Bombay, and began an intelligence sweep, combined with aerial reconnaissance from an airbase in that city, equipped with the latest in Remsurv technology, a purchase from Kramer Associates, to find any potential location of the kidnapped General Vincent Pauling. Patrols were displayed on the major roads and railroads into the city and its metropolitan area, and random interrogations were in play to ensure the detection of any possible lead.

Such a random interrogation occurred to Veda Kaur, a woman from Silvassa fleeing the town, a small one to the south of Bombay, and stated to the CNA and UBE authorities that the ILM had taken control of the town and seemed to be moving to fortify the settlement against attack. A consultation with local authorities revealed that Kishore Harsha had fled in the direction of Silvassa, and from there Ethan concluded that it was likely that General Pauling was being held there. Ethan marshaled his forces from Bombay and began the southward movement in hopes of taking the city without too much fighting.

Five miles from the town, Ethan ordered a leaflet drop via aircraft bearing leaflets that asked for the release of General Pauling without fighting. This continued for three hours until the CNA force was met with a welcoming in the form of several locobombs detonating themselves in troop concentrations, after which General Ethan ordered the shelling of Silvassa with artillery guns deployed in their encampment to hopefully force them out. There was the sounds of death and destruction during this shelling, but there was no surrender.

Ethan then ordered aircraft with loudspeakers to fly over the town and announce that worse weapons would be employed should they not surrender General Pauling to General Ethan and his forces. The only response they received was the deployment of yet another locobomb masquerading as a vehicle containing envoys responsible for negotiating a peace. After such a snub, where ten CNA soldiers lost their lives, General Ethan ordered the usage of Sticky Vulcazine, or Stickzine, via airmobile, a decision that would color his reputation for a lifetime.

Stickzine was developed during the Global War as an alternative to standard vulcazine-based products to build large amounts of fire in a short amount of time while expending less of precious British fuel reserves. Stickszine was used in flamethrowers first deployed in Indonesia by Australian forces, and then subsequently used by the airmobiles that undertood the firebombing of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, as well as other cities during the war. Similar formulae were developed independently by the Mexicans, Germans, and Kramer Associates, and subsequently used in all fronts in the war, such as the firebombing of various Japanese cities such as Natori, Kagoshima, and Yokohama. This usage of a new, devastating weapon led to British Prime Minister during the war George Bolingbroke dubbing the war "the first war when man met the devil in person."

Thusly, General Ethan's decision to use stickzine on Silvassa was one based in the Global War-era doctrine that he espoused, a doctrine that cared little for the lives of civilians (something that stood in stark contrast to the attentive, progressive doctrine espoused by those like Beauregard Stanton and Eustace Levitt). Innocent civilians and ILM militants alike began to flee the burning settlement, and CNA forces, using both warmobiles and gyromobiles, attempted to catch any escapees. Several were caught, but neither General Pauling nor Kishore Harsha were among them.

The firebombing of Silvassa was a public relations fiasco for General Ethan and the coalition in general, leading to protests both in India and across the world. Mexican President John Paul Lassiter denounced the firebombing as "bloodlust that is the hallmark of British imperialism," and German Chancellor Reinhold Kiermaier dubbed it "butchery." Most damning of all, however, was an issue of the ILM's official newspaper, the Narasimha, whose front page cover had a picture of Shamba Pandya posing with a bound and gagged General Pauling.

 

[SpanishSpy]

Domestic and International Reaction to the Firebombing of Silvassa

Reactions to the firebombing of the Indian settlement of Silvassa by General Jared Ethan of the Confederation of North America's expeditionary force into India was met with a flurry of denouncement both among domestic groups in coalition countries and among the international community. Ethan was called a war criminal and a butcher, with the occasional comparison to purveyors of misery such as Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun were made on public media outlets.

Domestically (used herein to refer to the Confederation of North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, Victoria, and India), the attack was met with massive protests, often led and organized by university students. In the Confederation of North America, these students often had backing in the form of the Peace and Justice Party, now led by Timothy Hamilton of Amersham, Northern Vandalia, after their former leader, James Volk's, arrest and conviction of inciting violence during the Michigan City riots of 1971. Additionally, the Liberal Party, incensed at their current lack of representation in the Grand Council by the Imperativist faction of the People's Coalition, supported the rallies, and party secretary Preston Curnow spoke out against "Imperativist dictatorship befitting of an Hermion."

These protests, in New York, Burgoyne, Norfolk, Michigan City, and many other cities were met with deployments of the CNA army that remained behind, and were supervised by the Confederation Bureau of Investigation under the command of General Ernest O'Donnell, the general who had led CNA military forces during the Michigan City riots. Fortunately, there was no outbreak of violence at any of these demonstrations, and the crowds were able to leave peacefully and without much change being made in either direction. Similar demonstrations, with similar results, happened in major cities throughout the United British Empire.

However, the generalship of the Coalition forces in India were beyond incensed with the utter ineptitude of their commanding officer, and pleaded to the governments participating in the occupation to remove him and appoint a new officer in his place. Governor-General Theodore Worden of the CNA, Prime Minister Gordon Perrow of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Elmore Lewin of Australia, Prime Minister of Victoria Faraji Samoei, and Prime Minister of India Devan Mahajan met in New Inverness, Australia, to discuss such a possibility. They agreed to remove Ethan, and decided on Eustace Levitt, a progressive general who supported the tactical and strategic doctrine of Lieutenant General Beauregard Stanton.

General Ethan was recalled to the CNA, where he was put on trial in a military court. Ethan was known to be a favorite of the Governor-General, and as such the judge in charge of proceedings, Jeremiah Tolman, found Ethan innocent of all wrongdoing, maintaining that Ethan's conduct at Silvassa was "justified in the name of finding General Pauling." Ethan was subsequently placed at Fort Chauncey in Pocklington, Southern Vandalia, a major CNA military base on the Mexican border. Critics indicated that Worden's intentions were to start a war with Mexico with General Ethan as his commanding general, something both Ethan and Worden consistently denied.

The international community was likewise hostile to General Ethan and his actions. A resolution by the Global Association for Peace, meeting in Port Babineaux, United Townships of Ghana, formally condemned Ethan's actions. Kulap Sunan Metharom, the Director-General of the GAP, called for the member nations of the organization to withdraw their ambassadors in Burgoyne, London, Canberra, and Rutledge, and expel the ambassadors from Coalition countries from their capitals, something which many GAP member states in Africa and Asia obliged. Additionally, the Global Trade Agency (GTA), the premier enforcer of the Global Trade Liberalization Agreement (GTLA), called for sanctions on goods produced in Coalition countries, something that many of these nations adhered to.

In a speech in Jackson Square in Mexico City, Mexican President John Paul Lassiter decried what he viewed as "utter depravity in our northern and eastern neighbor," and condemned the usage of stickzine on innocent civilians. Lassiter went on further to denounce the redeployment of General Ethan to Fort Chauncey in Pocklington. He echoed the sentiments of sectors of the public that the Confederation seemed to be on a war footing, a sentiment that was widely popular in Mexican society.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Yadong Incident

The border between India and the Republic of Tibet during the Invasion were heavily guarded by the Indian armed forces, most of which were not being used to directly fight the Indian Liberation Movement or associated groups acting throughout the country. The Republic of Tibet was seen among the commandership of the invasion forces, Generals Ethan and Levitt included, as a possible hostile state for political reasons and henceforth must be watched quite attentively.

The Republic of Tibet, with its capital in Lhasa, was formed in the chaos that ripped apart the Chinese Empire in the years after the Global War, and coexisted among other states in the same area. The leaders of the Republic were usually pacifist and opposed to the empires that ruled the world that they knew, especially the British Empire due to its long subjugation of the region economically. Naturally, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Republic familiarized itself with the Mexican government in Mexico City. Tibetan President Sherap Gephel closely aligned himself with Mexican President Vincent Mercator and his successors. Coming to power in 1955, Gephel continued to rule the country into the 1970s, befriending John Paul Lassiter and having Tibet join the Global Association for Peace.

Tibet under Gephel was an ardent opponent of Kramer Associates, who had tried to install a friendly government in the country during the early 1950s. However, the Tibetan Civil War ended in a victory for the anti-Kramer forces. In alliance with other anti-Kramer states such as the state of Sichuan, the State of Turkestan, and the Protectorate of Hunan, Tibet was able to stem Kramer influence and establish a hostile policy to the major European powers.

This hostility was worrisome to the Indian government that worked with Britain and North America, among other nations. The major transit point for Indian and Tibetan goods entering one country and leaving the other was the town of Yadong, in southern Tibet near the Indian province of Sikkim. This town became of incredible controversy on May 12th, 1974, when a shipment of arms was intercepted by Indian customs authorities with a note proclaiming sympathy with Shamba Pandya and the Indian Liberation Movement. From an unknown source, the note proclaimed a desire for a fully independent India free of British control - and a member of the Global Association for Peace.

Such a note sent a firestorm in the capitals of the United British Empire as well in Burgoyne. Tibet had withdrawn its ambassador from the Imperial capitals in reaction to the firebombing of Silvassa, and this note only made relations between the two entities only more sour. In response, many pro-Kramer states in Asia, including the entirety of the Osaka Agreement, withdrew their ambassadors from Lhasa. Likewise, the GAP member states in Asia withdrew their ambassadors from the Osaka Agreement nations, utterly polarizing the continent.

The Indian government in Delhi under Prime Minister Devan Mahajan ordered the increased fortification of the Tibetan border and the complete cessation of transport and trade between India and Tibet. This effective closing of the border caused an uproar in the countries of Asia and caused dire forecasts to be made among political circles for the fate of the continent. Some posited a general Asian war; others believed that the conflict would blossom into the Second Global War.

 

[SpanishSpy]

John Paul Lassiter's Asian Tour

With the firebombing of Silvassa by CNA forces, the CNA and UBE, the constituents of the Coalition force in India, were increasingly appearing as something approaching pariahs by the myriad of poorer nations of the world, especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. John Paul Lassiter, an ardent opponent of the Invasion of India from the start, saw an opportunity to curry favor with Asian leaders that had joined the GAP during the Port Babineaux conference or shortly thereafter. This was an ideal time to gain allies for his cause against imperialism, he figured, and in May 1974 went on a tour of the Asian countries whose interests aligned with those of Mexico City.

In a speech in San Francisco, the site of Mortimer International Airport (name for a mayor of the city during the early United States), Lassiter announced the necessity of "the expansion of Mexican political interests in Asia to combat worldwide imperialism." From that airport, he would fly to Changsha, capital of the Protectorate of Hunan, where he would meet with the leaders of Hunan and Sichuan, both GAP member states and thusly in the Mexican Bloc. From there, he went to Lhasa and met with Sherap Gephel, Tibetan President, and discussed Tibetan border problems with India. He visited Turkestan and discussed security and terrorism with Turkestani leadership.

From the Turkestani capital of Urumqi, Lassiter flew to Bangkok, Siam, and met with leaders of Siam and Kampuchea, including the director-general of the Global Association for Peace, Kulap Sunan Metharom, a former prime minister and close associate of Lassiter on the international stage. The topic of Kramer Associates' interference in the area was discussed quite fervently. After the summit in Bangkok, Lassiter went to the capital of Mahapajit, Jayakarta, to meet with government officials from Mahapajit, Sulawesi, and Papua regarding similar topics. There, officials from these countries asked of Lassiter for a new agreement of economic and political alignment between Mexico and themselves, and possibly extended to the majority of the GAP states in Asia.

As Lassiter returned to Mexico City via plane in late May, he thought hard about the possibility, and on arrival met with his Secretary of State Raymond Portillo about a possible agreement with the Asian states. Portillo weighed in that the United States could benefit from having Asian allies, especially should war with the CNA break out; it would be beneficial to Mexico to be able to divert CNA resources from a theoretical invasion of Mexico to India or other parts of the British Empire. Lassiter agreed, and through Representative Hernando Flores of Durango proposed a bill in the Mexican Congress to begin the investigation of such a possibility via the consultation of the Asian states. After a week of debate, it passed both houses in early June.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Jayakarta Agreement and the formation of the Pacific Joint Defense Pact

After the Mexican Congress' approval of the initiative proposed by President John Paul Lassiter's chosen representative, Hernando Flores, the Mexican government began reaching out to the various states of East Asia that were friendly to Mexican interests and united in their opposition to the influence of Kramer Associates, based jointly in the Philippines and Taiwan. The bill was not passed without opposition; Senator Chester Marquez y Taylor of Chiapas led a minority of Senators in voting against the bill, saying that he did not want to see "young sons of Mexico to go fight in foreign wars, dying in India or China. The last time we fought in a foreign war was a disaster, and we did not win. Why would the President, a veteran of that war, decide to open the door to more interventions? I simply don't understand!" Nevertheless, Marquez y Taylor's faction was defeated in a landslide by the Mexican Senate, not long after the House of Representatives did the same.

Thusly, Secretary of State Raymond Portillo began his Asian tour to meet with the leaders of Sichuan, Hunan, Tibet, Turkestan, Siam, Kampuchea, Mahajapit, Sulawesi, and Papua. Shortly thereafter, they met in the Mahapajit capital city of Jayakarta and signed the Jayakarta Agreement, forming a defensive link between Mexico and the various nations of the GAP in the area. Also in attendance were delegates from Guatemala, Quito, Peru, and Santiago, Latin American nations friendly to the Mexicans that were interested in such an agreement. The Pacific Joint Defense Pact was thereby signed by all of those nations, hoping to 'promote peace against the Imperialist nations of the world."

The international reaction saw the PJDP for what it was; a counter to the Osaka Agreement, signed between Japan, Australia, and a variety of Kramer Associates-affiliated states signed two years previously. The countries of the Osaka Agreement were often aligned with the Confederation of North America and the United British Empire, and sold them large amounts of armaments and other supplies that were used in the invasion of India and its subsequent occupation.

Of significant worry was China; now, the various countries that had formed from the collapse of the Chinese Empire after the Global War had now aligned formally into two blocs. The Protectorate of Hunan and the Republic of Jiangsu were still technically at war; both the United States of Mexico and Kramer Associates justified a lack of intervention due to various means, mainly concerning that there never was a declared war to begin with. The truth was that their leaders were simply warlords, nothing more; they were pawns of the men in Mexico City and Taichung. However, they were quite useful pawns, and those that these men would be more than willing to use to their advantage. Should war break out in Asia, they would have ample allies with which to fight.

 

[SpanishSpy]

A Short Biography of Raymond Portillo

Raymond Portillo was born in Merida, Chiapas, to Herman and Sofia Portillo, a mixed family that was descended from Anglo settlers from Jefferson who had tried to make a profit in the agricultural sector, who intermarried with the locals, giving him his surname of 'Portillo.' Portillo was born into a middle-class family in 1923, and joined the Mexican army during the Global War, and fought in the aborted invasion of Australia. A minor war hero of the Battle of Midlothian, the last major Mexican victory during the invasion, Portillo returned to the United States and became disillusioned with the Silva administration and joined the Mercatorist movement, later fighting in the United States proper and fought against the various rebels that plagued the country in the 1950s.

Portillo became governor of Chiapas in 1965, during the election announced by President Mercator. Portillo, an associate of Raphael Dominguez, was later promoted to the position of Secretary of State of the United States of Mexico after being one of John Paul Lassiter's most ardent supporters in the elections of 1971. Portillo, as a supporter of Lassiter, became Lassiter's choice for Secretary of State mainly because, if he were to die, a reliable Progressive who was competent at administration, unlike the notably inept Raphael Dominguez.

Portillo quickly made himself an enemy of Julio Recinos, due to his secularism. Recinos, a devout Catholic and fellow Chiapan, felt that Mexico was a Christian nation and should not have those who were of insufficient religiosity should gain any high office of the USM, a popular belief in rural areas of the country, mainly those who objected to the modernizing programs of the Mercator administration, but supported their egalitarian programs in terms of income distribution and inheritance taxes, something that helped break the power of the elites. Portillo had been a leader of Progressive forces who fought against the Causa de Justicia in Chiapas, and became a polarizing figure in the state. Recinos did support the Mercatorist regime, but did still sympathize with the merge of religion and politics that many Chiapans supported. Hence, he saw Portillo as insufficiently in tune with the Catholic origins of the country, and tried to dissuade President Lassiter to not appoint him to the position of Secretary of State.

Portillo proved to be an adept Secretary of State, negotiating the foundation of the Greater American Free Trade Agreement, Global Association of Peace, and later the Pacific Joint Defense Pact with many East Asian nations opposed to Kramer Associates. Portillo did not meet with any ambassadors of the United British Empire, the Confederation of North America, or with any Kramer Associates-affiliated states. This reflected Portillo's beliefs as well as the policy of the Lassiter administration regarding these countries, which contributed to the rampant polarization of the world. Portillo would later have to turn his attention to another section of the world, not affected by the polarization elsewhere to a degree: Europe.

 

[SpanishSpy]

Portillo's European Tour

After the summit in Jayakarta that formed the Pacific Joint Defense Pact, John Paul Lassiter realized that his interests were being threatened in Asia and in the Americas by the power of the United British Empire, and not solely the Confederation of North America. From this standpoint, Lassiter realized that he would have to set his country on a new foreign policy agenda to counteract the possibility of Mexico becoming an international pariah. This would require the changing of rhetoric, but that was secondary to the survival of the Mexican nation as he knew it. The answer would be to begin an alliance with the Greater German Empire, led by its Chancellor Reinhold Kiermaier.

Germany and Mexico had been allies of convenience during the Global War, but still many Mexicans thought of the country as an imperialistic on eon the level of Britain. Germany had colonies in Africa which were freed during the 1950s and 1960s and left in near-anarchy, countries which were repaired by Mason Doctrine aid from the CNA as well as humanitarian aid from the Mercatorist regime in Mexico. Lassiter himself had denounced Germany and the de facto annexation of France, Russia, Poland, the Netherlands, and Arabia into the new empire, reflecting Mexican popular opinion.

However, the current arms race on the English Channel between the United Kingdom and Germany seemed to put the former on edge. War seemed to be likely to many in Europe. Despite this, if Mexico were to go to war with the British before a conflict with Germany began, the full brunt of the Empire would be squarely on Mexico's shoulders. Lassiter knew that such a possibility was not in the interests of Mexico, and hence sent his Secretary of State Raymond Portillo to Berlin to discuss the possibility of some sort of affiliation between the two countries.

Portillo met with Kiermaier in his office in Berlin, and by all accounts they seemed to get along splendidly. They conducted the meeting in English, as that was a world language as well as being an official language in Mexico, and hence could understand each other. They agreed that the actions taken by Britain, and especially Kramer Associates, were against common international decency. Portillo attempted to persuade Kiermaier to join in some sort of alliance with Mexico against the UBE and CNA. Portillo argued that the combined industrial and military strength of the two nations would have the effect of being at least an even match with the enemy, something Kiermaier accepted; an increase in military power was one of the key reasons that he incorporated the occupied territory into a Greater German Empire in the first place.

After Portillo left, Kiermaier proposed a radical possibility to the Imperial Diet regarding relations with Mexico. The Deutschland Party supported this possibility for the most part, and a small but eager amount of the Democratic Party threw its weight with the proposal in contradiction with the established party line. The resolution passed, and German foreign minister Thorben Denzel was sent to Port Babineaux, United Townships of Ghana, to begin the process of accession to the Global Association for Peace.

 

[SpanishSpy]

General Wyndham takes command of the Search for Pauling

After the utter fiasco at Silvassa, General Jared Ethan was removed from his command in India and replaced by General Sullivan Wyndham by Governor-General Theodore Worden of the Confederation of North America. This choice was quickly seen to be of a political nature; Wyndham, like Ethan, was a loyal member of the Imperativist sect of the People's Coalition, the bloc that Worden led and used to run the country. Wyndham was Ethan's second in command and was the logical choice had there not been the equally shameful occurrence at the Battle of Jaipur. However, dismissing the advice of other governments and their generals, Worden still chose Wyndham.

This was to the consternation of General Eustace Levitt, who despised Wyndham and Ethan, and now Worden. Levitt, British by birth and allegiance, was one of the 'progressive' generals, backing the teachings of the CNA's Brigadier General Beauregard Stanton. Levitt, Stanton, and a few other generals threatened to resign their commissions, but pleas from Burgoyne, London, Canberra, Rutledge, and Delhi all dissuaded them from doing so in the meantime. General Wyndham, therefore, would be the commander of all coalition forces in India and thusly took command of the search for Pauling personally.


Shortly after Wyndham assumed command, intelligence from the various agencies of the coalition, spearheaded by the Confederation Bureau of Investigation led by General Ernest O'Donnell, discovered a meeting of several ILM leaders, Shamba Pandya included, that would be held in Ahmedabad, in the Gujarat area of India. Seeing a golden chance, Wyndham announced to the generalship that he would be leading a force to investigate Ahmedabad, then with little ILM activity and hence not a main focus of the Coalition armed forces. On May 30th, 1974, Wyndham took a large occupation force to Ahmedabad to take control of the city and find the ILM leaders who may possibly have Pauling.


When Wyndham's forces arrived, they were received by the locals as less than pleasant. Wyndham had very little skill in disciplining his forces, and the reputation he had from the Jaipur campaign only exacerbated such dislike. His troops had very little knowledge of Indian culture and thusly were often quite rude to the civilians of the city. They were, in the words of a civilian interviewed by a British vitavision network, "barbarians and savages who want only our food and our women." This statement would become famous due to how prophetic it would be.


In a crowded public square of the city on June 2nd, this distaste would turn to violence and death. In this square, a private in the CNA army made multiple sexual advances to an adolescent girl on her way to market, and followed her, making jeers and other lewd comments towards her. Eventually, she ran away screaming for help, and the crowd around her began to guard her from the soldier. This soldier made the mistake of physically assaulting one of the members of the crowd, after which the mob descended upon him, forcing him to flee towards the base.


Without being able to explain his story, he called for help on his portable radio transmitter, standard issue for all coalition forces. Claiming they were ILM insurgents, General Wyndham authorized a deployment of infantry, warmobiles, and terramobiles to help him. When they arrived, the mob had grown. One of the members of the crowd brandished a gun and shot at the CNA deployment, after which they opened fire into the crowd.

The Ahmedabad Massacre, as it would come to be known, became an absolute disaster in the press once the details became clear. The soldier, whose identity was never revealed, was eventually court martialed and later summarily executed for his lies. Nevertheless, ILM membership skyrocketed, and many more attacks were conducted in Ahmedabad and other major cities in India. To rub salt in the open wound, the ILM, in its newspaper, said that the Ahmedabad meeting never happened and was a ruse; the real meeting was elsewhere.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The recalling of Wyndham and the promotion of Levitt

After his completely dishonorable conduct, General Sullivan Wyndham was removed by the heads of state of all the nations of the United British Empire and the Confederation of North America as the commander of the coalition forces in India. Thereafter, the various generals in India were to decide among a proposed leader for the entire operation. Many generals, such as Charles Keating, Geoffrey Chandler, and George Godfrey, backed the British general Eustace Levitt, who was widely considered to be a 'progressive' general, supporting new doctrine and the reorganization of military forces to better combat an insurgent force, mostly propagated by the young yet promising Brigadier General Beauregard Stanton.

Opposed to Levitt was a dwindling faction of conservative generals led by the Australian general Jacob Barnsley, who supported a similar strategic outlook to that of Generals Ethan and Wyndham. However, many of the supporters of those generals had defected to the progressive faction of the generalship, their sentiments expressed by the North American general Conroy Giroux, who stated that "the current doctrine is not working and is being propagated by the mass murderers Wyndham and Ethan, and it is obvious, to get out of this war with any semblance of dignity intact to both the international community and our own populations, we must discard it and start anew."

A vote of the generalship in Pondicherry resulted in the agreement that General Levitt was to take command of the operation, and such a recommendation was sent to the Ministries of Defense in Burgoyne, London, Canberra, Rutledge, and Calcutta, and was subsequently confirmed by all of said ministries. In a speech to massed reporters in Calcutta, Levitt said that "it is time to give India the fight for freedom it deserves and so desperately needs, a removal of the cancer that is the ILM, the liberation of General Pauling, and the capture of the terrorist Shamba Pandya. India is a great nation and should have much better than the blatant incompetence of Ethan and Wyndham."

General Wyndham, like General Ethan before him, was an Imperativist-leaning general with connections to that sect of the People's Coalition. His family had donated large amounts of money to Peter Sykes, the head of Worden's campaign, and to Imperativist candidates nationwide in the elections of 1972. Governor-General Worden met with Wyndham in Burgoyne, in which the latter scolded the former over his conduct but understood the General's devotion and contribution. As consolation to the General (and to massive protest), Wyndham was put in command of a military deployment based out of Nortonsville, Northern Vandalia, in the Rocky Mountains near the Mexican border.

 

[SpanishSpy]

Levitt, Stanton, and the Search for Pauling

As Eustace Levitt assumed control of the search for General Pauling, the coalition of the United British Empire and the Confederation of North America was worried that their efforts may be in vain. Australian Prime Minister Elmore Lewin made a plea to the leadership in a visit to Pondicherry to "save the good general Pauling, that son of Australia and a warrior for liberty." Lewin's sentiments echoed those of most of the anglosphere, and a demonstration in Canberra echoed such a belief.

General Levitt wasted no time in confirming his favor to Brigadier General Beauregard Stanton's progressive doctrine, and indeed appointed him to a de facto second-in-command status. Under Stanton and Levitt, the entire force was reorganized into what was now a completely novel approach to the conduct of war, something the world had never seen. Under this new system, the Stantonian system, the forces under Coalition command would be reorganized into several operating groups in which support and direct assault forces would be put under the same command. Effectively, the entire system would have to be overhauled, and the Generalship would have to learn an untested new method of command, which could either be dangerous or rewarding.

Stanton understood the necessity of the relationship between the civilian population and the military leadership, damaged by the criminal conduct of Jared Ethan and Sullivan Wyndham, both of whom were now sent back to the CNA to face justice or lack thereof. Levitt's first act as commanding general after the reorganization of coalition forces was to establish the Imperial Public Relations Bureau (IPRB), which was tasked with taking questions from the Indian media and publishing a general-consumption newspaper, the Imperial Indian, in an attempt to persuade the general public to their cause. Additionally, Levitt and Stanton both personally visited Silvassa and Ahmedabad as a formal apology to the residents of those settlements, and asked for (and procured) funds from the CNA, British, and Australian governments to fund relief and reconstruction efforts.

Another one of Stanton's proposals was the usage of the infrastructure of the North American Confederation Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the British Imperial Intelligence Directorate (IID), the Australian Strategic Intelligence Bureau (SIB), the Victorian Intelligence and Security Agency (ISA), and the Indian Bureau of National Security (BNS) to be used on a previously untapped scale: the monitoring of all telephone calls in India in an attempt to root out ILM supporters and bring them to what was deemed justice. Indian Prime Minister Shalya Grewal was 'hesitant' to do such a thing, questioning the necessity of doing so, and warning that it could lead to a 'security state.'

Such a resolution was proposed to the Indian parliament in Calcutta, and was subsequently passed with a slim majority. Purushottomar Kaur, the MP that proposed the bill, stated on the floor of the hall that "such was of the utmost necessity to fight the forces of the ILM and of related radicalism in this country. I stand with the Coalition. I stand with India. In passing this law, I stand for truth and justice." Subsequently, director of the BNS Geevarghese Mhasalkar met with the executives of the leading Indian telecommunications companies and secured an agreement in which they would give call records to the BNS, to be analyzed by Coalition specialists.

 

[The Uchronian]

All good stuff so far, SpanishSpy. Hopefully things don't get too much bloodier in India.....

 

[SpanishSpy]

All good stuff so far, SpanishSpy. Hopefully things don't get too much bloodier in India.....

General Levitt and Brigadier General Stanton are much more competent than Ethan or Wyndham were. Things should improve to a degree. However, I do have something monumental planned soon.

Do you have any thoughts on other parts of the timeline?

 

[SpanishSpy]

Domestic Activities of the CBI

Brigadier General Beauregard Stanton's proposal for the monitoring of telephone calls in India as a method of countering the Indian Liberation Movement's insurgency in the country attracted immediate attention from the Confederation Bureau of Investigation's head, General Ernest O'Donnell, the man who violently dispersed the Michigan City Riots of 1973. O'Donnell, of a distinctly national security-based worldview, saw the potential to use such techniques to the CBI's advantage in combatting what he perceived as terrorist threats within the CNA.

In a special session of the Grand Council, having existed in its rump state since September of the previous year, O'Donnell proposed to the body, among it the Governor-General, that it should pass a bill, proposed by Council President Isaac Whitley, to allow the CBI to collect all telephone records in the CNA to "counter terrorism and subversion against the Confederation and its people." After some non-substantive debate, the majority of its statements praising the proposal, it was passed unanimously. Governor-General Worden said that "This is a completely non-intrusive method to defend North America from the forces of those that dare commit crimes of the scale of the August 2nd attacks on this great nations, murdering thousands."

Shortly thereafter, O'Donnell sent several high ranking members of the CBI to order the CNA's telephone companies to give them exclusive access to their telephone records, to be threatened with nationalizations should they fail to comply. Wanting their business to continue to exist, the CEOs of these companies complied unanimously and agreed to give access to national telephone records to the CBI in exchange for a compensation payment from Confederation money.

In an announcement to the press, O'Donnell said that "only suspicious figures will be monitored," but refused to define who fell under the parameter of 'suspicious,' as well as refusing to disclose who was under surveillance, giving the justification of "interests of national security" to silence the press on the issue. Nevertheless, opposition exploded against the possibility, with Peace and Justice Party leader Timothy Hamilton denouncing the new actions as "the end of democracy in North America and the establishment of a new oligarchy, to be ruled by Worden and his cronies forevermore," and subsequently began to fear that he was on the government watchlist of 'suspicious figures.' Similar remarks, albeit not as charged, came from Liberal Party leader Preston Curnow, who "had serious reservations about the current actions of the CBI."

Demonstrations were held, most affiliated with the PJP, in the nation's major cities, but such a policy was not changed at all. "These people do not know what is good for them," quipped O'Donnell in an interview. The CBI was determined to undertake such a role as the guardian of the people of the Confederation of North America, no matter what the trifles of 'civil liberties' or 'privacy' entailed. Such did not matter to them, and they were quick to label those that did not agree with them covert supporters of some neo-rebel organization (meaning having ideological foundations in the rebels of the American Rebellion in the 1770s).

Hamilton's complaints were realized as well-founded when he and several other high-ranking members of the PJP were arrested during a party meeting in Bedford, Georgia, on pretenses of "plotting a terrorist attack." The CBI refused to release details of their alleged plot, and they were to be tried in a specially created secret military court, where there would be no public access to the proceedings. Civil rights groups throughout the Confederation protested such an action, but the CBI refused. Governor-General Worden said in a press conference regarding the incident that "National Security is key in these trying times. We cannot let any hostile dissenter - which is distinctly different from a peaceful dissenter - attempt to throw a wrench into the war against the terrorist that are trying to destroy us. You are either with us, or with the ILM."