If you're comfortable with letting me know which one it was, I can arrange for some kind of atrocity to take place there in TTL.
The Pale Horse: The Northwest Montana Insurgency and its Aftermath (1987-2002)
- Thread starter XTrapnel
- Start date
Dillon, had and still has ~5K people. Oh, and I was born in Kalispell, mentioned in the TL somewhere....
Thanks! Without spoiling anything, Dillon's not going to enjoy some of the later counter-insurgency activity, to put it lightly...
This is quite the gripping timeline. I'm not even a KR fan yet I'm thoroughly enthralled.
A Brief Catalogue of the Dead (1988)
A Brief Catalogue of the Dead
The first confused year of what would become known as the Northwest Montana Insurgency saw two hundred and eighty-three Grangelanders dead. Ten of the individual victims’ stories are set out below: taken together, they should give a sense of the sheer chaos (and, at times, black comedy) of the initial insurgency, as both sides coalesced and found their bearings.
Warren Sellers, 64 (work boss at logging collective): Sellers was approached by three men who claimed affiliation with the North-West Front and requested a no-show job at the collective for one of their number; his hands tied by bureaucracy, he was forced to refuse for the time being. He was shot a week later by an unknown assailant while loading groceries into his flatbed truck as a warning to others.
Richard Hanson, 37 (filing clerk): Hanson was stopped by a roadblock set up outside Deer Lodge by the People’s Militia. Panicking at the prospect of a routine search of his vehicle, he attempted to reverse out of the queue that had formed, and was shot by a People’s Militia patrolman when he refused to stop. A later examination found a small quantity of crystal meth in his glove compartment.
Linda Barrett, 34 (housewife): Barrett’s neighbour was believed by the People’s Militia to have insurgent connections, and a decision was made to execute a no-knock raid on him. Unfortunately, the People’s Militia team delegated this task were given the wrong address. Holding her newborn baby when the team breached her front door, Barrett was shot in the throat and killed instantly.
Herman Foster, 81 (Chief Officer): A former Montana State House representative with the Farmer-Labor Party, Foster had participated in the March on Helena in 1937 which saw Wheeler restored to power. Foster had been able to weather the following half-century of political change remarkably well, and had managed to retain a voice in local politics, being appointed chief officer of Flathead County. He was the victim of a kidnapping attempt by an insurgent cell: although they managed to extract him from his house and force him into the boot of their car without issue, during the drive to their rendezvous with higher-ups in the NWF, the frail Foster suffered a massive and ultimately fatal heart attack.
Annabeth Woodcock , 25 (waitress): Woodcock was employed at a bar frequented by off-duty People’s Militia infantrymen, and had the sheer bad luck to be on the closing shift on a day where a group of insurgents barricaded the fire exits and threw a petrol bomb into the bar. She, along with the two customers still in the bar, was overcome by smoke inhalation before emergency services could extinguish the blaze.
James Lundquist, 23 (People’s Militia patrolman): A Minneapolis native, Lundquist was temporarily seconded to a Grangeland People’s Militia unit later notorious for running drugs into the Pacific States of America on an almost industrial scale. In the second week of his placement, he was the sole casualty of a raid on an abandoned farmhouse supposedly used as a base by insurgents. Although officially a victim of friendly fire, documents declassified in 2019 suggest that he had been placed in the unit as an unofficial mole by Omaha People’s Militia Headquarters. Although two People’s Militia officers are strongly suspected of his murder, no charges whatsoever had been filed as of January 2021.
Dale Pelling, 45 (radio personality): Kalispell local Dale Pelling, suspected of supplying information to insurgents through the use of on-air coded language, was last seen exiting his radio station in the company of two People’s Militia officers in the early hours of 14 March 1988. Generally believed to have been killed in custody in the course of an interrogation, he was declared legally dead in 1995.
Sarah O’Connell, 38 (typist): O’Connell, who worked at a local government office in Missoula, “anonymously” reported two colleague as sympathisers of the insurgency. Ironically, her report was received by a North-West Front mole within the People’s Militia, who ensured that her name and address were passed onto an insurgent cell. Her body was found wrapped in a garbage bag in a Missoula dumpster two days later: an autopsy would reveal that her tongue had been removed prior to death.
Matt Haggard, 14 (high school student): Haggard disappeared in 1988 while setting up a deer stand in the woods outside Clinton: his body was never found. In 2005, a former NWF militiaman stated that Haggard had been killed by an explosive booby-trap set up to protect a NWF-run meth lab, and that his body was subsequently disposed of: a court ruled in 2007 that his parents were entitled to the compensation paid to intentional victims of the Insurgency.
Derek Rheinhardt, 51 (itinerant preacher): Rheinhardt grew up in a normal California suburb. Becoming an enthusiastic member of Rousas Rushdoony’s Church of the Covenant in his thirties, Rheinhardt sold his hardware store and dedicated his life to spreading the gospel in the Grangeland CSR, smuggling himself past border guards multiple times from the 1970s onwards. He was captured by a People’s Militia patrol in the empty grain silo which he used as a temporary base. Subject to summary execution as a subversive element, he continued to sing hymns until shot outside the silo.
The first confused year of what would become known as the Northwest Montana Insurgency saw two hundred and eighty-three Grangelanders dead. Ten of the individual victims’ stories are set out below: taken together, they should give a sense of the sheer chaos (and, at times, black comedy) of the initial insurgency, as both sides coalesced and found their bearings.
Warren Sellers, 64 (work boss at logging collective): Sellers was approached by three men who claimed affiliation with the North-West Front and requested a no-show job at the collective for one of their number; his hands tied by bureaucracy, he was forced to refuse for the time being. He was shot a week later by an unknown assailant while loading groceries into his flatbed truck as a warning to others.
Richard Hanson, 37 (filing clerk): Hanson was stopped by a roadblock set up outside Deer Lodge by the People’s Militia. Panicking at the prospect of a routine search of his vehicle, he attempted to reverse out of the queue that had formed, and was shot by a People’s Militia patrolman when he refused to stop. A later examination found a small quantity of crystal meth in his glove compartment.
Linda Barrett, 34 (housewife): Barrett’s neighbour was believed by the People’s Militia to have insurgent connections, and a decision was made to execute a no-knock raid on him. Unfortunately, the People’s Militia team delegated this task were given the wrong address. Holding her newborn baby when the team breached her front door, Barrett was shot in the throat and killed instantly.
Herman Foster, 81 (Chief Officer): A former Montana State House representative with the Farmer-Labor Party, Foster had participated in the March on Helena in 1937 which saw Wheeler restored to power. Foster had been able to weather the following half-century of political change remarkably well, and had managed to retain a voice in local politics, being appointed chief officer of Flathead County. He was the victim of a kidnapping attempt by an insurgent cell: although they managed to extract him from his house and force him into the boot of their car without issue, during the drive to their rendezvous with higher-ups in the NWF, the frail Foster suffered a massive and ultimately fatal heart attack.
Annabeth Woodcock , 25 (waitress): Woodcock was employed at a bar frequented by off-duty People’s Militia infantrymen, and had the sheer bad luck to be on the closing shift on a day where a group of insurgents barricaded the fire exits and threw a petrol bomb into the bar. She, along with the two customers still in the bar, was overcome by smoke inhalation before emergency services could extinguish the blaze.
James Lundquist, 23 (People’s Militia patrolman): A Minneapolis native, Lundquist was temporarily seconded to a Grangeland People’s Militia unit later notorious for running drugs into the Pacific States of America on an almost industrial scale. In the second week of his placement, he was the sole casualty of a raid on an abandoned farmhouse supposedly used as a base by insurgents. Although officially a victim of friendly fire, documents declassified in 2019 suggest that he had been placed in the unit as an unofficial mole by Omaha People’s Militia Headquarters. Although two People’s Militia officers are strongly suspected of his murder, no charges whatsoever had been filed as of January 2021.
Dale Pelling, 45 (radio personality): Kalispell local Dale Pelling, suspected of supplying information to insurgents through the use of on-air coded language, was last seen exiting his radio station in the company of two People’s Militia officers in the early hours of 14 March 1988. Generally believed to have been killed in custody in the course of an interrogation, he was declared legally dead in 1995.
Sarah O’Connell, 38 (typist): O’Connell, who worked at a local government office in Missoula, “anonymously” reported two colleague as sympathisers of the insurgency. Ironically, her report was received by a North-West Front mole within the People’s Militia, who ensured that her name and address were passed onto an insurgent cell. Her body was found wrapped in a garbage bag in a Missoula dumpster two days later: an autopsy would reveal that her tongue had been removed prior to death.
Matt Haggard, 14 (high school student): Haggard disappeared in 1988 while setting up a deer stand in the woods outside Clinton: his body was never found. In 2005, a former NWF militiaman stated that Haggard had been killed by an explosive booby-trap set up to protect a NWF-run meth lab, and that his body was subsequently disposed of: a court ruled in 2007 that his parents were entitled to the compensation paid to intentional victims of the Insurgency.
Derek Rheinhardt, 51 (itinerant preacher): Rheinhardt grew up in a normal California suburb. Becoming an enthusiastic member of Rousas Rushdoony’s Church of the Covenant in his thirties, Rheinhardt sold his hardware store and dedicated his life to spreading the gospel in the Grangeland CSR, smuggling himself past border guards multiple times from the 1970s onwards. He was captured by a People’s Militia patrol in the empty grain silo which he used as a temporary base. Subject to summary execution as a subversive element, he continued to sing hymns until shot outside the silo.
Thanks!
Regarding this TL's provenance, the very broad universe it exists on is Kaiserreich (a mod for Darkest Hour/Hearts of Iron IV which involves an American Civil War and Marxism largely being superseded by syndicalism). About eighteen months ago, I planned out a TL which was ultimately wildly overambitious, intended to cover the last decade of the Combined Syndicates of America and its post-syndicalist successor state, but realised I honestly prefer writing micro-histories to doing anything on as large a scale as that.
Once I've finished this particular TL, I intend to cover one of the other Constituent Syndicalist Republics within the CSA in more detail. I haven't made a firm decision yet, but I'm considering at least one of the following:
- The Steel Belt CSR (covering Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and parts of Pennsylvania) in the 1990s, as it deals with the transition to post-syndicalism;
- The New Afrika and Gullah CSRs (covering the "black belt" in the South and coastal South Carolina respectively) in the first twenty years of their existence; and
- The Gulf CSR (covering southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama) in the 2000s, as it inexorably transforms itself into a deeply corrupt petrostate.
Does Rushdoony have a similar theology to OTL (ie Presbyterian theocracy)?
The radicalization of the Grangelanders has parallels to both OTL US Mountain West which went from a progressive bastion supportive of the New Deal to an area notorious as a haven for the far right and white nationalists (Church Universal and Triumphant-will they be making an appearance incidentally?, Randy Weaver etc.) and OTL's post Soviet bloc where the neo-Nazi and ultranationalist parties and movements gained strength following the economic dislocations that accompanied the end of communism.
The radicalization of the Grangelanders has parallels to both OTL US Mountain West which went from a progressive bastion supportive of the New Deal to an area notorious as a haven for the far right and white nationalists (Church Universal and Triumphant-will they be making an appearance incidentally?, Randy Weaver etc.) and OTL's post Soviet bloc where the neo-Nazi and ultranationalist parties and movements gained strength following the economic dislocations that accompanied the end of communism.
Rushdoony's theology's essentially identical to OTL, if slightly more paranoid.
Thanks for mentioning the Church Universal and Triumphant - had completely forgotten they existed. They'll definitely be making an appearance as the insurgency winds on...
Randy Weaver may or may not get a brief mention somewhere down the line.
Honestly with the standard of the writing I think a contained short piece for Clarkesworld which accepts Althist occasionally as spec-fic with a suitable theme, such as the crippling emancipation of popular music written by ostensibly ex working class lumpens about life in the horror home home on the grange where the militia and speed dealers pray wherenever is heard an unsanctified word if you want your body seen again. Hallelujah it feels good to be Christ’s soldier.
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Sung by the rounds in call and responses (male)
Lord Christ knows militia can’t touch me/—
My truck is heavy and I outgun thee/—
My pitch is perfect with faithful harmony/—
My wives’ dispositions are kind and sunny/—
excessive display of riches banked up in heaven through ostentatious outward poverty and “charity”.
mormon and deviant prot gangster barber shop works so awfully well.
Lord Christ knows militia can’t touch me/—
My truck is heavy and I outgun thee/—
My pitch is perfect with faithful harmony/—
My wives’ dispositions are kind and sunny/—
excessive display of riches banked up in heaven through ostentatious outward poverty and “charity”.
mormon and deviant prot gangster barber shop works so awfully well.
This is interesting, playing Darkest Hour KR I never even have to send troops into Montana as I can just cut the entire area off and focus on taking Phoenix, before sending my army off to help the over-excitable French.
Thinking about it, it makes sense that this backwater border area could become such a nexus of trouble.
Thinking about it, it makes sense that this backwater border area could become such a nexus of trouble.
Presuming Fisk has his OTL political leanings and therefore a likely bias toward the CSA, is this entry supposed to be an accurate recounting of events to the reader or an in universe account, subject to some of his characteristic "ingenuity" at procuring anonymous sources and bearing witness to events no other journalism can?
excellent catch. As national and international opinion become more important to all of the factions involved in the Insurgency, Fisk, and others like him (each with agendas of their own) are going to become more and more prominent in the TL.
Interesting. I’ve always found the plausibility of kaiserreich rather dubious so I was surprised at how compelling I found this. Sargant and his “social autism” was inspired, you coloured a very vivid depiction of the people’s hall and not to mention all the great illustration; I’ll definitely be following eagerly!
