"This is a glorious hour!" proclaimed Steele. He was speaking at the Pittsburgh Rally Grounds, just two hours after Nixon announced the new flag before the nation. "Today, our people have remembered their proud heritage. The Star-Spangled Banner flies high over the Capitol and the Consular Mansion. It is a bitter-sweet moment. We the most proletarian and fascist American people have overcome decades of adversity and conflict, and emerged into light."
"All hail! Steele! Steele! Steele! Steele!" chanted the army, giving the Roman salute to the First Chief Consul.
"And now, we are a strong nation. A world power. Through the will of the people, we have become one of the mightiest empires mankind has ever seen. Our factories are the most productive. Our people are happiest. We have kept the glory of the Enlightenment alive. We have shown the heathens behind the Papist Curtain that we shall not bow to the Bonapartian Papist Polocks, and that the American people stand ready to take on the world. We must purge the world in the fires of Manifest Destiny. And so, today, I have given the Tripartite Empire an ultimatum. If they do not hand over the Canadian Territories--duly owed to our forefathers for their sacrifice in the War of 1812--by the date of August the 1st, Anno Domini 1955, the full might of our army, navy, aeroforce, and people... shall be brought to bear upon not only the Territories, but also upon the nascent Kingdom of Quebec. If our demands are not met, we shall take what we want, and more, by force. We shall ruthlessly slaughter the enemies of freedom, and wipe the curse of Catholicism off the map of North America forever."
The crowd went absolutely crazy. Camera crews recording the event reported their speakers busting from the torrential hurricane of the cheers.
"Yes, my soldiers. If our demands are not met, we shall be at war. Once declared we shall not accept any plan of surrender until all of Canada and Quebec as fallen under our control. I have assurance from our allies the King of Sweden, the Kaiser of Prussia, the British republics, and all the other friends of freedom, that they shall declare war. Sweden has been the sufferer of many indignities at the hands of the Corsican Ogres and their Danish-Norwegian allies. Prussia has been disallowed from bringing the Confederation of the Rhine into its Protestant fold. They are tired of this nonsense. They are tired of the Bonapartian usurpers. My close personal friend, Kaiser Helmut Wilhelm I of Prussia, has demanded that the French fops hand over Lower Saxony, Hesse, and Thuringia, and if they do not do as such, he will have no choice but to march in and take the entirety of the Confederation. Another associate of mine, King Gustaf VI of Sweden, has announced that if Helmut Wilhelm's demands are not met, and if ours are not met, then he shall invade the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway and annex it into the Greater Swedish Rike. Our favorite Englishman, Winston Churchill, is in a position to liberate the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands and march on France!"
More wild cheers came from the army. They were finally on the verge of total holy war. Their dreams were coming true.
"We are at a momentous epoch, my soldiers. Let us pray to Almighty God for strength in the coming World Purge. War or no war, come August 1st, 1955, the world shall be changed indelibly and forever. The American eagle has cleaned its wounds. No longer does it languish, dreaming of a glorious future and
a past that could have been. That glorious future is upon us today! The American Eagle is spreading its wings, and its war cry has been heard across the Earth. We will not stop, we will not desist, we will not rest, until what we want is ours. We will not stop until the cancer of Catholicism is purged from this continent forever! We shall not stop if the Southrons take the side of the Corsican Ogres, no, we shall defeat them, too! We will not stop until our armies march across this planet, an unstoppable, irresistible force. We will not stop until every fool that resists us finds his capital a pile of rubble. The American people shall march on Planet Earth, heads held high, and we shall
win."
"HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!" chanted the army, now joined by ordinary citizens rushing into the stadium. "The Union Forever" was struck up by a huge orchestra. And then, a different chant was started. One that just hearing made the hairs on the back of the necks of Joseph Steele stand up. Soon, it had spread across the nation, striking pure, unadulterated terror into Canadians and Southrons. All over the country, citizens poured into the streets, waving their new flag and chanting as one:
"USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!"