"What Madness Is This?" Volume I: The Union Forever
- Thread starter Napoleon53
- Start date
This TL isn't meant to have any good leaders, and any war against tyranny that doesn't end in only deaths is out of the question
kingwilliam14
Banned
What are people like Prescott Bush and Albert Einstein up to these days?
Also is Adolf Hitler (sorry, "Adolf von Braunau") going to show up again?
Also is Adolf Hitler (sorry, "Adolf von Braunau") going to show up again?
As for Einstein, Midas Goldstein seems to have stolen his thunder
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 61
PANDEMIC PANDEMONIUM
An Illuminati bomb explodes in a vital railway hub in Shicagwa, May 1, 1912
"I warned High Command--I told them that moving the Dixie Legion to Canada would leave the heartland undefended and swarming with Beutelists and egoists. And now these Illuminati terrorists think they can just swagger around and blow up our vital infrastructure! I hereby call for the resignation of Supreme Marshal McClellan and for President Custer to appoint someone of clearer mind to take his place to reassert the dominance of the Betters of Society over the plague-carrying, piss-covered ghetto-dwellers."
- Legate General Ambrose Jansen, Army Group V
When the Dixie Legion marched north in the spring to fill in the gaps in the Quebecois Front, Legate General Ambrose Jansen was very adamant that this was a bad idea. He insisted that "sending my Southron boys north will serve to unstopper a rat's nest of subversion and rebellion." This opinion was not unfounded; several weeks before the orders came down, the Jansen took partial command of the Lewis City RUMP forces and crushed a revolt in a ghetto led by starving factory Inferiors. But Jansen had no idea how right he really was. In the ghettos all across the country, the quarantined Inferiors were starving. With little supplies of food and medicine coming in, these sprawling dens of squalor became rife with crime and talk of revolt, no matter the consequences. The time was right, finally, for the New Order of the Illuminati to unveil itself.
The New Order had been founded in Ireland in 1904, and the secret society declared itself to be champions of the Enlightenment. For the first few years, nothing much happened in the organization aside from taking in some very well-known members of society into their secret membership rolls. Little by little, the society began to spread across Europe, regardless of borders, and championed "a rebirth of democracy." Instead of diving headfirst into politics, waving a banner, the New Order sneaked its members into some of the leading parties all over the continent. This period of the organization, however, is very much shrouded in secrecy and not much is known about these first few years.
When Horatio Hendrick's raid on a Sandusky ghetto print shop unearthed dozens of posters and propaganda pamphlets from the "New Order of the Illuminati," they were finally on the radar of the Republican Union. Further detective work slowly began to piece together a narrative. That was that the New Order was already widespread across North America. CYB Headmaster-Marshal Teddy Roosevelt advised President Custer in 1910 that, "We must stamp out this miscegenated menace before it engulfs our ghettos and brings about civil war. I will do all I can to instill Christian and American virtues upon the children of America, but that is greatly undermined when there is a psuedo-Beutelist subversive faction hiding among the people of this great nation."
In the face of an ever-deepening investigation into the New Order's infiltration among the Betters and Inferiors of Society, Custer intended to have Horatio Hendrick helm the Committee on Conspiracies (CoC), but after only two months at its head, Hendrick up and died in his office of the Beckie Flu. His death sent shockwaves through the Union hierarchy, resulting in the moving of Custer and his cabinet to the "clean mountain air" of the Point Overlook Hotel, high up in the Poconos Mountains and close to the Mr. Tobias Institute. For a brief period, several lower ranking ORRA officers, such as Ernest Colten Brown, of Texas, took command of the Committee. Multiple men were arrested as Illuminati agents during this time, most notably Calvin Grant, an official within Colonel Ford's company. But the war and the flu were drawing resources away. In the North, an influx of prisoners and new citizens overwhelmed ORRA. In Anglophone Canada, tens of thousands of new citizens waited on their official government verification cards acknowledging them as Betters. Even more now stood in line to be shipped into ghettos, such as the huge Irish-blooded population in Canada as well.
This situation was exactly what the New Order had been trying to engineer. They saw the advent of the Beckie Flu as a perfect tool to finally bring the proletariat of the Inferiors of Society to the breaking point. With its back now turned, focusing on the war, the New Order began to engineer their first major action against the Republican Union. With the ghettos quarantined, if they could sneak agents in they would not be stopped by RUMP. Indeed, RUMP had ceased patrolling the inner areas of ghettos by March for fear of exposing themselves to the "disease-carrying Infees." This moment of relaxed control was all the Illuminati needed to worm themselves into the ghetto crime families. For over a month, the Inferior crime lords of Shicagwa began to put aside their differences and worked together to formulate the "People's Revolution." Massive rallies where held in the heart of the poor neighborhoods at the cost of exposing themselves to the flu. The people were reaching the tipping point. All they needed now was a little shove. That shove came on the First of May, 1912, when several Irishmen planted explosives in the Shicagwa Railyards, one of the most vital lifelines of supplies across the nation.
The huge explosion lit up the pre-dawn sky, killing over 1000 Better civilian workers and 14 soldiers. The initial explosion only killed a handful of people, but the chain reaction of secondary explosions ended up blowing away several warehouses as ammunition and artillery shells burst from the heat of the flames. Just an hour later, RUMP officers had located the culprits, now hiding within an old storage facility. As police swarmed the building, the two men opened fire with handguns and screamed, "Long live the revolution! Long the live the Oppressed! The New Order has arrived!" The men injured two officers and killed a third before falling to a hail of lead themselves. Though the newspapers and talkieboxes were suppressed from telling the nation about the last stand, word of mouth quickly spread. A Colonel Ford plant near Centralia, Iowai, soon found itself facing a revolt from the workers. These workers had been deemed healthy enough to produce shovels, picks, and other equipment for the war effort, and now they carried these in an attack on their overseers, killing twenty Colonel Ford employees and hanging their corpses for all to see at the entrance to the factory. In Sandusky, the original birthplace of the American New Order branch, on May 4, a horde of several thousand starving and ragged Inferiors assaulted RUMP positions and fought like madmen against their terrified Betters.
"It was like something from a CYB campground story from when I was a lad, trying to scare my comrades. Thousands of Inferiors, Irish and Slavs, Italians and Spaniards, all rushing toward our position behind the barricades. Their eyes were red as blood, their clothes filthy and full of holes. Their bone-thin jaws locked in a scream, showcasing their hideous teeth, yellow and black as the puss that ran from their sores and the vomit encrusted upon their chins and shirt collars. I smelled blood and piss and gunpowder as they swarmed our positions. The devil had possessed them. This was it then, I thought, the End of Days. I would kill for the first time that day. It felt good. I was eliminating evil from the world. As we pushed them back, shortly after Captain Roy rode in with support cavalry, we cut them down on their own soil. We proved our superiority. The mighty octopus of the Military Police reached out a tentacle and struck them down in the name of Jehovah and the Atheling."
- RUMP officer Stanley Hunt, describing the Sandusky May Revolt of 1912
When Custer was briefed on this, he lambasted McClellan, immediately phoning him up and chewing him out for sending the Dixie Legion north so soon.
"Damn it all, you old buzzard!" Custer harangued over the phone. "I told you Jansen's word had some merit, but you just couldn't trust a Southron born Legate, could you? Even though he gave us certifiable and true warnings that the Infees were ready to rise up! And now we got a G**-damned rebellion on our hands. I will not preside over a bloodbath that could have been prevented, Supreme Marshal. I have one thing to say to you: fix it!"
Jansen's men had just taken up their positions around the growing Quebec City Campaign as the Union tried to drive through to the Kingdom's capital and secure the North Front once and for all. Jansen received a written apology letter from McClellan, with the Immolator of Mexico lamenting the fact that he had ignored Jansen's warnings.
"... Furthermore, Legate General, I implore you to bring a final victory to us in Quebec so that we may focus our energies on destroying California and ending the war in North America. I implore you, not as your superior officer but as a fellow patriot, to make the most of the present situation. Use any means you see fit, Legate General. Bring us victory, and then we will crush this nascent rebellion together."
- Supreme Marshal George McClellan to Legate General Ambrose Jansen of Army Group V, dated May 20, 1912
RUMP pushes back Inferior revolutionaries in Sandusky
Two public buses are overturned in Crawford City
New York City Chief of Military Police Arthur Blood (seated, derby hat) mans a RUMP war wagon during a show of force against Inferior dissidents. "We shall show them the cold steel and dispatch them to Hell if they try to stand up to Uncle Sam and their God-given Betters," Blood said during an interview with "Uncle Sam's Talkiebox Station" in May of 1912.
An Inferior incites revolution in Boston before being beaten and arrested by RUMP officers
Patton was a rising star, even in his crippled state, refusing to give up duties because of his newfound disability. At the Battle of Trois-Rivieres, just about thirty miles from Quebec City, the final bastion laying between the Yankees and the capital was ground into dust. Patton personally led the assault, seated in the back of one of his beloved grinder wagons. Trois-Rivieres was the place where Patton acquired the nickname "The Arctic Fox" as he used his war machines to absolutely devastate the weak and starving Quebec forces. Having been cut off from the motherland in Europe since the Central Powers had seized Greenland and Iceland, the Royal Army simply had the last bit of fight drained away from them during this battle. Patton received a promotion from ORRA Supreme Chief George Dewey to Commander of ORRA Forces on the Northern Front, bringing the 10th and 6th Units under his command as well.
All the while, the 4th Unit was making a name for itself back in the heartland. In many of the ghettos across the nation, Inferiors had seized weaponry and were in open revolt, at long last, against their Union oppressors. Fears in the ever-volatile New Antioch--formerly New Orleans--of an out-and-out Inferior revolution taking over the entire city were crushed by the 4th ORRA. These 15,000 men came down from Lewis City on barges and declared martial law. A fresh wave of the Beckie Flu had weakened the local RUMP, and these reinforcements were badly needed. The 4th proceeded to steamroll the Inferior attempt at revolution, killin an estimated 4,000 Inferiors, further adding to the city's nickname of "Bloodbath Bay" it had been stuck with since the days of the Great American War.
Inferior revolutionaries are gunned down by the 4th ORRA in New Antioch's French Quarter
As North America burned, McClellan resigned from his position of Supreme Marshal of the Grand Army of the Republic. This followed the publishing of several highly inflammatory remarks from Legate General Jansen making him sound like a fool and placing the blame for the outbreak of unrest squarely upon his decision to move the Dixie Legions to the Northern Front. It cannot be understated how major this shake-up was, as the former President McClellan had been in charge of the GAR for decades, loyally serving his country. Now, the GAR was leaderless, and Custer knew just who would be an ideal leader of his legions.
Supreme Marshal of the Grand Army Ambrose Jansen
American troops fire into a crowd of resisting civilians during the Occupation of Trois-Rivieres
One of the leading proponents of the new move to de-Inferiorize the workforce was none other than Supreme Chief of Public Works Matilda Richardson, the original creator of the Union's "Separate Worlds" policy, the final move after Custer rose to power to officially keep Inferior neighborhoods a certain amount of distance away from Betters and to keep Inferiors out of Better neighborhoods unless strictly there on business. In June of 1912, Supreme Chief Richardson, by the far the most powerful American woman who had ever lived up to that point, told her fellow Betters on Uncle Sam's Talkiebox Station:
"We are in a new age. Just as the lancer and uhlan are no longer needed for victory on the modern battlefield, so to has the Inferior been outdated. In this brave new world, an era of machine and total war, we cannot trust the production capabilities, and thereby our national security, to non-citizens and rebellious Inferiors. Just as the original Minutemen who fought at Bunker Hill against the Mad King were free men, fighting for their own kith and kin, so too must the modern American industrial society have free men at its helm. To put it bluntly, the Inferior is no longer essential to the overall scheme of things. America's population is huge, even without the noncitizens, and I see no reason why the Economic Clans should not be welcoming to the idea of cleaning up their factories and putting America's women and children to work, pitching in for victory. For while the men fight for our freedom, there are plenty of able-bodied women and older children, especially the plucky youths of the CYB, that are perfectly capable of doing our parts. America needs labor. America guarantees a minimum wage and decent working conditions for all Betters. Do not hesitate, my comrade-patriots! America needs able hands and minds! Women! Come to the factories! Put down your bustles and corsets and put on overalls and a flatcap! Get your hands dirty with the grease of an honest day's work and save our country! Service guarantees victory!"
- Supreme Chief Matilda Richardson, Department of Public Works
Despite the dangers of merely going outside and breathing, America's women and children answered the call, pouring into the factories and completely industrializing every aspect of society. Everyone saved grease, canned their own foods, patched socks over and over, women and children worked together in the massive factories all over the nation churning out rations like SPUD (Succulent Potato Utility Dinner), ammunition, bayonets, aeroship propellers, and grinder barrels. It was awe-inspiring to see, as millions of people all worked together through war and disease to fight on. Supreme Marshal Jansen also created the official Republican Union Aeroforce as a separate branch of the military and set Union engineers to work reverse-engineering caputured Europan aeroplanes, which he thought would be key to ultimately winning the war and even possibly taking the fight to Europe proper.
Meanwhile, Dr. Midas Israel Goldstein, the polymath professor who had designed Colonel Ford's "mobill oven trucks," watched with interest. As the Second Battle of the Plains of Abraham commenced far to the north, far in the south -- in Kissimmee, Florida, to be exact -- Goldstein called for a conference at his private summer home. He invited all manner of Union government officials to discuss "The Final Solution to the Inferior Question" on July 4, 1912. The Kissimme Conference would change the fate of millions upon millions of human beings, and steer the Union toward its final form....
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When they literally made "Mexico" "go away," it's not like they haven't had enough warmup. Also, with so many rebellions going on on, it's pretty much the story writing itself at this point. If the women can take over in the factories, than... why do they bother feeding and policing a bunch of people who are now beginning to refuse to work? Like slavery in a CSA TL, it's beginning to simply hold them back. Unfortunately, unlike slavery there is no abolition that doesn't involve destroying one of the world's biggest religions and triggering 170 million religious nutbags burning down the country in a ragequit controllerthrow genocide.
What's even more terrifying: picture a world where Betters all make living wages at the factories and they have good benefits and decent healthcare. Women are equals and are treated like it. If you're a Better and willing to publicly agree with nutbag Cult and the MDP, the Union could be an okay place to live, strictly on a living conditions basis.
*feels ORRA gun at back of head*
I mean AMAZING place to live! Is Best America! Praise be!
I highly doubt the Union would ever attempt to completely just wipe out all Inferiors however. There will always be a need for cheap expendables to do horrible jobs like field work and heavy construction.
What's even more terrifying: picture a world where Betters all make living wages at the factories and they have good benefits and decent healthcare. Women are equals and are treated like it. If you're a Better and willing to publicly agree with nutbag Cult and the MDP, the Union could be an okay place to live, strictly on a living conditions basis.
*feels ORRA gun at back of head*
I mean AMAZING place to live! Is Best America! Praise be!
I highly doubt the Union would ever attempt to completely just wipe out all Inferiors however. There will always be a need for cheap expendables to do horrible jobs like field work and heavy construction.
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(watches the screen, horrified)
...that's it, the Union is turning into a living nightmare. And Napo keeps on finding new ways to horrify us.
...that's it, the Union is turning into a living nightmare. And Napo keeps on finding new ways to horrify us.
THE ALL SEEING IRISH EYES OF THE ILLUMINATI WILL DESTROY AMERICA! PRAISE JEHOVA!!
Ahem, sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me.
Even though it’s doomed to fail, it’s nice to see the oppressed getting a chance to kick back against their abusers. Maybe one or two of the better organised revolts can actually seize their city and you end up with a Dark Knight Rises situation of kangaroo courts and armed sieges.
Also Inferiors and lower class Betters working together could lead to some interesting situations. Of course there would be the indoctrinated bigotry, but there has to be some cases where a Better sees through it and begins to see the Inferior as a fellow human being, maybe even begin to sympathise with them, have feelings for them, maybe...maybe...Sorry! I got lost there imagining a Better/Inferior romance story. What I meant to say was “sympathise and join their revolution against the capitalist (or are they Marxists here?) exploiting all of them”
Only needs a few words changed and it would be a perfect song for either the rebels or the RU
Ahem, sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me.
Even though it’s doomed to fail, it’s nice to see the oppressed getting a chance to kick back against their abusers. Maybe one or two of the better organised revolts can actually seize their city and you end up with a Dark Knight Rises situation of kangaroo courts and armed sieges.
Also Inferiors and lower class Betters working together could lead to some interesting situations. Of course there would be the indoctrinated bigotry, but there has to be some cases where a Better sees through it and begins to see the Inferior as a fellow human being, maybe even begin to sympathise with them, have feelings for them, maybe...maybe...Sorry! I got lost there imagining a Better/Inferior romance story. What I meant to say was “sympathise and join their revolution against the capitalist (or are they Marxists here?) exploiting all of them”
Well, shit. Seems like one mass genocide of an entire ethnicity isn't enough for the Republican Union. I expect this to be a hell of a lot worse than OTL's Holocaust, what with the inferiors being seen as even unfit to work, so whatever chance they may have in only being worked to death is sadly gone.
TTL Mexico already made it worse than OTL's Holocaust.
It's like if the Nazis successfully enacted Generalplan Ost within General Government and Ostland.
Damn, I do like the New Order (and not because I think there music's good...ha) because at least there trying to enlighten the people...enlighten with bombs and guns but enlighten all the same.
Also I can see plans to move the remains Inferior ghettos (the ones that aren't exterminated) out of the cities and make them into crappy towns in the countryside which reduces the chances of rebellion spilling into the cities.
Also I can see plans to move the remains Inferior ghettos (the ones that aren't exterminated) out of the cities and make them into crappy towns in the countryside which reduces the chances of rebellion spilling into the cities.
Has the average RU soldier reached the level of fanaticism seen in the Imperial Japanese Army IOTL or is IJA-level fanaticism "reserved" for ORRA troops?
I get the feeling that regular RU troops are like the British in the Second World War, "we're fine with getting captured/surrendering because when we get the chance we will escape and come back to fight you again", the ORRA are probably the bastard child of the Waffen SS and the IJA.
I may be alone here, but I feel like a full genocide of the Inferiors works better narratively towards the late Steele/early Oswald years. That event feels like the climax of the Unions monstrously and would work better towards the climax of the RU than in WW1.
Just my opinion, this is such a great timeline. Thanks Napo for your dedication!
Just my opinion, this is such a great timeline. Thanks Napo for your dedication!