As April turned to May, the Canadian border was fortified, whilst the construction of infrastructure through Mexico and a vast network of fortresses and defensive emplacements across the narrowing of the peninsula at Villahermosa to defend against the Centroamerican armed was began. The Centroamerican syndicalists whilst poorly equipped, were extremely numerous.
New Englanders also saw the presence of the American Union State along their borders, as the Union State Military Engineers Corps, who were ubiquitous as they swept across the nation arrived in New York State, repairing and rebuilding roads, refurbishing factories and reconnecting downed communications lines between New England and the rest of the Union State. Indeed, the attitude displayed by Long in actions, if not in words, was that New England was merely an autonomous district of the greater Union. This provoked some friction between Rockefeller and his Canadian allies, who seemed to subscribe to the same world-view, whilst Rockefeller was stern about the independence of the government of the former Plymouth colonies, even if it was propped up by RMCP divisions.
In words however, Long took a different view, inviting New England to send a special envoy for a tour of the Union State. Rockefeller responded to the offer positively, seeing an opportunity to gain an outside perspective on the workings of the vast enemy that sat on his Southern border, sending young former Connecticut state highway commissioner Robert A. Hurley to Atlanta by rail.
Atlanta Terminal Station
Hurley's arrival was greeted by personally by Long, at the Atlanta Terminal station which at the time was the premier rail station of the Union State, along with 120 Minutemen and two armoured cars. The roads along the route to the former Governor's manse were garlanded with bunting and Union State flags, and crowds turned out to cheer the father of the nation and the ambassador from errant New England.
As the procession continued to march down the route, with Hurley and Long travelling in a convertible Ford Model 48 at the core of the procession, the column had to halt and pull over to one side as a company of prototype motorised cavalry zoomed past, their motorcycles revving and roaring as the sidecar mounted machineguns were displayed to the visiting ambassador – a good 50 cycles zooming past and turning off the main road before the procession could continue. Since the division were prototypes, they were not kitted out in the usual khaki paint but rather sprayed in black. Hurley later wrote that he had never been more intimidated in his life.
After that things proceeded rather less intimidatingly for Hurley, the next couple of weeks taking him on a tour of select segments of the Union State. From Georgia to New York, factories were being constructed, as the pro-corporatist government had given incentives to extend the manufacturing belt southward, through the Appalachians and Hurley was present at the ground breaking of a factory in Louisville, Kentucky before taking a short trip to the KYSO refinery in the town, the huge building the seat of the Union State's research into Synthetic Oil production. May 24th saw a tour of the Southern Railway construction testing ground – a full scale mockup of one of the Villahermosa line fortresses, built using experimental production techniques in Northern Missouri.
The next day Hurley was taken to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus in Prescott, Arizona by a couple of his minders, where he met with scientists in the Universities research laboratories who were working on the development of a new interceptor aircraft to defend the skies above the Union State's cities from any foe. Whilst there Hurley also met with Henry Ford, and the local district leader, Prescott Sheldon Bush as well as his 12 year old son, George. A week later Hurley was taken on a tour of the Remington Arms facility outside of Atlanta, where the terrifying motorcycles had been returning to. It was there that Charles Coughlin and Huey Long spoke of the 'Nucleus of the Military-Industrial Complex of the Union State', a concept that put shivers up the spine of Hurley when Long spoke to him with all seriousness that the previous government had fallen in part because it believed itself immune to revolution and in part because it did not maintain the necessary physical strength to exert pressure on it's opponents, at home or abroad.
A similar discussion was attributed to Dennis Lawrence – Internal Affairs advisor to Long and subordinate to Michael Harlan of the USISB. He gave Hurley an interview that was recorded for consumption in New England, perhaps globally. This was the man behind the throne, or so Hurley felt at the time – Lawrence certainly was a fiercely intelligent political genius.
'
The German Empire is... stable, but stagnant. The United States innovated, but was out of control. The Union State, will be stable and innovative. Charles Coughlin sits in the old Louisiana Senate, but God is not the focus of this nation. We are secular and strong, and the world has not yet seen us flex our hands. The intervention in Mexico was necessary. Having served in Centroamerica during my youth, we full well knew the dangers of leaving such a large Syndicalist state on our borders. The Union State is going to be the Guardian of Freedom, since the last great truly democratic states have collapsed. I'm talking of Russia and the USA of course. We are on the brink of a dark age, and those of you in New England have to understand, the Union State is the last line of defence and we have men working on a device that will provide the ultimate deterrent.'
Dennis wouldn't say any more on that, but it shocked Hurley slightly. When he enquired if he could visit the Louisiana State University (he had seen many other Universities and Factories) his minders replied that the facility was classified. The next day (June the 5th) Hurley met George S. Patton and Kenneth Althaus, the Chief of Army and his Second in Command respectively. Patton was dismissive of Hurley, attempting to openly pump him for information on the state of the New England Army, before taking him out to a bar in downtown Atlanta, along with Althaus. There they all got rather drunk – indeed despite the nation still being in a recovery from the civil war, the AUS was suffering no shortages of supplies. The nation still exhorted it's people to their best efforts though, as demonstrated by posters and billboards that Hurley noted on his return to New England on the 20th of June.
Just a few examples of Union State Propaganda posters.
Hurley was sent home with the same offer Long had made to Merriam – rejoin the Union State, avoid another war and the offer of free reign over the election of district leadership in New England for at least 5 years but Rockefeller was having none of it. He politely sent Long a telegram, via the Canadian Consulate at New York that New England was an independent state and it would remain that way. Long didn't make a diplomatic incident, the AUS Navy was not of sufficient strength to deal with the Entente, and the last thing the Union State wanted was a police action that turns into a pursuit of foes all across the face of the globe. Long was too busy reforming the Union State into a patchwork of districts, zones and cities. The Universal Code of Law was passed in shortly after Hurley returned to New England, most notably abolishing the southern poll tax, and unifying social, political, criminal and industrial regulations across the country in the use of a comprehensive 200 page document that essentially simplified the majority of the legislature from the previous administration and eradicated the patchwork of local bylaws and city edicts where they were absurd or contradictory, or simply just too obscure.
Still the Union State continued to militarise it's borders, including detachments stationed along the Great Lakes ostensibly in case the Canadians considered a naval attack (though such a thing would be nearly impossible to conceal). The Union State continued it's campaign to boldly step into the future – the true defender of the Western Hemisphere from the evils of Syndicalism.
The La Plataen-Brazilian war took nobody by surprise – the Syndicalist government under Astrojildo Pereira had been antagonising La Plata, first by forming a military alliance with Bolivia, and then by joining the Phalanstere international society. The La Plataens soon received shipments of supplies from the Union State, and military observers were sent to La Plata.
