Chapter 447: War in the Gulf
As the eastern provinces went into a deep recession during the first phase of reunification, the western provinces’ economy went into a small boom. Western GDP grew at a rate of 4.6 percent for 1990, reflecting the new demand from the east. The highest growth rate came during the second half of 1990, but growth continued at only a slightly slower pace into early 1991. Prices, however, remained relatively stable because the cost of living grew at only 2.8 percent despite some high wage settlements in some industries. Employment rose during the year, from 28.0 million to 28.7 million, and the unemployment rate sank to 7.2 percent. Notably, the number of registered unemployed in the west only declined by about 300,000, showing that at least half of the new jobs in the west had been taken by persons who had moved to or were commuting from the east.
The dramatic improvement in the western figures resulted from the opening of a large new market in the east and the simultaneous availability of many new workers from the east. Many easterners did not want the shoddy goods produced at home, preferring western consumer products and food. Moreover, many easterners came to the west to work. By the end of 1990, as many as 2,500,000 commuted to work in the west, and that number was estimated to have grown to 3,500,000 or even 4,000,000 by the middle of 1991.
This meant that the western Reich not only had a vast new market but also a growth of over 5 percent in its workforce, as sharp an increase as since the days of the economic miracle. It also increased its capital base because eastern deposits were placed in western banks that had come east and because those deposits moved back to the central financial market at Frankfurt.
The Imperial Bank became worried about three elements of the sudden boom: the sudden financial shifts between east and west, which led to a jump in money supply; government deficits resulting from large expenditures in the east; and the potentially inflationary effects of a rapid growth rate in the west. The bank warned that interest rates would have to remain high to keep price increases under control. The bank raised short-term interest rates sharply through 1991 and 1992, with the average rate of short-term interest climbing from 7.1 percent in 1989 to 8.5 percent in 1990, to 9.2 percent in 1991, and to 9.5 percent in 1992. The Imperial Bank permitted rates to begin falling only in 1993—to 7.3 percent—when it believed that the inflationary pressures had been contained by the recessionary effects of the credit squeeze.
As the Imperial Bank’s policies began to take hold, growth slowed in the west, from 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 1991 to 0.8 percent in the last quarter of 1992. For all of 1992, the western growth rate was 1.5 percent, a decline from the 3.7 percent rate of 1991 and even more from the 4.6 percent rate of 1990. The eastern growth rate was 6.1 percent during 1992, well below the 7 percent to 10 percent growth rate originally anticipated for the region. The number of employed in the western Reich fell for the first time in ten years, by 890,000 persons. Despite the slowdown, during 1992 the Roman economy reached a milestone of sorts. With the addition of eastern production, the Reich’s GDP rose for the first time above 30 trillion marks. Of that total, the new Länder contributed a gross regional product of 2.31 trillion, or 7.7 percent. However, the total of unemployed also reached a record number, 40 million. Two-thirds of that number were unemployed in the west; the other one-third were unemployed in the east. The east contributed more to unemployment than to production.
The 1992 depression continued into 1993, so that the economy registered a growth rate of -1.2 percent. By 1994, however, after the Imperial Bank had been lowering short-term interest rates for over a year, Roman growth would resume at an annual rate of about 2.4 percent, but unemployment declined only very slowly despite the uptrend in GDP growth. It was expected that stronger growth would begin reducing the numbers of unemployed by 1995 and the Reich would return to its postwar path toward prosperity. But the absorption of the eastern provinces, and the methods by which it had been accomplished, would still exact a high price throughout all of the Reich. Immigration mostly dried up. In decades past, a few hundred immigrants would arrive in Roman ports every month. But Kohl, fresh off his reappointment campaign concerned about the integration of the eastern provinces, did not think he could handle both the problems of the eastern provinces and integrating new immigrants. He quietly had the immigration quotas temporarily lowered.
Not that the quotas were anywhere near filled anyways; only a handful of new immigrants were projected to arrive each month, mostly a few Choctaw refugees fleeing the chaos that was once the CSSA. Ironically, it took until the end of February for the UN to agree to revoke the former CSSA’s Security Council seat and give it to Nusantara, due to legal questions about if the Choctaw Republic was the successor state to the CSSA or a separate country that broke off from the CSSA with no continuity of government (the UN agreed it was the latter).
Other than North Eimerica, the rest of the world was peaceful and uneventful. The Malian Civil War came to an end that October with the last separatist forces, based in Ghana, crushed by the Malian government and the province brought back under control.
Despite massive Roman investment, Russia declared bankruptcy a third time that December, sending another wave of refugees fleeing into the former Occupied Territories. The economic crisis in Russia became a major talking point on news networks and in the Diet. Left-leaning and center parties like the SPR and CMU argued there needed to be more investment to get the Russian economy on its feet again. Right-leaning parties like the KRA and FMP argued the Reich had wasted too much money on Russia, and no matter how much money the Reich spends Russia will still go bankrupt, dragging down the Roman economy with it. The more radical elements in the KRA and the FMP, energized by the fall of equalism everywhere (the Reich’s three equalist parties would disband the next February), also surged in popularity by capitalizing on this crisis, joining together in what would become the religious right. “Once an equalist, always an equalist,” they chanted at rallies across the Reich. This was their punishment for abandoning religion, they said on news networks. The Reich had to embrace religion more to avoid the same collapse Russia did. The Church predictably complained, as it was opposed to the mixing of politics and religion in any way. Prominent figures on the religious right responded by forming a political party, the Christian Biblical Party (PBC), as the Reich’s first Christian traditionalist party. It would inherit the ten percent of the seats traditionalist independents controlled in the Reichsrat and participate in the 1995 examinations, though they likely wouldn’t get far. Ruprecht Murdoch, a media magnate who sympathized with the religious right’s message, tried using his money to set up a right-wing news network, called Fuchs News, but the network was unable to compete with CNN and other established networks, and lawsuits alleging bias and slander and government complaints eventually forced Murdoch to shut it down.
Kaiser Otto, busy attending the coronation of the Mingzhong Emperor of China, paid little attention to this development, though he was interested in Tesla Dynamic’s recent announcement of a “smart phone.” The company had plans to develop a portable telephone which could fit in a person’s pocket and connect to the Internet, accomplishing all sorts of tasks. The announcement was written off as a joke by the rest of the technology industry, though. How could someone fit a large phone into someone’s pocket without compromising its functionality? And what was there to connect to on the Internet?
The expansion of the Internet continued that year. The number of users on the World Wide Web continued growing at unprecedented rates, connecting people around the world. The death King Magnus I “the Great” of Kanata, the coronation of his successor King Haraldr I, the visit of Empress Sita to the Reich, the formation of the socialist Linskpartei/Partei des Meritokratisches Sozialismus (LP/PMS), and the reburial ceremonies for the bodies of Kaisers at Potsdam were among the first events to be actively shared and discussed online. However, it was a serious development in North Eimerica which would fully capture the attention of the public.
When the Tejas-Mexico War (First Gulf War) broke out, the State of Free Aztlan, a Chinese autonomous province that had been transferred to Fusang before being granted independence as a constitutional monarchy, initially affirmed its neutrality and tried mediating a ceasefire between Tejas and Mexico, though it also offered loans and sold weapons to both sides. Ultimately, it supported Tejas against Mexico. Aztlan’s large-scale economic assistance to Tejas often triggered hostile Mexican actions against Aztlan. Mexico repeatedly targeted Aztlan oil tankers and fired on Aztlan ships in the Mexican Gulf. After the war ended, the relations between the two neighboring Nahua countries further turned sour for several economic and diplomatic reasons.
By the time the war ended, Mexico was not in a financial position to repay the 14 billion marks it borrowed from Aztlan to finance its war and requested that Aztlan forgive the debt. Mexico argued that the war, despite a Mexican loss, had prevented the spread of chaos to Aztlan and the rest of Cemanahuac. However, Aztlan’s reluctance to pardon the debt created strains in the relationship between the two countries. Several official meetings were held between the Aztlan and Mexican leaders, but they were unable to break the deadlock between the two.
In 1991, Mexico’s Oil Minister, Ilhuicamina Cozcaquauhtli, stressed a further reduction in the crude oil production quota of OPEC members to end the oil glut caused by World War III. Cozcaquauhtli argued that higher oil prices would help Mexico increase its revenues and pay back its 60 billion mark debt. However, given its large downstream petroleum industry, Aztlan was less concerned about the prices of crude oil, and in 1990 Aztlan requested OPEC to increase the country's total oil production ceiling by 50% to 1.35 million bpd. Throughout much of the late 1980s, Aztlan’s oil production was considerably above its mandatory OPEC quota and this had prevented a further increase in crude oil prices. A lack of consensus among OPEC members undermined Mexico’s efforts to end the oil glut and consequently prevented the recovery of its war-crippled economy. It was estimated that between 1987 and 1992, Mexico lost 14 billion marks a year due to Aztlan’s oil price strategy. Aztlan’s refusal to decrease its oil production was viewed by Mexico as an act of aggression against it.
The increasingly tense relations between Mexico and Aztlan were further aggravated when Mexico alleged that Aztlan was slant-drilling across the border into a Mexican oil field. In 1990, Mexico accused Aztlan of using "advanced drilling techniques" to exploit oil from its share of the oil field, estimating 2.4 billion marks worth of Mexican oil was "stolen" by Aztlan and demanded compensation. Aztlan dismissed the accusations as a false Mexican ploy to justify military action against it.
On August 31, 1991, OPEC officials said that Aztlan and Tejas had agreed to a proposal to limit daily oil output to 1.5 million barrels, thus potentially settling differences over oil policy between Aztlan and Mexico. At the time of the settlement, more than 100,000 Mexican troops were deployed along the border, and Roman officials expressed little indication of decline in tensions despite the OPEC settlement.
On September 2, 1991 at 2:00 am, local time, Mexico launched an invasion of Aztlan with four elite Mexican Republican Guard divisions and Mexican Army special forces units equivalent to a full division. The main thrust was conducted by the commandos deployed by helicopters and boats to attack the capital, Pitic, while the other divisions seized the airports and two airbases.
In support of these units, the Mexican Army deployed a squadron of helicopters bought from the Chinese Army. The foremost mission of the helicopter units was to transport and support Mexican commandos into Pitic, and subsequently to support the advance of ground troops. The Mexican Air Force had at least two squadrons of Shenyang J-6, one J-8, one of J-9 and two of Xian JH-7 fighter-bombers. The main task of the MAF was to establish air superiority through limited air strikes against two main air bases of Aztlan Air Force, whose aircraft consisted mainly of M-14s bought from Mayapan. Meanwhile, certain targets in Pitic were bombed by Mexican aircraft.
Mexican Republican Army tanks (Soviet built tanks from the PARA era) rolling into Aztlan
Despite months of Mexican saber-rattling, Aztlan did not have its forces on alert and was caught unaware by the attack. The first indication of the Mexican ground advance was from a radar-equipped aerostat that detected an Mexican armor column moving south. Aztlan forces resisted, but they were vastly outnumbered. In central Aztlan, the 35th Armored Brigade deployed a battalion of tanks, BMPs, and an artillery battery against the Mexicans and fought delaying actions on the border east of Pitic. In the south, the 15th Armored Brigade moved immediately to evacuate its forces north to Fusang. Of the small Aztlan Navy, two missile boats evaded capture or destruction.
Aztlan Air Force aircraft were scrambled, but approximately 20% were lost or captured. An air battle with Mexican helicopter airborne forces was fought over Pitic, inflicting heavy losses on the Mexicans, and a few combat sorties were flown against Mexican ground forces. The remaining 80% were evacuated to Fusang and the Aztlan Peninsula, some aircraft taking off from the highways adjacent to the bases as the runways were overrun.
Mexican troops attacked the palace of Tlatoani Axacaya Acatl. The Aztlan Royal Guard, supported by local police and M-84 tanks, repelled an airborne assault by Mexican Special Forces, but the Palace fell after a second helicopter assault.
Axacaya had already fled into the Fusang desert. His younger half-brother, Prince Ocuil, was shot and killed by invading Mexican forces as he attempted to defend the Palace, after which his body was placed in front of a tank and run over, according to an Mexican soldier who was present and deserted after the assault.
Many foreign observers believed the invasion was largely motivated by its desire to take control over Aztlan’s vast oil reserves. The Mexican government justified its invasion by claiming that Aztlan was a natural part of Mexico carved off because of Chinese, Roman, Fusang, and Meskwaki imperialism and equalism. The Mexican government also argued that the Acatl tlatoanis were highly unpopular figures among the Aztlan populace, as they were imposed by the Chinese government after the establishment of PARA. By overthrowing the tlatoani, Mexico claimed that it granted Aztlan Mexicans greater economic and political freedom.
The invasion was universally condemned by all major world powers. Even countries traditionally considered to be close Mexican allies, such as China, called for immediate withdrawal of all Mexican forces from Aztlan, though China was currently busy helping the Meskwaki Free State invade the Assiniboia Republic and announcing a Shenzhen Plan to make its economy as competitive and prosperous as the Reich’s. Several countries, including India and Fusang, placed arms embargoes on Mexico. Only Tawantinsuyu continued its support for Mexico. Central Powers members like the Reich were particularly critical of the invasion. Kohl reaffirmed the Reich’s neutrality, though, preferring to focus on the integration of the eastern provinces and not wanting to upset the fragile balance in the Reichsrat, which had largely retained the same composition for the last few years.
By March 1992, only pockets of resistance were left in Aztlan. By March 6, the last military units were desperately fighting delaying actions at choke points and other defensible positions throughout the country until out of ammunition or overrun by Mexican forces. Nogualec Air Base of the Aztlan Air Force was the only base still unoccupied on March 6, and Aztlan aircraft flew resupply missions from Fusang and Tejas throughout the day to mount a defense. However, by nightfall, Nogualec Air Base had been overrun by Mexican forces. From then on it was only a matter of time until all units of the Aztlan military were forced to retreat or be overrun.
After declaring victory, Zolton Huicton installed a "Provisional Government of Aztlan Province" in occupied Aztlan. The exiled Acatl dynasty and other former government officials began an international campaign to persuade other countries to pressure Mexico to leave Aztlan. The UN Security Council passed 12 resolutions in the next three days imposing sanctions and a naval blockade and demanding immediate withdrawal of Mexican forces from Aztlan, with all but Tawantinsuyu voting in favor, but to no avail. As international opinion quickly turned in favor of Aztlan, Kaiser Otto demanded Kohl do something about it. However, the chancellor was upstaged by the Fusang government, which on March 8 issued an ultimatum to Mexico to withdraw within 24 hours or face war.
KL M-117 Kakapo participating in Operation Desert Storm
A day later, the Second Gulf War began with an extensive Fusang aerial bombardment campaign which would last 42 consecutive days and nights. As Fusang was still technically a member of the Central Powers, Kohl invoked the Chao Praya Resolution and called the rest of the Central Powers to war with Mexico. He announced the Reich would launch a “completely defensive” mission to prevent Mexico from occupying Aztlan under the codename Desert Shield.
Central Powers forces from the UPM, Tejas, Mayapan, and Fusang subjected Mexico to one of the most intensive air bombardments in military history. The Central Powers flew over a hundred thousand sorties, dropping over ninety thousand tons of bombs, and laid waste to Mexican infrastructure. On March 10, the Central Powers commenced its general offensive, codenamed Desert Storm.
Roman M-15s parked in Tejas during Operation Desert Shield
Desert Storm’s priority was the destruction of the Mexican Air Force and antiaircraft facilities. The sorties were launched from Tejas and the six Roman carrier battle groups stationed in the Caribbean and the Mexican Gulf. The next targets were command and communication facilities. The General Staff believed that if command and control were decapitated quickly, Mexican resistance would crumble, as Zolton Huicton had closely micromanaged his forces and discouraged initiative at lower levels. The air campaign’s third and largest phase hit military targets through Mexico and Aztlan, including mobile missile launchers and research facilities.
SMS Oberdonau
launches a cruise missile. The Second Gulf War would be the last major conflict deploying battleships in a combat role. The SMS Oberdonau
would be decommissioned and turned into a museum in Constantinople’s harbor.
Predictably, Mexico responded with force to this invasion. Zolton Huicton ordered eighty Scud missiles launched at Panama City, the capital of the UPM, and Zhumasi, in southern Fusang. Mitteleimerican and Fusang jets retaliated with intense bombardments of border regions and military targets. Eight hundred Scud missiles would be launched throughout the war, though most of them were relatively ineffective; only 74 Fusangren and 23 Mitteleimericans were killed by the missiles. Mayan missile strikes from Cuba, in comparison, hit large cities like Tlacaelel City and Tlaxcala, killing hundreds of Mexicans. The most damage to the Central Powers, though, came from Mexico’s allies. The Choctaw Republic and Tawantinsuyu had announced open hostilities with the Central Powers, declaring they would not tolerate the Reich’s “violation of Mexican sovereignty and Aztlan self-determination.” Tejas found itself fighting a two-front war from Mississippi and Mexico, while the UPM and the Reich found themselves having to deal with Tawantinsuyu’s far larger and better equipped army.
(Blame Fusang and Tejas for splitting this into two wars)
The first major ground battle of the Second Gulf War came at Albuquerque, a town in Fusang named after one of the first Roman diplomats to Fusang. General Huicton Ollin, Zolton Huicton’s close friend and best general, attacked a Fusang army under the command of General Xie Peng, expecting an easy victory which would stir antiwar sentiments in the Central Powers. However, the General Staff quickly deployed three legions to reinforce General Xie, and the Central Powers ultimately outnumbered Ollin’s forces two to one. Sixteen thousand Mexicans and twenty-two thousand Central Powers troops were killed in the battle.
M270 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems attack Mexican positions at the Battle of Albuqueque
The Second Gulf War was the second war in recent history to be heavily televised, after World War III. Twenty-four-hour news coverage allowed people around the world to watch live pictures of missiles hitting targets and fighter jets launching from Roman aircraft carriers. Central Powers forces were keen to demonstrate their weapons accuracy. In the Reich, the “big three” networks led the war’s news coverage: IBC, RBC, and IBS. However, it was CNN whose coverage gained the most popularity, and its wartime coverage is still considered one of the landmark events in its history. CNN was the only news network capable of providing live reporting while other networks withdrew their reporters or experienced technical difficulties; for several weeks, CNN reporters would be the only Roman correspondents reporting from Mexico. IBC devoted its national radio stations to eighteen hours of war coverage, while newspapers and
Zeit magazine published special issues about the “War in the Gulf.”
The Roman government’s policy on media freedom was more restrictive than in Siam or World War III. The Bureau of Defense mandated that all information given to the press come from briefings organized by the military. Only selected journalists could visit the front lines and interview soldiers. These visits were always conducted in the presence of officers, and the content they recorded and wrote down was subject to censorship and military approval. This policy was heavily influenced by the military’s experience in Siam, in which independent reporting led to public opposition to the war, and in World War III, in which the military managed to keep public opinion in favor of the war by controlling what got out to the press. Military victories, such as the controversial Battle of Caracas (in which only 83 Tawantinsuyuans made it out alive out of almost 23,000), were highly publicized to such a degree that some anchors joked about the “uber-patriotism” they were asked to report. Military defeats and high Roman casualties, though also reported, were sidelined in favor of positive news or altogether replaced with unrelated news like the signing of the United Framework Convention on climate change in New Berlin.
The ground campaign against Mexico consisted of three if not four of the largest tank battles in Roman history. The biggest tank battle in history was fought by a battalion of Imperial Marines at Pitic International Airport in August 1992. Roman armored divisions destroyed approximately 3000 enemy combat vehicles in Pitic over the course of two weeks of fighting, and the Mexicans would lose a further seven thousand tanks and five thousand other combat vehicles in similar battles.
The liberation of Aztlan came slowly, which was planned. Roman decoy attacks by air attacks and naval gunfire were designed to make the Mexicans believe the main Central Powers ground attack would focus on central Aztlan instead of the north and west; Fusang troop movements tricked the Mexicans into invading the Fusang province of Fenghuang, believing the bulk of the Fusang army was preparing for an invasion from the north. In July 1992, two Imperial Marine divisions crossed from the Fusang border and landed along the coast of the Peninsula, securing strategic locations and preparing to cross the Gulf to Pitic. They encountered trenches, barbed wire, and minefields like a modernized version of a World War I battlefield. However, these positions were poorly defended, and they were easily overrun. Several tank battles occurred, but apart from those easily won engagements, Central Powers troops encountered little resistance, and most Mexican troops surrendered. By August, Zolton Huicton had ordered a general retreat from Aztlan, and Kohl declared Aztlan liberated. However, one Mexican unit at Pitic International Airport didn’t receive the order and continued fighting. Imperial Marines and several armored divisions fought for hours before securing the airport, after which Aztlan was declared secure. As part of a scorched earth policy, the retreating Mexican Army set fire to nearly 700 oil wells and placed land mines around them to make extinguishing them difficult.
Aztlan oil fields set on fire by the retreating Mexicans
Imperial M-15s and M-16s fly over more burning oilfields
The war’s ground phase was designated Desert Saber. The first units to move into Mexico were three patrols of Indian Special Forces on August 15, sent to gather intelligence on the movements of Scud mobile missile launchers. Two days later, Roman and Fusang armored divisions crossed every border and entered Mexico in large numbers, taking hundreds of prisoners. Mexican resistance was light, and forty Romans were killed. By September 10, Roman troops had reached the outskirts of Tenochtitlan, forcing Zolton Huicton to agree to peace talks.
In Central Powers-occupied Mexican territory near the Aztlan border, the two sides negotiated and signed a ceasefire. Mexico was authorized to fly armed helicopters on their side of the temporary border, ostensibly for security reasons. Soon afterwards, the helicopters and what remained of the Mexican military would be used to fight Zapotec and Mayan rebellions in the southern provinces, encouraged by radio broadcasts aired by an Athanatoi-run station based in the UPM. In the north, Tlaxcalan leaders, believing they had Roman support for an uprising, launched their own rebellion, but no Roman support came, and they were quickly crushed. Millions of Tlaxcalans and sympathetic Nahua fled across the border to Fusang and Tejas, resulting in Zolton Huicton establishing no-fly zones in the north and south. The Central Powers restored the sovereignty of Aztlan, and Tlatoani Axacaya returned to power. Axacaya immediately ordered the arrests and repression of “suspected collaborators,” causing over four million to flee.
There was some criticism of the Kohl administration, as Kohl chose to keep Zolton Huicton in power instead of overthrowing him. Kohl justified his actions by arguing that overthrowing Zolton Huicton would have fractured the alliance and destabilized the region to degrees the Reich could not imagine. While Zolton Huicton was a dictator, he was the only thing keeping Cemanahuac relatively stable, and Kohl would rather deal with the devil he knew. He privately hoped that Zolton would be overthrown by his own generals, but such a coup never happened.
Many returning soldiers reported illnesses following their actions in the war, a phenomenon that became known as Gulf War syndrome. Common symptoms include chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and gastrointestinal disorders, with children of veterans having higher than usual rates of birth defects. Researchers were unable to pinpoint an exact cause, though some have suggested exposure to depleted uranium, chemical weapons, anthrax, and local diseases as possible causes.
The war also had its share of atrocities, and not just those committed by Mexicans. On the night of June 26-27, 1992, some Mexican forces began leaving Aztlan on a main highway in a column of some 14,000 vehicles. A patrolling Roman reconnaissance aircraft observed the retreating troops and relayed the information to operations headquarters in Zhumasi, Fusang. The convoy was promptly attacked and slaughtered by two A-10 Roc aircraft, resulting in a 60 km stretch of highway covered in debris, dubbed the “Highway of Death” by the media. Several weeks later, a Roman mechanized division, when faced with a large and complex trench network near the Fusang border, used bulldozers and combat earthmovers to plow over and bury the defending Mexican soldiers alive. No Romans were killed, and all reporters were banned from witnessing the attack. The Bureau of Defense tried covering up the incident, but the Kaiser declassified the documents and sacked the Defense Minister.
After the war, economic sanctions and a full trade embargo on Mexico remained in place, making it impossible for Mexican civilians to get any foreign goods other than medical supplies, food, and other necessities. For the rest of the decade, hyperinflation, poverty, and malnutrition would plague all of Mexico, and Zolton Huicton resorted to increasingly oppressive means to keep himself in power. The UN occasionally considered relaxing the sanctions, but the Reich and Indian vetoed every resolution.
Over in Tejas, Tatanka Blackhawk and his cabinet celebrated their second victory over the Mexicans, giving thanks to the Mexica gods for blessing their troops on the battlefield. The victory only reinforced their belief that Mexicanist fundamentalism was the way to go, and Tatanka agreed to give the Mexica priesthood greater influence over society. Religious teachings found their way into nominally secular schools, studies of the major codices replacing classes on science and critical thinking. Children were taught to hate nonbelievers, especially Mayans, Mitteleimericans, and the Norse. The priesthood set up a secret police which would “enforce morality” among the public, “encouraging” them to act in a religious manner. Women were banned from driving. Movie theaters which had survived the equalist era were shut down. Bars were closed and men forced to wear traditional attire and keep long beards. Dissenters to the regime were publicly whipped or stoned in public, and the worst offenders were shipped off to camps in the Texan desert.
Kohl didn’t think much of the repressive policies the Texan government was practicing. The flow of Texan oil to the Reich and the Roman bases there were more important, and besides, this was an internal affair of a sovereign nation, and he had no business intervening. He would come to regret that decision soon.
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Outside Alençon, Normandy – December 11, 1992, 2:53 AM
Kara Schneider, wearing only a nightgown, fled through the forest. She glanced behind her, her eyes full of fear. Her heart beat rapidly as she stumbled through the forest underbrush, the branches tearing at her bare skin. Suddenly, her feet caught on a branch, and she fell down a gentle slope into a clearing.
The forest came alive. A strange whirlwind of dust and leaves swirled around her, white light shining down on her. The light illuminated her, making her cover her eyes. A loud electrical and metallic hum filled her ears, and no matter where she turned or covered her ears she couldn’t block the sound.
A figure emerged from the forest and approached Kara. She couldn’t make out any of the figure’s features. It looked humanoid, but that was all she could see. The figure approached her, and the light enveloped everything. She tried crying out, but she couldn’t hear her voice. And then there was nothing.
December 12, 1992, 7:24 AM
The birds chirped in the trees, as they always did. The sun came up over the horizon, its rays of light peering through the branches and casting beams of light through the air. A light fog hung over the fields in the distance.
Kara’s body lay motionless and face down on the ground. A coroner and a police officer stood over her, taking notes. The officer’s 4WD truck sat a few feet away.
“I’d put the time of death about eight to twelve hours ago,” said the coroner, “No visible cause. A few scrapes and bruises, but no signs of a struggle or anything.”
The coroner knelt and lifted the back of her short nightie. “All we have is this,” he said.
He revealed two distinct and identical red welts the size of a one-mark coin on her lower back. The two men glanced at each other, trading looks of confirmed dread. The officer knelt to see for himself and then took a breath.
“Can we turn her over?” he asked.
The coroner turned the stiffened body onto its back. Leaves and mud stuck to her chest and her damp face. Dried blood trailed from her nose, mouth, and eyes. The officer’s eyes widened.
“Scheiße,” he cursed, “It’s Kara Schneider.”
“You sure?” asked the coroner. “Is that a positive ID?”
“She went to school with my son,” the officer said, walking briskly back to his truck.
The coroner ran after him. “Class of ’89, Detective?”
The officer got in his truck and started the engine.
“What is this,
Twin Peaks?” the coroner asked. “It’s happening again, isn’t it?”
The officer drove away as quickly as possible.
“Oh come on!” the coroner shouted. “I’m just trying to do my job here, you know!”
I personally don´t see it as glorifying war but I can see how the public can see it that way.
