Those FBI cars came back leading two Humvees full of marines. No one blustered, threatened or tried to negotiate. Time for all that had long since passed.
Voters ran every which way to get out from between these groups. Some of the running civilians briefly blocked Sophie’s line of fire. She didn’t get the honor of shooting first. Who did is a little unclear. Her battle buddy up in their Humvee’s turret let rip his machine gun more or less at the same time as the marines. Didn’t matter. This was it!
Sophie took cover behind the engine block of some Mazda sedan. She leaned around the fender, keeping her head below the hood, and lined up on the last of a group of bounding camouflaged men. Noticing his body armor, she dropped her aim to his hips and led him just a bit. Sophie took as steady a breath as possible and lightly squeezed the trigger on her exhale, repeating a heartbeat later. The marine’s momentum kept him going several strides before his shattered pelvis locked up his legs.
She tried to line up on his crawling head for a finishing shot, but too many rounds ripped up the car around her. A bit distracting. Sophie waved at a couple of her buddies firing blindly over the hood of their Humvee down the street. “Action right! Three dismounts in the Walgreens!”
With a more concrete target to strive for, her teammates lit up the storefront and suppressed the hell out of the men inside. She took advantage of the opportunity and dashed to a better firing position. All the while shouting out more target ID’s.
Sophie spent the rest of the afternoon far too busy to think about anything but shooting, moving and communicating… and maybe the occasional smile when she popped one of Washington’s “henchmen.”
Chapter 11
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada
Popular legend would have us believe “the Great Split” occurred overnight. In reality, the slow train wreck shocked no one at the time. It wasn’t surprising when the Freedom referendum passed by such a wide margin in California or that equivalent statewide votes passed in Washington and Oregon the next day. Even similar plebiscites being scheduled in the coming week in 12 more Western and Mid-Western states was hardly a startling development. After all, the opinion polls showed majority support in these states when California’s acting governor, after the federal assassination of her predecessor, first proposed the idea. That climbed close to 80 % in the terrible wake of the first Battle of North Florida.
What shocked observers the most was how promptly the California legislature acted on the mandate to form a “legitimate Federal Government.” Within hours, they proposed and voted on a sheaf of new laws, requisitions and declarations over, well, everything. Just writing them all up alone should have consumed days. Of course, they did have a lot of help. Thousands of concerned lawyers, in the interest of patriotism and at the behest of the loose alliance of corporations they worked for, volunteered their time to assist with the great project.
Many of the laws were purely symbolic and unenforceable, an old problem for Californian legislatures. In this grand coalition of conservatives, liberals and silly moderates, who had no hard platform other than wanting to “see something change,” practicality and common sense were the first to be disenfranchised. With more power only came more ridiculousness.
Those laws were for the protestor’s consumption anyway. The real brokers behind the movement knew that money was the ultimate goal. Not for their own direct personal gain, but for the power cash gave. A few pessimistic visionaries were thinking about Cicero’s old saw: “The sinews of war are infinite money.” Most were only interested in the air of legitimacy deep coffers conferred upon this new government.
At any rate, within 24 hours of California’s legislature declaring themselves the acting, but sole legitimate government of the United States, the first federal payroll deductions were redirected from the IRS to temporary state stewardship accounts. The speed with which the state confiscated federal funds and institutions was in direct proportion to their profitability.
It was also surprising how many of the bureaucrats didn’t care who they worked for. Not just loyal to the new regime, but straight-up didn’t give a damn. Protecting their fiefdoms was all that mattered. War or not.
The IRS was the first to be “re-nationalized,” while the Department of Education came in last. No one wanted to touch the Postal Service. Sacramento quickly redirected Social Security taxes, but chalked up missed payouts to the illegitimate old government playing politics with the elderly and disabled. The excuses could hold for a while and hopefully direct anger back east, but what a dangerous line the politicians were tight roping.
The elected fools tearing the country apart were simply riding the wave of public opinion. The corporations assisting them just saw an opportunity to shortcut the middleman of lobbying and directly enshrine a few key principles of free enterprise into the revitalized government. As for the regular folk in the streets, they celebrated simply because someone was finally doing something. So many were giddy with innocent excitement that after years of legislative stagnation something new was happening.
Obsessed as they were with their own private agendas, few of these movers and shakers imagined themselves as secessionists. After they struck such a decisive political blow the Administration’s support would surely crumble. The disgraced Congress that supported the president must disband and, after new elections, it would be business as usual. Better than usual, since everyone was busy carving out new fortunes and favors in this future America.
Now, before these utopian fantasies could be realized, there was one large element of the old government that needed to be dealt with purely for non-financial reasons. The vast military presence on the West Coast was the great wild card in the game.
The pro-Freedom media blitz of the past couple weeks likely didn’t have the intended effect on all those Service members that it had on the general populace. What might sway a civilian into voting one way or another wouldn’t convince a professional soldier to betray their comrades. All the advertising in the world couldn’t accomplish that.
In the First Civil War, regional identity was a clearly definable thing. The US was a smaller place back then. Not just in land area but in perspective. Most people, unless they were immigrants fresh off the boat or wealthy, had never travelled more than a few miles from their place of birth. You could count on, by and large, a soldier from New York being loyal to the North and one from Virginia, loyal to the South.
150 years later, things were more complicated. In such a highly mobile, deeply intertwined country, which views buying your groceries at Wal-Mart versus Whole Foods a significant cultural difference, something as deep as political allegiance is incredibly unpredictable. How do you gauge the regional loyalty of a soldier who grew up in some Midwest red-state, went to college in Florida but has been stationed in California for years? Plus has a spouse from New York to boot?
Hence, the delicate gloves the new government used with the military. Those troops in any base not willing to pledge allegiance to the new government were merely offered a special half-pay, reserve status and ordered to stay home. A gentle way to take them out of the equation.
Attempts to double the pay for those that signed loyalty oaths backfired. Far more troops were insulted than tempted. Any group that wanted to move as a unit back east was allowed to, but without their arms and equipment. It was all such a logical plan on paper, but messy in practice.