Steel Horse

Steel Horse Backstory The Beginning: In the early years of the 21st century, the United States began a very aggressive campaign against world terrorism. Though successful in many ways, these “defensive wars” as they were called were met with a great deal of criticism both at home and abroad. The negativity reached a peak when, in 2018, US forces invaded a central African nation, nearly killing off both sides of an ongoing revolution. It was declared in multiple press releases that the entire nation, despite it’s political instability was behind the training and deployment of numerous terrorist sleeper cells all over the world, not just in America. Though proof of a great many terrorist organizations was discovered, the fact that they were found after the fighting and that all but a very few had any plans outside of Africa, much less in the US, the whole operation was denounced by the world at large as an act of terrorism in and of itself. Many portions of the military that had been deployed to various parts of the world were brought home. The two divisions that were deployed in Africa were left in place just long enough for the former president to be brought back from his three-year exile to resume his office. The US military turned to training and development rather than deployment, and domestic terrorism threats were handled almost exclusively by local national lawenforcement agencies. Counter-intelligence agencies and operatives made a great deal of headway against most every threat the detected, either stopping it at the point of origin, in transit or turning it over to Federal agencies that handled things admirably. In the world at large, terrorism began to seem very unpalatable to the majority of the population. The lines between terrorist and freedom-fighter were seeming to be clearly defined. Thus, many of the larger, more dangerous organizations lost their backing with many governments and even local civilians. After a few years on little to no support, these larger groups split up into smaller ones, were torn apart by infighting, or simply evaporated into non-existence. American intelligence agencies adapted a great deal of highly sophisticated techniques and technologies that stopped so many insurgencies onto American soil that the media began downplaying them, seeing them as partially becoming routine. The focus turned instead to lowering the crime and drug usage in major cities. While there was a great deal of success in this campaign, it was met with more of an “it’s about time” attitude than with celebration. The legalizing of marijuana was toasted across the nation, but that was short-lived after the introduction of

harsher penalties for the abuse of alcohol and other controlled substances. The harsher penalties had been in place in other countries for a great many years prior to their arrival in the US, but were not wholly determined by the voting public. Congress drafted the laws and put them to the polls, but the voters went in favor of them by only a very small margin. Many and more resented this fact, saying that using drugs only at home was not good enough and that public intoxication was covered under the constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness. Overseas: Due to the focus on the anti-drug movement, the military was called in to lend support in preventing drugs from getting into the country in the first place. The Coast Guard had been paramount in this effort, but had no authority beyond American territorial waters. In much the same way that peacekeeping deployments were used, anti-drug deployments now became the focus of the military. In collaboration with many governments around the world in an effort to shut down the initial production centers. Three years of effort reduced the opium production in the Middle East by roughly 95%. The next area of interest was South America, the UN coordinating the efforts between local and peacekeeping forces. The mandate for all support forces must be either lightly or completely unarmed in order to help ensure peaceful solutions to confrontations. Due to the high financial backing of the major drug cartels, the mercenaries and enforcers that were hired did in fact have very good equipment and weaponry, providing a far sturdier resistance than anticipated. The greatest success was found on the southern shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Being a short hop from the continental US, this coastline became the long string of immobile footholds for American forces and a welcome series of open ports for allied forces. However, the farther inland the conflict moved, and the more mountainous the terrain became, armed resistance was much more commonly entrenched in fortified positions. This, out of necessity, led to the use of heavier and heavier weaponry, from machine guns, to mortars and finally to artillery. The targeting systems used by modern militaries, combined with the remoteness of the production facilities ensured that civilians remained out of the line of fire. However, due to the power of the ordinance being used, a great many accusations of brutality and excessive force came to the fore very quickly. Though the conflicts were very short, they were very well-documented, both by news corespondents and military personnel, the lethality was not received well at all by the majority of the world. In the years after the major Middle East Conflicts, South America had

been experiencing a great deal of political turmoil, spilling across borders almost constantly. As a result, a great many nations fragmented or even consumed portions of their neighbors. One of the new, and also more aggressive, nations was known to many as El Tigre. Its territory was largely a splinter off of Brazil, along with Peru and had managed to build a fairly substantial military force. In mid 2037, near the time of the apex of the raids into Cartel Territory, El Tigre launched launched a massive assault into Equador with the intent of conquering it completely. The US forces stationed there numbered roughly one battalion and were completely overwhelmed, dying to the last man. The diplomatic community was very upset, though the forces of El Tigre wrote off the losses as mere collateral damage. The newly reformed War Department of the US went against orders and doctrine and sent in roughly two divisions into Son Nuevo Nationale as a retaliatory action. Due to the newer, extensive training the US Forces completely annihilated the three corps of Son Nuevo Nationale soldiers that composed the local military. Due the nano-precise operation of the modern American military, there were next to zero civilian casualties during the whole month of fighting. In that time, the greatly outnumbered Americans had completely killed off the entire military. Since the small republic had no military ground forces of any kind and their Air Force and Navy had surrendered, Son Nuevo Nationale became something of a police state, until the civilian population realized that while somewhat oafish, the Americans treated them far better than the last regime ever did. Business infrastructure remained almost completely in tact, the only difference was that the military contractors had almost no clients. Americans spent money here and there on the local market, though the amounts increased as time went by, keeping the economy alive and only furthering the relationship between the American Commanding General and the newly reinstated Prime Minister. The world press berated the entire incident as a war crime. The US forces that had in effect conquered a small nation, claimed that soldiers killing soldiers did not constitute a war crime. The UN voted unanimously for the first time in more than fifty years. The order came down that all US forces had to leave the country and the government would have to make reparations for the damages done to the small country. According to the rumor mill in D.C. the Division Commander declared on the congress floor that if returning territory to Brazil, giving the local population a greatly more stable and gentle government then they had before and removing nearly three quarters of the enforcement for the Cartels was a war crime, then he would do the exact same thing over and over again.

Brazil was happy to have sovereign territory returned, but they resented that fact that they had been unable to do so on their own. The parliament of Equador, while grateful, did not at all enjoy the notion of, in effect, being conquered by two armies, even if one was a great deal more civil than the last. The leaders of South America decided eventually that they would rather continue the campaign against the drug cartels on their own, without outside interference, especially from the Americans, whom they had come to regard as pushy. US forces stoutly declared that they simply got better results, but these arguments fell on deaf ears. Over the intervening months, relations with the rest of the world began to steadily decline. In 2045 the UN finally ordered that all US military forces deployed overseas be returned home, so that the influence of that military may be broken and the host nations might consolidate control over their own territory. Most of the US Congress stubbornly refused, saying that these soldiers and sailors were protecting not only American interests, but entire nations by their mere presence. The withdrawal of US forces from their posts around the world was a lengthy one. Those stationed in Germany and South Korea were amongst the first back, leaders in each government agreeing that those conflicts had been resolved long ago. Aside from embassies all over that world, US forces left Europe and then all of Asia, followed by Africa. The forces in South America took the longest to pull out. The continuing fighting in the region had left a very distinct impression on the local population, most of whom were in favor of keeping at least some of the high ranking officers in country, to at least train the new military forces. Some of the population of a few countries wanted to let them take public office. With many sad eyes, the Americans finally finally left the shores of South America in 2050. Though their families were more than happy to seem come home, much of the befriended civilian population began to harbor feelings of resentment towards those that they considered to be abandoning them. Though the government agreed that they needed to handle the cartels on their own terms, a great many media moguls stuck to and loudly voiced the opinion that the Americans had in fact left them in a weakened state, though the infrastructure of a great many of the smaller countries had been somewhat strengthened by the American military buying food from the local markets. Similar circumstances existed in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia and Iraq especially. The worldwide homecoming happened far too suddenly. The newly elected president had been strongly opposed the the total withdrawal of the entire US military presence from the world stage, so a great many diplomatic

channels found themselves blocking, and eventually being cut off altogether in some cases. The few exceptions were nations such as Canada, Mexico and Panama, all of whom maintained strong trade relations due to proximity and a neutral-leaning-towards-friendly political attitudes. Over the next eight years, resentment became became anger. The UN mandate stood firm, and the US kept the military at home, though the economy managed to flourish, due to the refinement of fusion and hydroponics technology as well as a slow but steady decline of crime stemmed from “natural causes” as the popular media put it. Invasion: The year 2062 saw a massive shift in world politics. Political and military power centers shifted locations in a great many countries, most notably those bordering the southern Atlantic Ocean and along the Pacific Rim. US observation satellites had incredibly sophisticated detection technology, ranging from not only radar and infra red, but also kinetic sensors and active UV scanning. All of this led to the flow of information regarding world troop movements. There were massive buildups of both personnel and materiel in a great many strategic locations. This was cause for great concern for the people of America, as it was never any one country who was shifting their forces, but many. The UN was notified of what appeared to be a joint worldwide declaration of war, but the UN cited that how other nations chose to conduct their training was their own business. Most of the American military had risen through the ranks thought the heat of battle first and foremost, so they listened to their instincts rather than nothing but orders. No ship in the Navy was at harbor any longer than it took to restock supplies. Many of the Army Divisions were distributed evenly along the eastern and western coastlines. The borders of Canada and Mexico were not reenforced, but the countries were both asked to deny access if anyone should want to fight purely by land. The highest-ranking Generals and Admirals took their information and opinions to Congress, but the idea that nearly three-quarters of the worlds nations had joined forces and conspired to invade American sovereign territory in a full-scale war. It was far too ridiculous a notion, as one senator said, seeing that American military training and technology so far outpaced any other country that attacking us would be completely futile. The military tried to explain through gritting teeth that it was not one nation but dozens and the sheer weight of numbers posed a very significant threat. Some of the members of congress began to change their minds when foreign Naval blockades began denying access to any American merchant ship trying to enter any port outside of their own territorial waters. In the

modern state of the world economy, no nation could be completely autonomous. The US still relied on a certain amount of trade across the oceans in order to keep the monetary flow from coming to a stop. There was also a great deal of export that was being halted. The demand for the goods had not gone down, but the militaries of those same nations that the ships were the ones blockading. Though the US made many appeals to the international community, individual countries as well, but with a very few exceptions of longtime allies who had decided to back off to a neutral standing, rather than joining in the hostilities. However, things truly came to a head when three unarmed bulk cargo freighters were escorted past blockades in the Indian Ocean by a mediumweight battle cruiser. The local navy vessels were armed with Phalanx gatling guns for close fighting along with surface-to-air missiles and a variety of cruise missiles with a range of five hundred miles. The American battle cruiser was armed with pinpoint-accurate rail guns, electromagnetic bolt and pulse weapons, high-velocity torpedo bays and a signature radarjamming equipment. The company of Assault Marines station on board were to be used in boarding actions. The captain took charge of the small flotilla, and made sure that all protocol of international law was followed. No direct course into foreign water. Obviously leaving weapons powered down and keeping all radar jamming off. The boats were all single-file, with the cruiser in the middle of the line. Small patrol craft demanded that they stop or turn around, but the captain calmly informed them that they were in the way and wanted to see no one hurt. “So move.” Not a single shot was fired. No further threats were made for another three days while the six ships moved ahead at one-quarter speed. Sailors on the decks of opposing vessels did nothing more violent than give oneanother dirty looks as the American ships passed through the first line of the blockade. This was made of primarily patrol craft, with a few light destroyers thrown in. A trade convoy from England had gone through roughly one hour earlier, leaving what was left of a straight path to one of the busier ports in India. Then a large object appeared on the radar screens of every ship for miles. An up to date, heavily armed submersible battleship dropped its jamming and breached the surface, looking for all the world like and angry, spiked whale. The transmission was on an open radio frequency, and though in broken English, was clear enough. Halt. The American bulk freighters lurched into a slow and clumsy “herring-bone” maneuver while the cruiser increased to flank speed and charged through the collective wakes and straight at the battleship. Exactly what happened in that opening battle is unclear. Even the

survivors are hard-pressed to recall it clearly. The only thing that is certain is that the Indian battleship never stood a chance. The missiles it fired were picked off by point-defense systems, while the rail guns literally tore long gashes in the lower portions of the hull. A well-placed shot from one EMB cannon ruptured the main reactor, the resulting explosion reducing the battleship to little more than a debris field. The American cruiser moved straight through that as well, seeming not to stop for breath. After sinking three more vessels, all American ships were heading for home. The rest of the world followed them. It has been said in many different works that the invasion fleet that assaulted Normandy Beach in 1944 was the most awesome sight that people had ever seen. Ten times that number of ships assaulted both major coastlines of the continental United States on January 23rd, 2063. The fully mobilized American Navy was tearing through the oncoming enemy ships with tactics that could only be described as ferocious, the casualty ratio was nothing short of staggering. American cruisers ripped apart enemy vessels twice their size, battleships reduced enemy flotillas to slag. Tactical nuclear depth charges launched from American subs all but completely broke the battle lines of the invasion fleet. Only a precision strike by a volley of enemy MOABs provided the first opening in the American blockade A battle group of five carries, ten assault ships and six heavy submarines made it to the coast and began establishing a beachhead. The initial round fighting was easily as brutal as the fighting at sea, with the American soldiers charging into battle with a ferocity that none of the other nations could match. A combination of powered armor, jet packs, automatic weapons loaded with caseless tungsten-steel rounds made a standard American Infantry fire team capable of wiping out whole companies of enemy troops. The multi-national invasion force was capable of sending in multiple waves of reinforcements at an almost constant rate, making the beachhead not only firmly established, but became the main avenue of entry into the entire country. The enemy Navies were able to provide cover for the troop ships that were dropping off whole regiments several times a day. The failsafes for the orbital strike satellites made them incapable of firing on major American cities, which is where the enemy forces concentrated their numbers in order to attempt to control the civilian population. With the fear of collateral damage, only Mobile Infantry were allowed in urban environments, the major air support and assault vehicles were limited to the open countryside. However, the war effort was greatly assisted by the very civilians the enemy was trying to conquer. The amazingly high number

of civilians who owned firearms, both legally and illegally, formed into a determined, albeit fractured, guerilla resistance in the majority of the country. However, not even contraband automatic rifles were a match for the enemy tanks patrolling the major roadways, or the APCs running up and down the side streets at all hours. In the financial districts, the high rise buildings were converted into massive fortresses, very firmly establishing the grip on the country. The standing US military was fighting almost toothand-nail in some places and at some points literally, due to supply lines being cut. The hard fact was that the massive weight of enemy troops pouring into the country from multiple beachheads overwhelmed the the US military and reserves. Guerilla movements were harshly put down, the members almost always being executed. In late 2064, the Incursion forces declared victory, though the Joint Chiefs of Staff refused to surrender. The small remnants of Congress that had survived had been moved to an underground bunker complex in Alaska, very few of them agreeing on any course of action. All attempts at diplomacy were stonewalled, leaving no viable option for peace. The only conceivable glimmer of hope was when the Incursion began to claim territory. Not only was it met with flat-out refusal by the civilian population, many countries wanted the same territory, chiefly major seaports, technology centers, and resources. This eventually led to infighting amongst the Incursion Forces. The advantage of this was that it made it much easier for the last portions of the American Military to fight them, however, since foreign militaries were not fighting on their own soil, they gave no thought to collateral damage at all. This caused very large portions of major cities to be destroyed, and all but the remotest of small towns to be brought under tight control. Many countries decided to truly go for it and actually declared open war on their former allies. With only a bare handful of now ill-equipped American soldiers operating out of a remote base in the midwest, and sparse resistance movements is areas such as Arizona, Los Angeles county, the Pacific Northwest and some northern states where the Great Lakes gave access to much-needed supplies, the Incursion forces quickly began fighting each other. Many of the smaller or poorer nations who had the fewest soldiers left, opted to withdraw rather than continue, but the fighting did continue nonetheless, spreading quickly from place to place. Five years of continued fighting, but the people of the US had very little idea that only a very few armies remained. With no local media, or mass communication facilities, they had no idea that the war was now between only the most powerful and determined countries, conveniently using foreign soil to fight on.

There were those who believed that in most important turning points in history, things would always get worse before they got better. People who lived years later would agree completely. The Fall: The truly strange thing about the end of the war was that it was caused by an accident. Detroit had managed to maintain MIT through a series of back alley deals to the forces attempting to occupy the city. When the Incursion infighting had reached a peak in the midwest, the artificial gravity research facility had a serious accident. The project was designed to provide earth-like gravity on an orbital space station (someday) but a freak power surge caused a singularity effect. With the main laboratory being ground zero, Detroit became an area of heightened gravity, nearly 2.5 time earth norm at the center. The local Incursion forces, even those miles away, abruptly fell to their knees, struck down literally by their own weight. Understandably, the local military authorities saw this as an attack and immediately sought to “fix” things, but the simple fact was that when they got close enough to the center of the singularity, the vehicles were too heavy for their engines to move, the soldiers could barely raise their weapons, much less walk or fight and the distress calls coming out of it all confirmed that it was all unintentional. Basically, the Incursion forces opted to pull out of Detroit altogether. Their superiors back home berated the choice, siting that the advanced technology being developed there was too valuable to simply let go, but finally relented, realizing that the cost to benefit ratio was far too out of proportion. Other large cities, such as Los Angeles and New York, had such a massive petty and organized crime population that they proved to be wellnigh unconquerable. Purely by numbers, in any major American city, people who owned firearms, both legal and illegal, outnumbered most standing militaries across the world. Aside from the small guerilla movements, there were millions who refused to be subject to any flag but the stars and stripes. Or any flag in some cases. Across the world, there were few places as dangerous as inner city America. Uniformed soldiers wearing a foreign flag on their shoulder made blatant and obvious targets for handguns, hunting rifles, homemade bombs and even contraband rocket launchers made most of the Incursion forces think that the standing American military was far preferable to fight. Though US forces were at the same time more subtle in order to avoid civilian casualties, they were never known for blending into the local population. Finally, patrols on the city streets were given up completely, leaving only a base on the seaside piers, a secondary base on the outskirts of the city, with a single fortified route in

between. One of the most hostile cities was Flagstaff, Arizona. Many of the local Native American tribes formed the most cohesive and ferocious resistance movements. The claim of a renewed tribal identity brought lots of new members very quickly, and the high number of former military personnel, especially from elite reconnaissance and counter-intelligence units, made for a highly effective, lightly armed group of fighters that greatly impeded Incursion efforts in the region. While snipers took out an amazing number of officers, the fact that many soldiers were killed by arrows caused them to avoid the outdoors as much as possible. In a very few, isolated cases, outside pockets of survivors slowly became cults, finding religious reasons for fighting foreign troops. This actually led to new religions altogether. Coupled with the continued lifestyle of devotion to high technology, there arose a cult devoted to the worship of technology. Many of those with similar beliefs began to migrate to a warmer climate, slowly joining up to form larger collectives. The most infectious of these settled in Tampa. This particular cult was notably passive, letting them be largely ignored by Incursion forces. After a number of years, there were even a few converts and desertions, making the numbers rise and allowing the cult to have fortified compounds within the city limits. The Incursion upper-echelon officers, began to work closely with the cultist elders, first to relax food and water rationing, and eventually to allow them to move the entire organization into an abandoned American military building. The eventual withdrawal of Incursion forces in 2070 was met assisted by increasing attacks by local militias. With no central government left in the US, and almost no cross-country communication, there was no coordination in the final attacks, but the fighting continued nonetheless. The final troop movements towards the country were met with less violence than before once it was established that they were leaving, but there were a few, final shots fired, to help encourage things to move along. The last thing that was done was condemned by the world media, along with the relocated UN. When the last troops left our shores, and reached a safe distance, a nuclear sub breached the ocean on each side of the continent. Two ballistic missiles armed with tactical warheads arched in long, lazy paths across the sky. Los Angeles and New York were struck at the same time by Airburst Tactical Nuclear weapons, leveling both cities almost completely destroyed. The world now turned its attention to the dictator who ordered the launches, firmly establishing the latest in the list of war criminals. Too many people had let their feeling towards the US drift into indifference, leaving the people who were left to fend for themselves.

Lingering: There have been a great many people who have referred to America as a tottering giant, a single nation more powerful than whole continents in some cases and richer as well. Some said that it came from getting too much power too quickly, rather than having a thousand years to develop a cultural identity. Some claimed that it was the ancestry of of the population, a bizarre combination untamed natives that were set upon by religious heretics fleeing persecution in Europe, then a large influx of already rich misers seeking to make easy money in the New World, deliberately keeping those not as wealthy firmly in their place, plus an overcompensating military that crushed lesser nations purely to further the gains of the powerful. After two an a half centuries, with wars against communism and terrorism just beginning to fade into the past, America was at the very cusp, just perfectly poised to implode, and only through very careful modifications to the mainstream economy and an almost completely rewritten rule book for international trade was it possible for the nation to pull back from that. Military technology continued to advance, along with the technology of everyday life, but this was compensated for by the fact that the actual number of people was drastically reduced, making the standing military the smallest, per capita, not just in the world but also in history. The military training, even for basic recruits, became far more extensive than most elite units of other nations. This, coupled with the weeks of strict doctrine training, made our soldiers far more lethal in combat, and yet able to leave the civilian population almost untouched, something that wars throughout history have been berated for since war became bigger than two people. Many people living in the US believed in the potential of their nation, saying that this was the best chance for a true melting pot, a place where the best parts of every nation can be brought together, making a better nation, an example that should be followed, not scorned. And there were a great many people who strove to make that very dream come true, to make this land hat it had the potential to be. But there would always be those in America who thought of nothing but themselves, and those in the rest of the world who thought that was the only persona on these shores. The international view of American military presence was commonly seen as a large collection of uniformed bullies, or worse in some cases. After the initial invasion, both the best and worst aspects of of American culture came to the forefront very quickly. A great deal of the population took up arms in defense of their homes and families Some took the opportunity to steal, even readily help those that they saw as saviors pouring

over the beaches. In the end, all was put aside. Victims and cohorts alike were abandoned. Then a final blow was struck as one city was crushed by science, two more reduced to mere rubble. The civilian population had very little authority left, forcing people to rely on each other more than they had ever considered before. When there were no more soldiers left to descend out of the sky, no more police to protect them, no more firefighters to put out the the burning homes, the people had to fight for and protect each other. Many neighborhoods became armed camps, more than a few high-rise buildings became communities unto themselves. Whole factions decided to take and hold their own territory, refusing to let anyone across their boundaries. Some tried to reestablish what they once had, such as city councils, corner markets and weekend breaks. After some time, it was discovered that without the continuous flow across the nation of both products and hard currency, people would have to learn to trade and work on a purely local level. Many isolated communities had the advantage of abundant fertile soil with which to grow crops, but lacked both the machine and animal power to work for the incredible quotas that they had gotten used to in the past. With absolutely no oil coming in from overseas, alternative fuel industry had almost completely taken over the economy of the US. The new refineries dotting the country were the most precious territory that any group could control, leading to a great many new battles where the ebb and flow of power shifted many times over the years. Only a very few remnants of the official government remained alive after the war, much less coherently working together. A few small pockets tried to rebuild here and there, the most successful being in Philadelphia, but there was simply no way to reestablish the old systems. Aside from portions of land as large Rhode Island, there simply wasn’t the manpower to maintain order, manage the administration, and defend the borders of a larger territory. The hope of truly rebuilding the United States became little more than stories of what used to be, A few territories the size of a county managed to stabilize. Rumors drifted across the plains and the mountains of food and water in abundance, though few had the will to chase them. Many and more decided that it was better to live with themselves, teach their children as best they could and rebuild where they were. Though science slowed in it’s advance, it continued none the less. People have always strived to have more, and if not that then have better. Engines ran on lighter fuels, and even far-reaching electric motors. Ways of generating power became smaller as the years went on, and through enough

inaction, many roads and whole town were reclaimed to the territory that nature had lost. The drift of humanity across North America came to a halt, but for a few souls who found themselves restless and had the need to seek other horizons. They carried stories and word from afar, though the names of those who did great deeds changed from one telling to another and eventually were lost altogether. Then new stories came forth to take their place. Tales of men who could slay bears with only their fists. Some said there was a city in the West, full of poison where dead men walked the streets day and night, guarding great treasures they knew nothing about. Tales of order in the North and East, where people lived in a harmony that outsiders found unsettling. There were those who told about chaos in some places, where the war continued, or simply changed faces. But, though it all, on small community held together. Every day, a tired grandfather with the help of his son, raised a faded American flag, stood back and saluted. As did his aged brothers, their children and their children’s children. They saw the sun shine through the worn fabric and felt that there was hope left, so long as they held on to it.