The major industrial centres of the Enclave were too heavily guarded by laser air defence to be viable targets, but Banks wasn’t interested in them specifically. He was after the smaller industrial areas, the slave-cities that fed the big slave-metropoli. A factory whose supply chain was crippled was as good as a factory destroyed. He had a team already busy at work selecting targets across the south-east, north-east and mid-west of the American continent. When the time was right – that is, once the factories pumping out bombers and the new long-range Condor Mk. 2s that would escort them were sufficiently up to speed, which should be in a few months – he’d begin the air campaign in earnest. With the range of these craft and their new escorts, he’d have no need for Brotherhood support in deploying them – which was another benefit given the decisions that’d been made at the top.
Going to be an interesting strategy to see played out.
Admiral James Howland got off from the Navy vertibird onto the landing pad of USS Columbia, giving the lights of Havana across the bay to the south a long look. The Cuban people were a decent sort, who’d suffered under bad governance – the Spaniards, a spree of looting despots, the Communists, the pirate warlords of the post-war era – for far too long before the USA finally bit the bullet and put them under its own administration. It had taken decades, but the investment the USA had put into restoring and improving Cuba had paid off. She was an exporter of sugar, chocolate, fish, fruit, pharmaceuticals, alcohol and cigars, among various other goods, all of which made her prosperous. The state had especially close ties with Florida, which had almost caused it to join the Gulf Coast Commonwealth.
The island state was regularly promoted in Southern Europe – along with her sister Hispaniola – as a land of opportunity, and that was still quite true even if there had been a slight downturn in recent years.
Good overview of the US's view of Cuba's history (or at least one mainlander US citizen's view of it that probably isn't uncommon). As well as a nice little extra bit about how the US is advertising itself to possible immigrants in Southern Europe.
But though Cuba now considered itself part of the USA after decades of integration work, a wave of immigrants from Europe, and multiple generations who had known nothing but being part of the United States, some things had not much changed. The nightlife and gambling was still a major attraction, the populace still went more to Catholic services than UAC ones, and for every sign in English there was another in Spanish.
Interesting bit of cultural insight.
She had fought in the Pacific Theatre of the Sino-American War, then sheltered thousands of civilians for centuries while beached, serving as a refuge from the brutality and primitiveness of the wasteland. She had been the keystone of the reclamation of Boston, fought against the French invasion of southern England that same year. For almost five decades she had a symbol of America’s military strength, engineering prowess, desire to restore what was lost two hundred years ago. And now her storied career of more than two and a half centuries was over just like that. She started to slip down uncontrollably, each wave licking higher and higher at her hull. Pilots took off for the air base near Havana; deck crew hurried into surviving vertibirds or descended in lifeboats; those within the ship ran to emergency teleport rooms which took them to the naval hospital in Miami. Those too far away to reach the teleport chambers in time had no real option but to put on life jackets and rebreather masks, make their way to the opening hangars, and hope for the best.
But even in her death throes the old, wounded lion could still lash out – Gutierrez watched in horror as two of his fellow pilots leapt into the air to chase a retreating vertibird and were taken out by the laser defences.
As someone who loves history, that very well simulated a hurt about hearing a piece of history being destroyed. At least as it was dying it took out two more NCR aircraft and saved a retreating vertibird, and probably discouraged other NCR aircraft from attempting to do so while still in range of it.
Admiral Fletcher looked at the reports. A battleship lost, seven cruisers sunk, one all but disabled, ten destroyers taken out and two of his carriers sunk or disabled. It was dismal. Worst was that he could not receive reinforcements or repair his damaged ships – the NCR naval campaign in the Caribbean had already de facto ended. But it had achieved at least some of its goals. The enemy’s fleet in the Caribbean was bloodied, and the loss of such a large carrier had a strategic impact in its own right quite apart from the propaganda value. The TV stations would be showing clips from the sinking of the Enclave carrier Richardson for months on end.
But more importantly, the engagement had allowed three of the NCR’s attack sub squadrons to get past the West Indies into the Atlantic while the Enclave fleet was engaged with the surface ships. Hopefully they’d be able to disrupt sea traffic round the East Coast, mid-Atlantic and Demerara Plain enough to prevent the Enclave’s auxiliaries and industrial raw materials from arriving in sufficient numbers to help them win.
A good propaganda victory of the NCR at least and it did accomplish some strategic objectives, if not an actual decisive victory, like how the Battle of Jutland is still argued about of who actually won if anybody really did.
Hopefully they don't manage to take out Germany's Crown Prince, as I would actually like to get to see this character as an important military/political figure fighting in the E-USA's war who isn't actually an American, though I suppose other characters would simply take that narrative place.
“That was your price for helping us?! I should have guessed there would be one … a sad thing, but this world was never a charity. Still, better to be governed from Washington than ruled by the Iturbide maricons and their lackeys.”
“You’ll govern yourselves from Reynosa,” Pierce said. “Sharing your full sovereignty with whatever Commonwealth you end up in and the Federal Government.”
“But still … I love Rio. It feels shameful that she should … the californios and the Iturbides say you want to conquer the world. Or kill everybody on it, the californios say that sometimes.”
Oof. Can definitely understand where that feeling is coming from. Giving up your country's independence, even to one that would respect your local values and culture and leave you govern yourself, definitely would leave a sour taste in any normal patriot's mouth.
A bit different than the LSR's annexation, as that at least had a sort of informal referendum in the form their presidential election resulted in a pro-reintegration candidate winning. The Rio Grande instead just had their leaders give up their country to another country so a worse country wouldn't be the ones to conquer and rule them.
The mayor asked if the United States would restore the benefits the Cherokee Tribe had been entitled to; Peterson was confused a moment until he clarified that the United States no longer recognised Native American tribes or reservations as distinct political units, that using the word 'tribe' to describe themselves had very negative connotations, and that he was not in a position of authority to make any kind of negotiation at any rate.
Nice to see that some Pre-War tribes weren't completely scattered to the wind. Though it is also probably good they don't try and remake the old political system surrounding the tribes, as it would probably just be more trouble than what it is worth. They can still probably just encourage them to keep to their heritage as much as possible while still fitting into the US system, like they probably did in the LSR.
Edit: Made a few edits to my comments as a few rambled a bit or started losing focus.
