Author Topic: The American Dream - Prologue  (Read 2256 times)

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The American Dream - Prologue
« on: March 11, 2010, 12:09:30 AM »
PROLOGUE: 12/22/1962 – ROSWELL, NM

   John Granville, fresh from three and a half hours of tough battle with the weeds in his wife’s tomato garden, shuffled wearily to the back door. Mumbling about why weeds needed to be pulled in a damn desert in the winter, no less, he prepared to turn the handle to the door when he noticed the glass rattling in the frame.

   Surprised, he pulled his hand back, fearful the old glass might give way. Shortly thereafter, he heard a unearthly thumping that he though was in his head, but spread out all around him. It sounded like a god swinging a hammer into the mountains in the distance.

   Granville opened his mouth, frozen into indecision by the unnatural events surrounding him. As the terrible waves of sound grew louder, paternal instinct finally overcame terror and he rushed into the house, where his wife and son were gripping the sturdy oak dining room table by the kitchen.

   “What the heck’s goin’ on, Dad?” his son said, fear and questions pooling in his eight-year-old eyes.

   “Wish I knew, son,” Granville replied uneasily. “Wish I knew. But you and Mom better get down under this table. Might be one of those damn Russkie nukes going off somewhere.”

   His wife and son dutifully clambered under the table. Granville was set to join them, but before he could start, through the window he could see a metal oblong chunk streaking straight for their house, with a trail of fire stretching through the jet black sky, reddish-white and leaving a wispy cirrus trail behind it. And in his last breath before the earth, house, and air disintegrated around him, he had one thought.

   At least we shot down the Russkie spaceship.



8/21/2014 – WASHINGTON, DC

   “Gentlemen, I need answers!” US President William Mitchell thundered to his Cabinet, seated around him in the West Wing of the White House. “The world economy is melting down as we speak. With every second, we move closer to a worldwide catastrophe. Solutions! Now!”

   The Cabinet of the President of the United States sat in mostly silence. If the worldwide recession of 2008 had been a financial disaster, the meltdown of 2014 was Armageddon. Ever since Iceland’s financial system finally collapsed in 2012, followed by the UAE’s due to excessive overbuilding, then Kuwait’s due to the collapse of loans and revenues from Dubai, then…

   By September 21, 22 countries were bankrupt, and the social responsibilities of the wealthier countries around them to keep basic services going for both their citizens and the citizens of these failed countries were slowly and inexorably pulling down the rest of the world’s economy. There was literally almost no more money in the world’s financial system to throw into the machine, and stock markets around the world were down nearly 80%, with the mighty Dow Jones off 84% and 12 of their 30 index stocks in danger of de-listing.

   Into the taut and nervous silence spoke Renforth Heinsoln, the brilliant Secretary of the Treasury who had been planning years for this moment.

   “Ladies, gentlemen, Mr. President, I do have a solution, and in fact I have been laying the diplomatic groundwork down for almost 2 years with my partners across the globe. But for this to work, you are going to have to open your minds to a new world paradigm.” He took a deep breath. “Essentially, the world’s countries will have to be reduced to 3 administrative ‘hubs’, responsible for the countries around them, and in exchange those countries’ economies will have to be assimilated into the ‘hub’ country. In essence, you’d be looking at 3 supercountries left in the world, with the remainder of what are now countries to be essentially member-states of those countries.”

   A stunned near-silence fell. Dark mutters of “you’re mad!” and “the world public will never stand for this!” could be heard around the table, but mostly there was uncomprehending silence. Finally, the President spoke.

   “Renforth, how come I have never heard of this previously? I’m the goddamn President! This sounds dangerously like treason!”

   The thin, rabbity Heinsoln swallowed, grimaced, but pressed on. “Never treason, Mr. President, merely planning for the inevitable. The numbers don’t lie. Consolidation or total anarchy within 5 years, barring a completely unexpected event that restarts the economy. People are in panic, sir. They’ve stopped buying. They’ve stopped investing. Cash that is rapidly losing its value by not being circulated is simply being stuffed under mattresses, so to speak. I have told you this numerous times before, sir. With all due respect, it is not my fault that you did not take my theories seriously.”

   The president turned beet red. “How dare you… Mr. Heinsoln, you are out of line!”

   “No, Mr. President, the world’s economy is out of line, and you have failed to act!” Heinsoln’s thin voice rose to match those of his boss, highly uncharacteristically. “I am merely proposing a plan that should have been in place years ago. The world as you know it is unsustainable, sir! Other governments already agree in private.

   “I already have obtained the essential framework of agreements and cooperation from Beijing and London, whose administrations would be leaders of the Asiatic-Pacific and European-African Unions, respectively. All that is left is to actually begin execution of the plan, and due to your negligence in this crisis, if you do not agree to the World Economic and Political Consolidation plans I shall draft emergency orders to have you impeached for gross negligence and failure to do your duty. What is your decision, Mr. President?”

   The only sound in the West Wing that could be heard, symbolically, was the ornate clock ticking on the wall.
   

1/1/2016 – BEIJING, ASIATIC-PACIFIC UNION

   “I still can’t stand this title,” Prime Minister Jai Hu muttered to his former aide and now Executive Council member, Wan Ho. “And they say President is too diplomatic.”

   Ho smiled thinly. “Regardless of the nuances of words or titles, you now control almost half of the world with the signing of a pen. Much easier than in Mao’s time, eh?”

   “Still.” Hu replied. The ‘simple signing of a pen’ that sounded so breezy in theory was in truth the result of often hideously complex negotiation and legendary perseverance of the WEPC diplomats and economists, to unite under one banner over 70 countries, each with their own currency, flag, culture, and sense of nationalism. What took the old European Union almost 10 years to accomplish was done in 16 months.

   Pity about Australia, though. Hu had especially looked forward to having Australia under the AU banner, but after deep nationalist protests that culminated in a torching of the Prime Minister’s palace in Canberra, it was decided that the prudent cultural move was to assign Australia and New Zealand to the E-AU.

   He was pleased at having Japan under his auspice, though it was certainly not mutual. Several members of the Diet committed very public and very messy suicides during meetings in protest of the move, until the Prime Minister of Japan moved to have the meetings non-televised. Hu knew Japan, and to a lesser extent, Russia and the former CIS states would be challenges to the new order.

   As he stood to acknowledge the swearing in of the Prime Minister of the European-African Union, Sir Adam Brown, and of the American Union, Dr. Melissa Stohl, Ho clapped politely along with the rest of the worlds dignitaries. Polite smiles met with serious looks as the triumvirate of world leaders stood together, and each was thinking nearly the same thing.

   Who will be the first to grasp for the rest of the world?


5/12/2018 – WASHINGTON, DC, AMERICAN UNION

   CIA THREAT AXIS SUMMARY REPORT: The A-PU militaries have intensified training exercises. Naval battle groups have commenced significant blue-water exercises. A-PU submarines have received orders to ‘go deep’ and wait for further orders. The former Soviet bloc is massing a significant ‘volunteer army’ that is in truth a paid professional army much like the former US army system, multiplied by 100 units and men.

   ANALYSIS: The A-PU is gearing for war, potentially against the E-AU. Threat matrix dictates that in a war with the A-PU, the E-AU would almost certainly lose, unless MAD doctrine is revoked, in which case both combatants would almost certainly cease to function as a government entity. Probability of AU being fully engaged in a war of this magnitude: 77.2%

   RECOMMENDATION:  Engage Project Starlight and have first checkpoints ready within 18 months.



3/11/2019 – LONDON, EUROPEAN-AFRICAN UNION

   “Report, Mr. Thompson,” Sir Adam Brown, Prime Minister of the E-AU, requested of his War Minister.

   Jacques Thompson, a thick, balding man of sixty, sighed and ran chubby fingers through his thinning white hair. “Well, sir, the situation is not good. Despite the sharing of the AU intelligence and the collaboration of the CIA and MI6, we have had rather less information about Hu’s intentions than we would have liked. The tandem invasions of Cape Town and Monrovia took our regiments down there completely by surprise.  We estimate that the African sector will be overrun within 3 days, and millions of refugees are driving through Egypt and the West Bank Sector. The Israeli Region governor is not pleased about these developments, as you can surmise.”

   “Indeed not,” Brown mused, chewing at his lower lip. “Go on.”

   “Well,” Thompson continued, “our conventional forces in the France Region, the German Region, and the Austrian Region are ready to engage the State of Russia. The problem is that Russia is loudly and publicly protesting this action by the A-PU government. So we’re in a bit of a dilemma about just who to engage locally in retaliation. We have 2 CV battle task groups, the Charles de Gaulle II and the Queen Elizabeth, enroute to the Horn of Africa and Liberia, but they will not arrive for another 6 and 9 days respectively at maximum speed, probably too late.

   “We do have reports that the governor of the State of Japan is trying to persuade Hu to call off the African assault, but it is unclear what effect that will have. Hu has stripped much of Japan’s military hardware and moved it to China, just leaving the one missile base in Tokyo. The men and women are still in Japan, but they have only basic equipment and would be overrun quickly in any sort of civil war action.

   “The AU stands ready to help once it is clear what axis of force must be applied. Clearly China must be dealt with, but it remains to be seen who is truly loyal to this action and what is a smokescreen.” Thompson finished.  “We estimate numerous A-PU naval forces circling the European Sector. The African Sector is probably clear of tactical naval forces due to the low technology requirements needed and the small garrisons throughout the Sector.”

   “Have we received the Starlight military unit designs from the Pentagon?” Brown inquired.

   “Yes, but they would take years to build, and our time window seems to be down to weeks.”

   ‘Does the AU have prototypes that they would be willing to send to aid in the conflict?”

   “They say no, officially, but MI6 believes there is nearly a ninety percent chance that they possess both air and space weapon platform prototypes; perhaps not deployed, but nearly ready.”

   “Hm.” Brown sighed. “So, what you’re telling me, is essentially we’ve been caught with our knickers down, and we don’t have time to pull them back up?”

   “Yes, you could say that. Our wargamers do have one risky plan, codename Operation Red Dragon, that would be an all-out attack on Beijing from air, space, and naval. Similar to what the United States attempted to do in the opening hours of the Second Iraqi War, attempting to take out Saddam Hussein in a massive strike. While unsuccessful, it is agreed that it was successful in crushing internal morale throughout the armed forces of Iraq.”

   “Interesting. Send me the operational plans and I’ll review them this afternoon. In the meantime, begin moving primary battle groups into position, but hold until I give the word. I want to make sure we don’t start World War III tomorrow.” Brown said. “Also, I want to talk to Hu personally. Give him one last chance to back away from this madness. And I want a conference with Prime Minister Stohl ASAP.”

   “We will let her government know,” Thompson stated. Silently, he said a prayer to his queen. What would the next week look like?

   God save the queen, indeed.