WAR (30 page)

@@@@@

Word spreads through the LSA President Bloomberg is dead, word also spreads that the attacks in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., are going badly. Many in the LSA are happy the attacks are going badly, they want the war to end so everything can return to the way it was while others want change. They want more say in how their lives are run. Some in the LSA didn’t go so gently into the socialist nirvana as others. Many never gave up their weapons and desire for freedom. Many had no choice about remaining in the LSA when America split. For some it was a job, for others it was a family. For whatever the reason, the LSA wasn’t the pure socialist paradise its leader thought it was. Those unhappy people figured the death of President Bloomberg and the uncertainty that was sure to follow, was the perfect time to come out of hiding and force changes on the administration. Small groups of armed citizens face off against DepLIES agents who are armed with stun sticks. The small number of DepLIES agents are overwhelmed by the armed citizens, most hate the DepLIES and the socialistic LSA government. They want freedom similar to their USA brothers and sisters.  The uprisings shock the local mayors who call upon the state governors’ for help. It’s been twelve years since citizens in most of the LSA were allowed to own weapons. The very sight of an armed citizen scares many. The media are shocked, most say these armed citizens are mentally deranged and need help and love from the people of the LSA.

@@@@@

Major Griffin and Zack Ryder are about to start the attack against the Russians hiding at the Tyson’s Galleria underground parking garage when General Wilcox walks into the command tent, someone yells, “General on deck, Attention.”

Everyone in the tent, military, militia and civilian all jump to their feet. General Wilcox enters saying, “At ease, everyone as you were. I’m here to help, not to take over operations, you people have done a damn fine job of finding and holding the Russians.”

Major Griffin snaps off a salute, saying, “General, thank you sir. Here’s a map of the current emplacement of forces, sir, as you can see, we have them surrounded. There’s no place for them to go to without coming into contact with one of our forces. We’re ready to launch the attack.”

“Major, how do you plan on going forward?”

“Sir, we plan to make an offer to surrender, if they turn it down, we plan to blow the parking garage. We have hundreds of pounds of plastic set to bring down the entire garage on top of them. If we get the explosions timed right we, might be able to trap them in the garage without firing a shot.”

“Good plan. If you don’t mind, I’ll observe.”

“General, fresh coffee?”

“Thank you.”

“Sir, here we go, we just transmitted the request for their surrender, we should hear back from them any moment.”

The response was a line of T90 Russian main battle tanks moving towards the exit of the parking garage while firing their machine guns and main cannon. General Wilcox says, “I guess we got their answer.”

“BLOW IT.” Yells Major Griffin.

The ground rises and falls, the air pauses before expanding from the exploding shock wave. Dust and dirt from the explosions darkens the sky. The dust becomes a cloud of dense smoke and gray debris that moves out from the parking garage structure. The gray debris cloud covers everything it touches. Uniforms, vehicles, and people turn gray. Even the fresh snow turns gray from the cloud. The Russian tanks beginning their exit are crushed by the roof falling in on them. The US defenders rise looking at the garage in shock. Where a few minutes ago there was a seven-story parking garage, there’s now a hole in the ground.

“General, I think we might have used a little too much plastic.”

“Major, ya think?”

Both men laugh.

“Major, overkill is always a much better plan than underkill.”

“Yes sir.”

Chapter 21

The media in the USA covers the protests in the LSA in detail. Live images of the LSA marchers being beaten by the DepLIES agents and police are the lead stories on the USA news programs; live bloody scenes in 3D are broadcast to mobile devices and curved large screen monitors throughout the USA. The average person in the USA considers the LSA as brothers and sisters who drank too much. They’re still loved, and in most cases, missed. The number one topic at coffee shops, bars, and social media is the protests in the LSA. People discuss what they can do to help the protesters in the LSA.

Local militias exchange ideas how they can provide help to their brothers and sisters across the border. Until the wall was built it would have been as easy as driving across the state line to provide help, now the militias are faced with a wall along the border between the LSA and USA. A large group in northern Nevada decides to tunnel under the wall; they contact local construction companies who agree to provide assistance with a tunneling machine used to build tunnels and mines. The tunneling project is excessively slow due to the wall being built on solid bedrock. The militia and construction crew decide to fill the hole under the wall with tunneling explosives. At 2:30AM, the group sets off four hundred pounds of explosives under the wall. The resulting explosion tears the wall apart. Shocked DepLIES agents attempt to slow the flood of armed USA militias swarming across the border. Militias are heading into the LSA, average citizens, and some DepLIES agents are grabbing what they can to flee to the USA where border agents are waiting to process them. As long as none of the LSA’s people are on the USA immigration “detain list” they are allowed free access.

Across the LSA average people, some in groups as small as ten and others in groups of thousands are demanding lower taxes and the lessening of some of the draconian rules of the LSA. Fights break out among the citizens of the LSA, most support the LSA government with the “we’re all equal” programs, while many have started to feel if they work hard they should be able to enjoy the fruit of their efforts. Battles of words and then actions starts between those who want to work and those who want handouts.

In Los Angeles the newly sworn in LSA President, Kory Booker, announces major new LSA plans and rulings. He smiles while standing behind a bulletproof clear wall that separates and protects him from the people in front of the Federal building which has been taken over by the LSA central government building. “Ladies and gentlemen of the LSA, thank you for your support of the LSA. We’ve built our new home from the dust of capitalism. Do you remember capitalism? How it made slaves of the workers. How it kept the working classes poor while the business owners got rich. Do you remember having to take your work home with you in the evenings and weekends? Do you remember fearing your annual performance review, never knowing if you were going to be fired so the company’s bottom line could be improved for the latest quarter, improving the share price so the business owner could show an increase in their net worth, maybe buy another ridiculous unneeded car or toy? How many of you remember having to go home and tell your family you’d lost your job through no fault of your own? How many of you feared being fired for simply being late or not agreeing with your supervisor? I’m sure many of you remember driving through the wealthy areas of town looking for homes that were five or more times the size of yours. Was it fair that so few had so much? Was it fair that only a very small number of people controlled the media, the government, the companies we worked in? They decided what the trends would be, what we should wear, what we should watch and listen to. I’m happy to have joined the LSA where none of these bad dreams exist any longer. We are all equal here, we have done away with the evil owner class, we have provided a system where the more one earns, the more one pays. This balances out and levels the playing field so all can be truly equal. While we’ve made great progress in the previous twelve years, we still have a long way to go in one area.

“We need to improve our ability as a society to be color blind. The color of people’s skins should never matter in any area. People of one color or another should never be profiled, people of one color or another should never be stopped by police or DepLIES agents more than any other color. From today onward, when police or DepLIES agents bring people in for questioning about crimes, they must ensure they bring in an equal number of all types of people. They must bring in an equal number of people of all skin colors. It’s against the creed of the LSA to allow our police to arrest only one skin color for most of our crime; everyone knows crime is blind as should be justice. In reviewing the latest statistics, I’ve found that even our great and equal society has failed our brothers and sisters of color. Many of our family members of color come from broken homes, they don’t see the world the same way as most of the rest of us because they were forced to grow up in homes without all of the love and caring we had. These people were deprived of the love and caring when they needed it the most. This lack of love has had a negative impact on many of our citizens. They are unable to hold onto a full-time job, they are unable to meet the minimum standards in our schools, they are unable to fully merge and be accepted as equal in our society. This isn’t their fault, they were dealt a bad hand by fate. I am, therefore, making the following rules effective today;

“From today on, all African-American citizens of the LSA will be allowed certain exceptions on following laws and rules. In all of the LSA schools, people of color will no longer fail, it is against what’s best for the LSA for us to increase failures on people who already think they have failed, hence no child of color will fail any course in any LSA school. The lowest grade given to any student of color will be an average minus. From today on, the average starting salary for people of color will be 20% above the starting rate paid for white people so that the great and caring people of color can begin to be repaid for the hundreds of years they were slaves to the white people. White people made slaves and servants of people of color; it’s time for society to pay back this injustice. No person of color will be fired from their position. People of color have been traumatized by the genetic memory of being slaves and servants. We as a caring and equal society have to go the extra mile and make an extra effort to help our brothers and sisters of color who have been attacked simply because their skin is a different color.”

“From today onward, people of color will not be randomly arrested by our police and DepLIES agents. In fact, every government agency will have to be representative of the people in their communities. Henceforth, if a local community is made up of 20 percent people of color then the government agencies and support organizations must also be composed of at least 20 percent people of color. Soon we won’t need special laws to equalize our government agencies with our communities, today we do, in a few short years we won’t.”

“I know that some people of white or pale skin may feel this is discrimination against them, I say to these people, this is only a temporary measure to balance the scales of our great and equal government. The only reason why we have to mandate this is we, as a just and equal people, have been unable to do it naturally. Once this comes naturally, the laws will fall aside and everything will be natural as Mother Nature intended it to be. Any people of a pale skin tone who might and I’m sure it’s not going to happen, but any who might lose their existing jobs, have no fear, the central government is going to be here to support you in your efforts. We will be here to provide a backstop to soften any potential loss you may encounter.”

“In addition, from today on, we are outlawing certain words from the LSA vocabulary. These words hurt and harm our population of color. Some say words can’t hurt, these words do cause pain and suffering to our population of color, as such the words ‘nigger, coon, son and blackie’ are outlawed for anyone to use except for people of color. These words cause emotional pain and suffering to our brothers and sisters of color. Our brothers and sisters appreciate the rest of the country respecting their past which was filled with whippings and beatings, their past lives were filled with having to perform backbreaking labor under the worst overlords possible. It’s not just here that people of color were enslaved. The entire world has used my brothers and sisters as slaves and servants for centuries. I’m proud to be the first African-American man with dark skin to assume and be able to serve as the President of the LSA. I’m going to help all of us undo the crimes the world did to our brothers and sisters. I’m sure none of us wants to own slaves or servants, I’m sure none of us would want to be a slave or can even imagine how bad the life of a slave was. Imagine not being able to watch your own children grow up in your home, imagine the landowner being able to take your spouse whenever they wanted to. We, the world, have caused unrepairable harm to the world’s people with colored skin. Today, we in the LSA are going to start to change and undo the injustice served to innocent people because of the color of their skin. I pledge to everyone in the LSA, this injustice ends today.”

African-Americans in the LSA took to the streets singing, “We shall overcome”, they marched in support of Kory, they marched in support of the new rules. While on the other side of the border people in the USA, listened to Kory’s speech in surprise. Tens of thousands of African-Americans took to the streets of the USA demanding the same rules be applied in the USA. They demanded the USA has to go even further than the LSA did because the LSA at least made serious efforts to reverse the wrongs against people of color while no new laws had been passed in the USA. In fact, the USA had allowed states to pass restrictions on government payments if people didn’t submit to drug tests, which most people of color thought was an infringement on their rights. They felt they had a right to their privacy which most of the states in the USA breached by demanding drug tests. They also protested the new rules which limited government assistance programs to three children in an unmarried family. People had to prove they went on interviews and accepted any job offered in order to have the government provide some assistance to the working poor.