Dinh AaronMk

American Dream: A Shattered Union

I'd hazard first generation motorized tractors are questionable at best since there's not really any surviving models laying around that aren't show pieces used by old farmer's sons who take them to the county fare to show off. They wouldn't even be decked out for the tractor pull.

American Dream: A Shattered Union

Lower Peninsula

Lansing

“Major General Adam Roscol will see you now, senator.” the secretary announced, leaning out from behind the door of the commander's office. Rising from his seat Andrew Steffenson went to the door.

The old State Police headquarters at the center of Lansing was one of the buildings in the capital's downtown that survived the scourging that had taken East Lansing. It, the state offices, the Radison, city offices, and those west of the Grand River remained standing. Though the windows were blown out by the shock waves, there was little doubt to the viability of the structure's continued purpose. The former police station was with the Capital Building as having had its windows fully replaced where they were broken inward. Yet on its eastern face the brown brick of its facade had been stained with the light of nuclear fire.

“Major General.” Steffenson politely hailed, stopping with his arms crossed as he stepped into the office.

Looking up from a lantern lit desk the major smiled and went forward to greet the senator. “Steffenson, it's fine to see you again.” he beamed, shaking his hand, “What brings you to me?” asked the commanding officer.

Adam Roscol was an imposing figure of a man, even well into fifty years of age. He was as large as a bear, and as well kept as any professional person. His blues eyes shown with a warm welcoming light and a dark blue uniform put his heavy frame into a sharp and military profile.

“State business.” Steffenson replied. Roscol wasn't a fool himself and he guided himself back to the world of professional ceremony.

“Then sit, please.” he asked, holding out his hand to one of the two chairs he kept in front of his desk. He walked to his side, his boots thumping heavily across the old tile floor.

“Word has come to my ears the House of Representatives is pursuing authorization for the governor to exercise military maneuvers to occupy and hold the Great Lake coast. Before it reaches the Senate I want the professional opinion of our military men to carry with me onto the floor.”

“Or to committee.” the general corrected, “I no doubt you'll lead your senate into the backroom to decide on the show you want to put forward.

“So, what do you need me to say?” he asked. There was a low tinge of criticism that subdued in otherwise low voice.

“I don't need you to say anything particular, I just want to know the status of our armed forced for whether we want the state to pull this off before the Governor puts his name on the authorization.”

General Roscol nodded, “Well, we're certainly not in any position to take the entire coast of the lakes. Even under full authorization to legally sieze the whole lake coast we won't be capable of prolonged war against all regional powers to wrest coastal power from everyone. My recommendation presently would be that could maybe take Windsor and Sault Ste. Marie but that's without proper intelligence work on either, I'd be recommending Governor Coleman to accept requests to send or acquire men in the area to build up full and accurate intelligence files.

“But to say we should go for everything is unnecessary. Simply holding the Detroit River and both Sault Ste. Maries would give us near defacto control of the waterways. From Mackinac Island we can exert full control of the Straights of Mackinac.”

“So what you're saying is we're not prepared?” Steffenson asked.

“Well that's ultimately what you men in the suits think.” Roscol declared, tapping his knuckled on the desk for emphasis, “When it comes down to the table it's up to you on whether or not you press certain things on our enemies through the diplomatic process. I wouldn't recommend trying to push total authority since we may not have the manpower for that sort of prolonged push.”

“I get what you're at.”

“Of course.”

“In the end then it won't be worth the state to push for everything the House may be pushing. Good to know general. I think we came to a productive conclusion.” Steffenson rose, “But, I'm going to want this to be put into paper and issued to the Senate by next week so we have written and signed word as proof.”

“A stink will still be raised by the House if you shoot down their bill and send it back on it, but they'll still moan.” Roscol added, “But I will. I'll write it out and throw in numbers for your benefit. Have fun.”

“And you too.”

Upper Peninsula

Escanaba

The air smelled heavy of pine sap as the woods echoed with the noise and chatter of men entering the the thick forests north of Escanaba proper. Horses neighed as their drivers lead them along down dirty two-tracks into the woods that dotted the quilted landscape of northern Michigan. In the post-war world, the old world had charitably carved the countryside into parcels with the inter-lapping straight roads that ran through the country and the forests. Many of these plots sold off to the post-war lumber barons by the state who built from them the timber empires of the Upper Peninsula.

“Hey, Marc!” a man called out in the work line. His head still thrumming from a fading hangover Marc turned to look at who called him out as they meandered through the forest, passing spindly furs and birches still naked from winter.

Running up from behind him a spindly grasshopper of a man bound through the muck with explosive excitement and a devlish glow in his eyes. His pack of gear flapped from his out stretched hand as he held his balance to keep from slipping through the treacherous spring-time mud with his jump. “You're a pretty cheeky cunt, eh?” the little weasel whipped and hollered.

“What about it?” Marc grumbled, hoisting his own bound gear higher up on his shoulder.

“Well shit brother, thinkin' you can take Jethro Toole as ya did, yea?” he laughed, “Shit brother, he really walloped you a fuckin' good one. I'm surprised you came in to work today!”

“I did what?” Marc asked.

Laughing, the little rat of a man wooped and hollered, “Aw shit!” he cackled, “You were really fuckin' wasted then! I don't fucking believe it!”

“I guess you haven't quite heard of dha McTarson name!” roared another lumber jack with a dry whipping crack in his voice, “Everyone with that name can slam it down and walk dha next day.”

“Apparently dhey all gotta head ah' steel.” laughed another.

“Oh brother, the way fuckin' Toole threw your face against the side of the bar I thought you were done for sure!” the scrawny man exclaimed. “I ain't seen shit like that ever. Fucking wild!”

“Flannagan you stupid piece of shit, maybe if'er weren't born as a Troll you'da known fighting when you see it. Dhat fight was just a bout ah' roudy sex is all.” someone laughed.

“Oh, while we're trying to sound all tough and shit, Flannagan answer me this: ya ever bagged a buck when you lived under that bridge of yours?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Flannagan demanded.

“Because it determines if I get to whip you dead.”

American Dream: A Shattered Union

Any chance I could get in on this as a part of Canada?

@Jotunn Draugr

I don't see a reason why not.

Go through the Alphabet before someone posts a My Little Pony Picture

American Dream: A Shattered Union

@Dinh AaronMk

Other nations have mentioned the use of ironclads, and as for the steam tanks, the US Army experimented with them. As often as we consider steam power the realm of ships and trains, for a time, it isn't nearly as impractical as we tend to think. Multiple early cars were steam-powered, and of course there's the Army experiments I mentioned. In fact, there was a modern steam car that reached 140 or so mp/h, but it used propane and not coal, because coal is a really terrible power source. Also it looks like an SR-71.

Just for reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_tank
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Wheel_Tank
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1209015/Success-British-steam-supercar-smashes-100-year-old-land-speed-record.html

It's worth noting that the tracked one used steam because it had a flamethrower on it, because everyone in 1918 was presumably a massive fan of steampunk.

@Keyguyperson

The thing with the tanks is that you probably didn't read what ended the projects. Both of them were ended early because they couldn't be maneuvered or were incredibly vulnerable.

The Steam Tank America for instance broke down in the middle of a simple parade and it came out as being vulnerable in the field during the First World War and had to be withdrawn before something happened and killed the crew. Its reservoirs and heating components too were too large and there was massive cooling problems.

The steam car too is a product of modern engineering with the network of modern science in place, which I highly doubt would survive the apocalypse. It's a case of mismatched priorities.

American Dream: A Shattered Union

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

That's where most of the problems I expected were, mainly because a state shouldn't be capable of operating a carrier in general. I threw it in as an actual military vessel at the last moment for the hell of it, without really considering the sheer size making it literally invincible despite the intended lackluster complement. I'd originally planned for it to be a civilian vessel that rarely leaves port, I'll switch it to that, deflate the numbers, and maybe throw in a couple extra ironclads. Or just the North Carolina. Actually, I think I'll go with that. It fits better with the "It'll make you shit your pants but isn't capable of much else" idea behind the Commune Navy.

@Keyguyperson

I'm generally a little uneasy with the ironclads to, but will hold off on Clocktower for that.

For the Enterprise it'd probably be best scrapped right away or turned into a squatter's den akin to Rivet City. No one should be able to get it back up into sailing order nor may there be enough engineers to properly re-activate the nuclear reactors (or transport radioactive materials).

I would, however, like to know just what sort of stuff I'm dealing with when it comes to the rest of my military. Do WWII-era tanks make sense? Should I only be using the very first tanks ever to be built? What about wood and canvas scout planes, nobody's even mentioned anything like that, but it seems like a pretty logical thing to use given the fact that people are capable of operating pickup trucks and frankentanks.

Tanks the way you describe wouldn't be really possible to begin with. Especially steam powered ones. They'd be way too heavy to move, too big to be effective, and over all steam or coal power would be ineffective to begin with. Tanks aren't very giving when it comes to space to begin with and a steam-powered engine or anything that's not the present fuel would cause too much of a re-ordering of the internal compartments to even put people in.

Not to mention with a steam boiler at your back what's already sitting in hell on earth would become not only uncomfortable but probably dangerous, either through too much heat forcing heat exhaustion or the steam building up too much pressure and exploding without provocation.

The population was originally 1.6 or so, then 3.6, then it ended up here because I kept moving it around and nothing seemed right. Clock has a population of 6.3 million, while some nations have it at 3, others below two, I really didn't know where to put it. Given your comment, I'd guess putting it around three million would be preferable?

I'd compare yourself against your neighbors and balance out with what they're going for. On principle about half of Michigan's present population died between the nukes and now over general starvation. Byrd seems to have done roughly the same amount of cutting if not more.

American Dream: A Shattered Union

The writing process for composing a prime Michigan post.

Hider

American Dream: A Shattered Union

@Keyguyperson

Right up and of immediate concern is the population. It feels high.

EDIT - Carrying on into military I have to offer a "Probably big no".

American Dream: A Shattered Union

@Dinh AaronMkDammit mate, I'm trying to make it look more appealing >_>

@ClocktowerEchos

There's a reason the Mormons picked the area to be their promised land after being kicked out of Missouri. ;D

American Dream: A Shattered Union

Here's the GM with a friendly reminder that right next to Cali is Nevada which houses the Vegas Strip

@ClocktowerEchos

I'mma have to stop here to say something:

Given no central government holding Vegas anymore wouldn't really mean much. Vegas is only as important as it is because it's one of a few places in the US where gambling is legal, or rather Nevada is one of the few states in the US where gambling is legal and where Vegas occupies a rather fortunate position in terms of municipal government. Or as far as Paradise goes which is where the Vegas we know and love is.

Vegas now would loose its charm and be another desert ghost town when the old crowd can't get there anymore, and when any post-apocalypse society can re-write the laws on their own terms to make gambling legal in their territories. Big gambling cities like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Buluxi, Monte Negro, Macau, and elsewhere are only big because they're oasises of legal gambling.

The more places that open up to gambling, or even lack the ability to regulate gambling the less valuable these places become. So saying Las Vegas is important because "muh gambling revenue" is untrue when any state can choose to have legal gambling or simply not enforce whatever gambling laws they got.

So the only value with Vegas would be trying to pick up the clusterfuck of Hoover Dam, which being a big power plant has itself probably been hit and the Colorado River allowed to run free again.