“Since arriving in this region, we have suffered 918 casualties, killed and wounded. Another 97 of our soldiers, mainly American nationals, are missing—and presumed either dead or deserted. 126 of our vehicles and 11 aircraft have been destroyed, mainly by arson. An additional three trucks and one APC have been stolen and not yet recovered.
“Over 400 weapons of all descriptions are missing, and presumably now in zuh hands of these terrorists. Of those, most were lost in ambushes. A surprisingly large number were taken by deserters. Another 312 weapons, mainly vehicular mounted, have been written off our property books as ‘destroyed.’
“Zuh strength of zuh terrorist bands in northern Idaho was originally estimated at around 150. Now, despite heavy losses that we have inflicted, their strength is estimated at over 700, and growing. They are actively recruiting in the towns and on ranches. Their recruits are mainly young, healthy, and already proficient with firearms. In this region almost every adult male, and many females, are skilled hunters and scharf shooters. This dreadful winter weather has decreased zuh number of attacks, but at zuh same time reduced our own effectiveness in our counterinsurgency campaign. These terrorists are using zuh inclement weather to their advantage, to conduct training of their new recruitments at remote camps within zuh National Forests….” Just then, a loud bang was heard in front of the building. It rattled the windows. Colonel Blucher stopped abruptly. There were anxious murmurs in the room. A few officers pulled pistols from their holsters.
The Bundeswehr major who was in charge of interior security for the meeting ran to the door to see what had happened. A blast of cold air spilled in as he stood at the main door. He shouted back to those assembled, “Nothing to worry about, just a small time-delayed bomb underneath one of the Unimog trucks from Moscow. It wasn’t close to the building at all, and it didn’t even set the truck’s fuel tank on fire. These constant little acts of sabotage are so inept and pathetic.”
Colonel Blucher laughed, and looked down at his notes, preparing to resume his briefing. He felt strangely dizzy. He couldn’t focus on the papers, and the light in the room seemed to dim. His hands started to tremble. He looked up and saw that most of the men in the room were either doubled-over in their chairs or prostrate on the floor, twitching. Blucher’s knees buckled and he fell on the floor with a gasp. He heard a lieutenant in the back of the room yell “Gas!” Just before he died, Blucher felt himself wet his pants, and his bowels sloughing.
The turning point for many Americans came in May of the sixth year since the Crunch, when the Federals announced that, due to widespread forgery of the National ID Card, they had begun a pilot program implanting a magnetic biochip in the right hand of newborn babies. The biochips held 1,332 lines of data. Passing the hand over a scanner would show a dossier of the individual, and their account balances. By May of the next year, the announcement said, every U.S. resident, regardless of age, would be required to have either a National ID Card or the new Mark IV biochip. And, as of the following May, the biochip would completely replace the National ID Card, and all paper currency would be null and void. After that, without the Mark IV, residents wouldn’t be able to function day to day. They couldn’t transact business at any store, enroll in a school, pay their property taxes, or transfer the title of an automobile or land. Resistance was popping up throughout the country, even in previously “safe” areas, soon after the National ID Card announcement. News of the Chicago Blindings a month later was an even stronger catalyst for resistance. A boisterous anti-government demonstration in downtown Chicago was dispersed with the aid of a Dazer alexandrite laser. The handheld Dazer system had been developed by the U.S. Army CECOM in the early 1990s. It was designed to destroy enemy electro-optic systems such as FLIRs, starlight scopes, and thermal sights. Given its power and 750-nanometer wavelength, it was far from “eye safe.” It could destroy a human retina instantly. In the Chicago incident, a French infantry NCO “painted” the front ranks of the crowd with a Dazer for just a few seconds. More than eighty people were permanently blinded. The Chicago Blindings went down in the history as an infamous act that rivaled the Boston Massacre and Pearl Harbor.
No troops from east of the Mississippi could be spared for the western campaigns. The new Second Corps commander was instructed to “hold until relieved” and specifically not to detach any forces to attempt to re-pacify southern Idaho. No move was to be made into southern Idaho until the situation in the north was more favorable. He reconsolidated and reorganized his available units, and waited. The Federals were at a full standstill and in a defensive posture throughout the Second Corps area.
In a surprise move on the fourth of July, in the sixth year after the market crash, the Idaho legislature declared secession from the union. Oregon,Washington, California, North and South Dakota, and Alaska followed suit in the next two weeks. Within days, the lightly manned garrisons in southern Idaho fell to the rebels. Most surrendered, without a serious fight. The Second Corps was bogged down in northern Idaho, fully engaged against the resistance forces. The newly assigned Second Corps commander sent countless faxes to the UN headquarters, begging for reinforcements and replacements. The answer was always the same: “None available.”
Still more disheartening news for the Second Corps came on July tenth.
Two line companies, Bravo Company of the 114th Armor Battalion and Alpha Company of the 519th Infantry Battalion, had turned coats en masse. Their commanders had parlayed directly with the resistance and then enthusiastically put their entire units under the operational control of the Northwest Militia.
When they went over the hill, they took all their equipment with them. Even more importantly, they supplied the resistance with current maps, plans, op orders, CEOIs, and cryptographic equipment.
CHAPTER 30
Radio Ranch
“The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
Edgar Rhodes had just turned seventy-two when the Crunch hit. He had lost his wife two years earlier, to cancer. His only son, an electrical engineer, had moved his family to Brazil a decade earlier. Edgar was alone at the ranch. The sign by the front door read “Radio Ranch,” and the place certainly lived up to its moniker. He had selected the property forty years earlier, specifically because of its favorable ridge top siting. The ranch parcel was thirty-five land-locked acres. His road transited deeded right-of-ways through two neighboring properties to get out to the county road. Edgar liked the privacy. The ranch had plentiful water—a big spring near the bottom of the property—but not much else. There were no trees and there was not much topsoil. Rocks poked through the surface of the soil throughout the property. But Edgar liked his ridge top.