by Gene Skellig
The second contribution by the Indian Forces would be to bring as many as 180,000 soldiers of the Indian Army, along with their upgraded T-90 Main Battle Tanks and the entire Western Command’s elite XII Corps, to assist the beleaguered Australian Defense Force. If all went well, the Indian Army would be operational within two weeks, ready to join the Australian drive to liberate Adelaide from Chinese occupation.
The Naval Task Force accompanying the Indo-Australian Expeditionary Force on its eastward crossing of the Indian Ocean would seize control of all shipping within the Indian Ocean AOR, along with as much of the oil coming out of the Persian Gulf as they could get their hands on.
The American Carrier Battle Groups that were operating in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman had been destroyed in the initial strikes. A third CBG had intercepted a cruise-ship loaded with a reinforced battalion of Chinese soldiers, along with two Ro-Ro ships carrying the force’s armor and transport vehicles. Immediately after the American CBG had taken out the Chinese force bound for Zimbabwe, it was destroyed by a nuclear-tipped SLCM from an accompanying Chinese destroyer. This left the Indian Navy, with its two Russian-manufactured aircraft carriers, as the sole naval power in the Indian Ocean.
27
PRIME MINISTER CURROTHERS
16 June: 27 Days After NEW
When he was sworn in as Prime Minister, Christopher Currothers was finally in a position to make a difference. After ten years working on the Afghanistan file, first as “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary” and later as the “Special Representative of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan”, Chris knew what a failed nation was. Rather than restoring the floundering Canadian economy as he had set out to do when he was first elected, he was now faced with the utter devastation and hopelessness of a global thermonuclear war.
He had been elected on a solid platform of fiscal reforms designed to greatly reduce the size of government, a plan to re-structure the Canadian economy around domestic production, and a plan to return Canada to the gold standard. The actual re-issue of the Canadian currency as the Canadian Dollar-Gold, CDN $G, had been a difficult task. He had harmonized his launch with President Parker’s new US Dollar-Gold standard, pegged at $G 10,000 per ounce. Effectively, the Canadian and US currencies were now simply receipts for the one true international monetary standard – pure gold. But, since Canada had been manipulated into selling off most of her gold reserves by the Federal Reserve during the Greenspan years, Canada had very little gold to work with.
To resolve this, Canada had accelerated the issuing of permits and licenses for gold mines to begin or to increase gold production. Canada went so far as to provide loan guarantees to promote the rapid increase in Canada’s gold production. Taxes and loans also had to be paid in gold bullion in order to begin to replenish Canada’s meager gold reserves. With twenty percent of all gold production now flowing directly to the Central Bank, Canada had started issuing the new currency in proportion to the gold accumulating in the vaults in Ottawa and Winnipeg. This had forced extreme austerity as the government couldn’t pay wages or benefit programs anywhere near the former level. Printing dollar notes in excess of gold reserves had been made illegal under Gold Standard Act. Simply put, the government now had to live within its modest means.
But the currency became sound and Canada had appeared to be rewarded with a rapid increase in trade, particularly in the many types of commodities which Canada produced. In the first quarter alone, a suddenly resurgent China had placed sufficient orders of agricultural commodities to cause a wave of economic activity that had benefited everybody from the farmers of western Canada to the railway workers in the west, and from the longshoremen at the ports of Vancouver to those in Prince Rupert. It looked as if there could be a real turnaround for the economy.
But it was not to be. Prime Minister Currothers was as guilty as the other world leaders in falling for the allure of Chinese financial clout. He didn’t see that Canada was being manipulated as a pawn in a dangerous game of chess.
With fleeting thoughts of how much the world had changed in just a few short weeks, an exhausted Prime Minister took his seat at the table. He organized his notes and prepared to begin the long broadcast. No longer the slick and carefully edited television broadcasts, this would be a voice-only communication sent out live through the Emergency Alert Service. The only live audience would be amateur radio operators who were always prepared to record the EAS broadcast and distribute it to local authorities. They were the backbone of civil defense and the Prime Minister's only effective way to govern the country.
One of the listening posts was in the Ops Centre in the HOTH, where Casey Callaghan was training the newly arrived Major Geoff Neumann in the EAS routines. While Geoff and Casey discussed how the Radio Terminology was a bit different from what they used in the Canadian Air Force, Geoff quickly caught on and was eager to absorb all of the SOPs and other rules and habits that the other survivors in the HOTH had begun to live by. Geoff knew that Tanya Callaghan was settling Gina, Gloria and Bartholomew into the suite that one of Casey’s sons had graciously given up in order to give the Neumann family some private space within the HOTH. Their 3200 km journey from Winnipeg had been a real ordeal, especially their close call getting out of Prince Rupert on a jet-boat they stole from a crazy Chinese gang who were pilfering the wreckage of a downed commercial aircraft.
Geoff turned on the digital recorder when the EAS began, right on time at the top of the hour:
“This is a broadcast of Canada’s Emergency Alert System for Sunday, 16 June. If you have the means, please record this broadcast and provide it to your local authorities by order of the Government of Canada. This broadcast is coming to you live from the office of the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honorable, Christopher Currothers,” the preamble concluded.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, People of Canada. This is Christopher Currothers speaking. In my first broadcast two weeks ago, I assured you that the Government of Canada would not fail. I promised that we would organize emergency assistance and that we would provide you with a full account of how this terrible event came to be. Now, with thanks to the hard work of our Canadian Forces, and with information from our allies in the United States and Europe, I am able to explain what has happened to our world,” he began.
After explaining the Chinese role in starting the war and how widespread the devastation caused by American and Russian missiles was, his tone changed as he went into the details.
“We stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of the United States in expressing our sorrow to the people of the Russian Federation who were so wrongly attacked and who have suffered so greatly in the destruction of their great nation. It now appears that at least thirty million people of the Russian Federation were killed in that first strike, and as many as forty million more have already died in the aftermath. Faced with a barrage of missiles inbound from the United States, President Dvorkin had no choice but to order a full retaliatory response. All of this, I must stress, was orchestrated by the People’s Liberation Army of China.
Russian warheads found their way to targets around the world. Approximately 150 individual targets in Canada were struck. The details will be provided after my address to you. However, I can summarize by saying that the thirty largest cities in Canada have been largely destroyed, along with our military bases. Initial estimates are that four million Canadians have perished. Another five million are severely hurt and likely to die within weeks from blast injuries, burns and the effects of the radioactive fallout. Ten million Canadians are now homeless and in need of medical care, food and water.
With our transportation systems destroyed, our critical infrastructure in ruins, and our ability to organize and provide relief extremely reduced, the Government of Canada is currently unable to provide meaningful assistance at this time.” Pausing for a moment to drink some water, the Prime Minister went on.
“In the United States, fifty-five million peop
le were killed in the initial attack. Untold millions more are in need of medical attention, food and water.
The situation is just as bad in Europe, which was hit by missiles from Russia and from the United States. We have learned that Chinese infiltration of the computer systems used by the American military forces allowed the Chinese to re-target American missiles to strike Europe, South and Central America, and other locations throughout the world.
The United Kingdom has been utterly devastated by radiation from the nuclear weapons and by the heavy-radiation released when nuclear power-plants were destroyed in the attacks.
The world owes a debt of gratitude for the fact that when the United Kingdom was faced with missile attacks from her closest ally, the United States, they did not fire back. The people of the United Kingdom are suffering greatly, but did not cause others to suffer in the madness of this war. Prime Minister Arthur Smyth is missing but believed to be alive. The status of the King and the Royal Family is unknown at this time. Our hearts go out to the people of the United Kingdom and to all people of the world who are suffering such terrible loss in this war.” Another pause, and a drink of water.
“We know that China was behind this war. The remaining military forces of the world are cooperating in a grand alliance to counter the Chinese global aggression.
Here in Canada, our Air Force has destroyed several Commercial aircraft carrying Chinese Special Forces who intended to link up with pre-positioned spies and armed sympathizers in Abbotsford and in Prince Rupert. The Canadian Navy has seized commercial ships which had been hijacked by Chinese spies, and are presently commencing the distribution of food aid to several communities along the west coast.
As part of a joint military and RCMP operation that started in the hours before the war, Canada was able to uncover valuable intelligence on the Chinese intentions, and we shared this with our American and other allies abroad. This has begun to thwart the Chinese master plan of seizing the world’s scarce food supplies and strategic locations around the world.
In short, ladies and gentlemen, the world is at war with China. We are fortunate in Canada that the Chinese incursions have so far failed and we are doing what we can to turn the tide back in our favor but, at present the Chinese forces still have the upper hand. I must stress, however, that even though there are agents of the Chinese state operating in Canada, we are not at war with the Chinese people; we are at war with the Chinese military.
There will be no internment of Chinese Canadians. Hostile acts against Chinese Canadians will be treated as criminal acts. Be on the lookout for suspicious activities and report these to local authorities, but do not take the law into your own hands.”
Here the Prime Minister paused, briefly unable to continue. He knew that law and order had broken down right across the country and that looting and robbery were rampant. He could only imagine what would happen to innocent Chinese Canadians after his broadcast. But he felt it best to be honest and to warn the country that enemy agents were in their midst. It was personally difficult for him and his wife, Sue, a second-generation Chinese Canadian whose birth-name was Xue.
“We are in a state of Martial Law under the War Measures Act, as I ordered in my first radio broadcast. Civil authorities, police forces and all military personnel are empowered with the use of deadly force in the maintenance of law and order and in the protection of critical infrastructure, food and water. This leads me to the good news. Canada is intact. We remain a viable nation. We are successfully defending our sovereignty. We are reconstituting the Government of Canada, which will now be centered in the small historic town of Smith Falls. We are building our new Capitol City here, just seventy km southwest of where Ottawa once stood. It will take time, but we hope that as we rebuild our country anew, you will find hope and inspiration.” Christopher Currothers could feel a surge of adrenalin as he came to the last part of his speech.
“Your local authorities will coordinate relief and reconstruction efforts in your area. In many areas this will focus on disaster mitigation to relieve the suffering of people who have been injured and displaced by the destruction of our cities.
I ask all Canadians to open their homes and take in individuals or families who are in need of assistance, as you would hope to be taken in if you were in need. In the coming months, we must prepare for uncertain times. This will require your assistance. The war has destroyed the road, rail and shipping routes which once brought food and supplies to your community. It is therefore my order, under both the Emergency Measures Act, and the War Measures Act that all wholesale food storage, all commodities and any large stockpiles of consumer goods at any commercial facility in Canada or in our territorial waters are now the property of the Government of Canada and are liable to seizure and re-distribution as coordinated by civil authorities on a local and regional level.” Prime Minister Currothers took another pause, dreading what came next.
“The war has had an effect on our climate,” he began again, somberly. He then spent a few minutes explaining nuclear winter. There would be almost no food production. At this point in his public address, the Prime Minister felt his resolve waver. He knew that he was lying to Canada about how desperate the situation really was. His advisors had calculated that even if all the food supplies, including rail cars full of grain and all the warehoused food were to be distributed – a monumental task on its own – it would not be sufficient for more than two to three years. The outlook for the remaining Canadians was starvation, depravity, suffering and death.
He continued with in a stern tone. “Effective immediately, the Government of Canada orders that the distribution of required materials will be managed by public officials. The hoarding or looting of materials needed for survival is a criminal act. Home-owners are protected by law in the use of lethal force to preserve their lives and property. Your survival depends upon cooperation since any help you will receive from the community resources will likely be very limited.” Having given as much information as his advisors had assembled, Prime Minister Currothers could only close his broadcast with the truth.
“People of Canada, we have only a month or so before the onset of an extremely long winter. Some will be evacuated to areas where the prospects for survival are better but, with so much of our country devastated and in a world that is suffering as much or more than we are, our prospects are extremely poor. I pray that we will find the way to survive and I commit to working as hard as possible to coordinate the national effort. Canada will survive, God willing.”
After the Prime Minister’s address concluded, an official representing Public Safety Emergency Preparedness Canada, PSEPC, read off a seemingly unending list of cities which had been attacked. Listening in Ops, Casey and Geoff both knew the government had underestimated the magnitude of the coming winter, and was giving contradicting orders. Facing several years without food supplies, how could hoarding be illegal?
Casey brought this up with Ken, who had established himself at the Qualicum airport along with his crew. They had made it all the way down from the Arctic by stopping at Forest Services airstrips, thanks to a set of maps Casey had prepared for him. They had camped out at one airstrip for two weeks, partly to de-bog their aircraft from the soft mud it had become stuck in and partly to take stock of their situation. The Crew of Vampire Five got through to Casey on the satellite phone, and figured that the Oceanside area was their best option.
Casey had viewed the video-footage Vampire Five had taken with the flight engineer’s video camera. They had over-flown the bases at Comox and Esquimalt, and also taken footage of the devastation in Vancouver, Richmond and Nanaimo. It was clear that the region had been hit multiple times. Firestorms had destroyed most of the residential areas adjacent to the urban targets, leaving the lower mainland a wasteland. It sickened Casey and caused everybody to accept that no real help would be coming to the Oceanside area. They were on their own.
Ken had made contact with the Canadian Navy and had begun to coordin
ate military assistance along the coast. Inspired by the tactics of Somali pirates, they had used fast Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats, concealed on the deck of a Ro-Ro liberated from Chinese agents, to seize control of the commercial vessels.
Now, with just a small coastal defense vessel and the Twin Otter, what was left of the Canadian military struggled to ensure the fair distribution of food supplies from the grain ships that the navy had moored at the French Creek marina and other sites along the coast. Without effective national command, military personnel across the continent threw themselves into local and regional efforts, providing crucial organizational and leadership skill sets. In many cases the repsence of men and women in military uniforms gave added credibility to the local efforts.
Along the west coast, the food assistance coordinated by the military was a life-line to so many communities up and down the coast. Any efforts to nationalize local resources, however, was met with open hostility. It was one thing for the feds to help with coordination but it was another thing altogether to give up prescious resources, no matter who claimed to be in charge.
Unlike the catastrophies playing out in the United States, with federal authoriteis engaing in armed conflict with citizens, community groups, survivalist militias, Canadian authorities never crossed that line. The Canadian military would never seize food from civilians. That would be un-Canadian.
28
NEW NORMAL
15 September: 17 Weeks After NEW