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Hoster's note:
Removed a lot of unnecessary paragraph breaks, put en and em dashes where needed, changed headings to H# tags. Fixed lots of spelling errors, incorrectly capitalized words, the usual Word spell/grammar checker stuff.
Ben Breeck gave an address of Frankfort KY, USA once. He has written several fanfics involving the Draka and "Daria".
Peter Karsanow

 

"How I Damned the World"

By Ben Breeck

Warning: this work of fiction is set in a Draka/North American Confederacy universe. Draka, Domination of the Draka, and any related material are Copyright S. M. Stirling. North American Confederacy, Gallatinism and any related material and concepts are copyright L. Neil Smith. All usual fan fiction disclaimers and restrictions apply.

Note: The name L. Niel Smith is used fictitiously and is not to be construed as revealing the true nature of the individual, any more than the short story "Dukakis and the Aliens" revealed the true character of Michael Dukakis.

Additional Disclaimer: The political views, acts, and general demeanor of the narrator of the following story reflect those of the author of this work in much the same way those of the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" reflect the true nature of Edgar Allen Poe. In other words, not at all. Finally, the timeline described will deviate from the original described by Mr. Stirling.

Chapter One:

The reason I chose the plan that led me to do what I did is both simple and complex. The world was getting to be too banal a place to live in. I do not mean oppressive or Orwellian, just the opposite. On TV, the most popular shows were pieces of trash like "Family Matters," "Xuxa," "Barney and Friends," and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." The best-selling books were "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus," "Chicken Soup for The Soul" and "Living Buddha, Living Christ." In music, the typical selections included R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People (Holding Hands)" and Michael Jackson's "Black or White." The world seemed to be going to heaven in a handbasket. Nostradamus' predictions seemed to all be going wrong, diverging roughly at the late nineteen eighties. If someone didn't act soon, the future would look more like "Star Trek" than "Cyberpunk 2020" or "Shadowrun," though probably without FTL and definitely without the Eugenics Wars, World War III, or any of the other problems of that show. Nor could anyone really act to reverse the situation. With the end of the Cold War, there was no more justification, in the collective mind of the CIA, for propping up dictators, grand or petty. Secret monopolies were too tenuous, and public monopolies too big targets for investigative reporters, regulators, and consumer groups. Frank hate groups, like the Nazis, KKK, and Skinheads, were moderating their respective messages and STILL losing members and influence.

The militias were making a few inroads, but not many. They didn't actually provide much of a real service to the areas they were in and had to rely on intimidation, and Machiavelli aside it is only a temporarily effective solution. Worse, they didn't really understand the necessity of homegrown moles in the government. In politics, things did not look good for the long run. True, Republicans had captured both houses, but they were incompetent enough to launch massive kamikaze investigations against the president but not create the emergencies that would give them the margin in a quorum to outright impeach and convict him. Time was running out, too. The opinion polls were shifting against them quickly. I decided that if I were to create my ideal world, it would have to be in the past. The question was, where and when? A Roman Empire without Christianity would be good, but there would be two problems: 1. The deterioration of the Roman Legion from Maniple to Cohort, to Phalanx, to Cataphract was as much social as military in origin. It would take an incredible number of plants to pull it off, and every plant is also a possible leak. 2. Christianity thrived under political, social, and economic factors that would be nearly impossible to remove.

If not Christianity, than maybe Buddhism, Judaism, or one of the Zoroastrian heresies. An Aztec or Tlaxcallan World Conquest would be a good idea, too. The problem would be that an entire hemisphere of diseases awaited them. Smallpox, Cold, Flu, Measles, Mumps, and that's just Europe. Imagine what would happen when they reached Africa. The only way to assure epidemics and then enough regrowth as well as iron working would be for Han Dynasty China to open up trade, at least in California. That would alter the balance of power in the New World beyond recognition. The Peoples who end up in Mesoamerica might be as socially just and religiously uncomplicated as the Hopi. An India that wanted to aggressively export Hinduism with all of its features intact would be wonderful. The only problem was that Indian Monarchs always produced a surfeit of heirs, who would either divide the realm or tear it apart in civil war. Worse, until the coming of the Muslim Turks, there weren't any social conditions conductive to revolutionary weapons development.

There was the possibility of Hitler winning WWII, but many Nazi organizations were redundant and mutually contentious. Not only that, but Hitler himself never established a reliable line or system of succession. A 1984 Scenario with Joe McCarthy as Big Brother was interesting, but had several flaws. At the very least, George Orwell would have to die an early death, and he would be missed. The easiest scenario to pull off was the Domination of the Draka. It came out of a book series by S. M. Stirling. What happened was the American loyalists who fled the Revolution were shunted off to South Africa and eventually take over the world. I know, it is a gross oversimplification, but it is the one I chose and I will later elaborate on it. I chose it because it seemed to be the one which would need the fewest support people, only one hundred. I even had an idea on the type of people who would want to help. They would even agree with me on the "what" of the world's problems, if not the "how" or the "why".

The only real problem would be the United States. It could always be a rallying point against the Domination, but I could not find a way to completely prevent the destruction of my dreams . . . until I discovered a book titled "The Probability Broach" by L. Niel Smith. It was wonderful! It was all wrong! The place would be a paradise only to corporations. If they do anything like this, they wouldn't be able to organize troops into a bordello with promises of free drinks and sex. I knew that "Mr. Gallatin" himself would leap at the chance to try to create his dream world.

The only problems were longevity (this is not some clock you simply wind and forget about) and resources. Because I had my time machine, I could make money relatively easily. I avoided the really big targets (The government tended to look in on someone who got all six numbers AND the powerball on an $89,000,000 jackpot.) Instead, I played the German Lottery, the Irish Sweep, a few 50 to one longshots at Happy Valley in Hong Kong and did some currency speculation involving the monies of various Asian former Soviet Republics. I then purchased 10,000 Power PC 750/375 processors from Motorola, 512 Gigabytes of RAM from Dataram, a 640 terabyte RAID hard drive co-developed by IBM and Seagate, and ten dumb terminals from miscellaneous sources with new 3.25 inch 200 Megabyte disk drives courtesy Sony and Compaq and put together a massively parallel mainframe running a subtly hacked variant of the server version of Rhapsody on the isle of Sao Tome. Then I purchased replicas of Revolutionary War firearms, about 200 of them. Finally, I acquired three G.P.S. systems and 200 two-way multi-frequency mil spec UHF radios with solar batteries. It was time to recruit.

Chapter Two:

I was standing up on the podium on stage staring out at the audience. Every conceivable "White Supremacy" and "Aryan Power" fringe group was represented, as well as a few I couldn't. There were Neo-Nazis in khaki uniform shirts and black pants, Neo-Nazis in black turtlenecks and slacks SS style, Klansmen in white bed sheets and pointed white masks with eyeholes cut out, Militia Members in Temperate forest or Jungle Fatigues, Afrikaners in desert fatigues, skinheads, WAR and Aryan Brotherhood members recently out of prison as well as one on furlough, even Christian Identity types looking semi-respectable in toned-down color business-suits, knee-length skirts on the ladies, and power ties. I sighed and waved for silence. These were the people who had responded to my invitation. This invitation was in the form of an anonymous advertisement I put in "The Spotlight," "The Resister," "The Lone Gunman," and "NAAWP (National Association for the Advancement of White People) Journal," among other places. It said, "If you are interested in being part of the establishment of a new, sovereign, Aryan nation, please come to the following meeting at (This auditorium) on (this time, this date). Bring your gun, but not your money, and please check it at the door . . . " It then went on to include a few prerequisites (physical fitness, experience with black powder —preferably muzzle loading— weapons, et cetera.). I had also begun correspondence with Mr. Smith. I went on about the problems of "Big Government" and how "Rousseau's Promise" had been frustrated by the U. S. Constitution. We eventually hit it off, becoming pen pals. Eventually I wrote about my time machine project, and he was fascinated, but I get ahead of myself.

Now on the podium, I now began to speak. "My new nation will require both sexes to contribute to, and enjoy the fruits of, its founding and maintenance. Anyone who wishes to reestablish the stereotype of the 'Southern Belle' or the 'German Hausfrau' should leave now and not come back." Some of the people got up and left. "My new nation will probably cause the cultural annihilation of the Afrikaner /Boer people. Anyone who disagrees with this should leave now." A handful of people got up and exited. "Jews will suffer, and will be put into their proper place, but there will be no Final Solutions, no massive exterminations. Instead, it will be subtle, with covert sterilizations, stuff like that. Anyone who thinks that the Final Solution never happened, or that it was completely wrong, or completely right, should leave now." A flood of people left.

Sometime about twenty minutes later I had narrowed down the prospects from about twelve hundred to one hundred twenty eight. Most of the Afrikaners, all of the Christian Identity people, and a good number of the macho Aryan Brotherhood guys were gone. I can't really say I'd miss them. I went on to the next part of my speech. "I'm sure by now you are wondering to yourselves who I am, where this nation will be founded, and how you can be sure that this guy is not a fraud, or worse an FBI Agent pulling a sting operation. Who I am is really irrelevant. Names, and even faces, can always change." I smiled. "For now, call me 'Stinky Whistletooth.' I'm not a fraud. If I were, I would have asked for cash or a check through the mail, and you would have never heard from me again."

"I am not a government agent, for ANY government. True, each of you was searched for all of your firearms and edged and pointed weapons before you came in here today, but you were also searched for wires and badges. At the end of this meeting, you will receive your weapons back, with nothing missing. And I mean NOTHING. Furthermore, the methods I used to lure you in here bordered on entrapment. Any halfway competent lawyer would rip to shreds any charges I could arrest any of you on. Of course, there is the possibility, that I might be so smart that I know you would smell a scam a mile away if I asked for money right away, or didn't search for badges as well. The problem is that if you act on this possibility you will be unable truly trust anybody. No proof of loyalty would be completely trustworthy. Eventually in your paranoia you would be reduced to a state of nonfunctionality."

"As to where our new Aryan nation will be founded, I have decided that the appropriate place to put it would be Africa. Southern Africa, to be specific. You are probably wondering to yourselves 'yeah, right! The only areas worth conquering there are places with people armed with AK-47s and Uzis, places with a lot more manpower than we have.' Well, here's the other part of my plan. I plan to go back in the past to do it!"

"I'm sure by now you think that I've gone completely around the bend. Time travel, for crying out loud! Well, look at these oranges, two oranges absolutely identical. Before I came on stage, my associate took out an orange out of the small door on this thing. Then, unless he is completely incompetent, he put it in the right bin. All I'll do is put the orange in the left bin in the door." I did. Then I waited thirty seconds. A light turned green. I opened the door again. It was empty. "It is not just some cheap parlor trick. The device is resting on a table bare of any curtain or hiding space, and is well away from any stage curtain." It was. "I'm sure some of you are now wondering why I didn't put the right orange back into the machine, or not put anything in at all. The answer is simple. If I had put back the wrong orange, I would have created a closed continual loop, which would result in the universal equivalent of not rotating your tires. If I had not put ANY orange in the machine, either it would never have been taken out in the first place, or a massive rip in space-time would have been created. Such an occurrence is called a 'paradox.'"

Right on time, a group of workmen escorted by heavily armed rent-a-cops came in and took the device away.

"These guys are taking this thing to a very secure armored car, which is taking it to the Bethlehem Steel Foundry where it will be melted down and destroyed at the main blast furnace. Don't try to intercept it. You couldn't use it, not unless you could squeeze yourself into a space one foot, by one foot, by one foot. And don't even think about what would happen if you tried, or ratted to the government. Now we will meet again at (some other place) next week to talk about how we are going to accomplish this goal. People can sign up there for specific projects, though someone who is really unsuited for a particular project will be assigned elsewhere. Any questions?" There were none.

"Remember, Don't tell anyone. Not your superior officers, not your family, not even your ministers, priests, or confessors. Have I made myself completely clear?" One hundred and twenty-eight heads bobbed up and down. "Good. Dismissed." It was one of the hardest things I had ever done, but next I had to do something even harder. I quickly sent L. Niel Smith a letter about my time machine (or rather, a duplicate thereof, made especially for him, but that's not what I wrote.) I asked him to come over and try it out. I would provide the airline ticket, the rental car, would even pay for his lodging if he told me where he would be staying. He was skeptical, but would come over if only to meet me. We set up a date when he would come over. It would be the same date as I and my friends would leave. I would not bore you with any further discussion of this phase of my plan, other than to say that it went smoothly. If anyone in my crew told anyone else, those individuals didn't try to stop us. At least ten of them spoke Dutch. All of them had at least a passing familiarity with muzzle loading firearms. The ladies even knew about and could wear period clothing. We were ready in plenty of time.

Chapter Three:

We had assembled at the right time machine. It was in Louisville, Kentucky, in a warehouse in the marina area on Zorn Avenue. After making the final equipment checks, getting our disease and immortality shots out of the way (and then disposing of the evidence), and donning period costumes, we piled into the time machine. Meanwhile, in one of the more historic sections of Pittsburgh, Mr. Smith was about to (or actually had) read my note to him. It said:

Dear Niel: I am unhappy to report that I am unable to accompany you today. I was called away on important business, which is literally a matter of life or death. Feel free to use the machine. I have even gone to the trouble of setting it up for you to arrive in the appropriate era. Inside the chamber you will find period dress and Minie balls made with a period alloy of lead you can claim you invented, along with $100.00 in period currency. Those balls will fit any .45 caliber muzzleloader. In addition, this apartment was up in 1794, but it was unowned. Happy Hunting George Washington's Head!!! Sincerely (illegible scrawl)

I could only hope that it was enough to make him get into the machine. Boy, I really hoped that he went into the chamber. Meanwhile, I was looking at the chronometer. It had to be synchronized to within one microsecond with the machine next to the computer in Sao Tome and the machine in Pittsburgh. For dramatic effect I counted down: "Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Ignition." Suddenly, we were out in the open, with all of our supplies. We had already changed into period costume. We did some equipment tests to make sure our radios worked. Next, I tried contacting the computer. The high pitched burbling beep was one of the sweetest things I ever heard. I then took my G.P.S. unit, smashed it into little pieces, and threw it into the Ohio. I didn't try to confirm Smith's position; I wouldn't know if everything had been well with him for another thirty-one years.

Then we went to work, pulling the self-inflators of the rubber motor-dinghies, and then launching them out on the Ohio. The people who spoke English would go to Pittsburgh, or Fort Pitt, as it was then called, and would worm their way into their positions from there. The people who could speak other languages would haul their dinghies to the other side of the falls of the Ohio, and head for New Orleans. The engines were split-cycle two-strokes developed in Australia. They would have sufficient range. After they arrived, they would all run their respective engines in neutral until they ran out of gas, then scuttle the dinghies. It was 1763, plenty of time to see to all the necessary preparation.

I was one of those who went to Fort Pitt. Within two years I would change identities three times. Eventually, I would run for (or rather, stand for) Parliament, There, I would slowly worm my way into the heart of the Tory Party. I would vote on several pieces of legislation, Including the Post Act, the Sugar Act, the Proclamation of Pale of Settlement Act, the Endowment Act, and the infamous Tea Act. Meanwhile, another had won his way to the ear of the Stadtholder of the Netherlands. This was extremely important. Others had found their way into the Admiralty, the Royal Army (the one there positioning himself to be near Patrick Ferguson). Finally, five found their way to Sao Tome, where they brought up the computer from standby and began the first of my projects.

Chapter Four:

In 1775, the Continental Congress met to protest the unfair policies of Parliament. The House of Commons told that cabal, in much more polite terms, to take that petition and stick it where the sun don't shine and oh, by the way, they were under arrest. No one actually came to their houses, but the idea was to egg them on, not stamp them out, just yet. That same year, the city of Wilmington, Delaware decided to declare its independence. Over the winter, there was a skirmish between British Troops and the Rebels. The next year, the Continental Congress met again. They rewrote and ratified the Declaration of Independence. The Revolutionary War was under way!

I won't bore you with the details of the war, except to say where it went differently. Patrick Daniel Ferguson had a guardian angel watching over him. Benedict Arnold never turned traitor. The battle of King's Mountain was a bloody stalemate. The Dutch declared war two years early. Britain launched an amphibious attack on the Cape Colony. At the Treaty of Paris, Saint Kitts and Nevis were given to the Dutch in exchange for the Cape Colony. Oh, and because Benjamin Franklin drank his British counterpart under the table (with a little help from his "friend"), the United States got all continental British North American Possessions except Belize. Parliament announced the loyalty acts: Free land in the Cape Colony for all Loyalists in America, as well as for the Hessian troops. That year I announced my retirement and stood down. I then booked passage to the new Crown Colony of Drakia.

The Colony got off to a roaring start. Within a decade of its founding in 1783, it had taken over all of what would have been South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Most All the native populace had been enslaved, through a system of debt peonage. We were a growing concern. When gold was discovered on Whiteridge, there was an incredible gold rush. It also began an immense slave trading operation. Among the costal areas that were seized were Zanzibar, Dar-es-Salaam, and Aden. Nor was there any shortage of new, SUITABLE hands. There were the Haitian Plantation Creoles fleeing Toussant L'avourre and Guillame Sam, Royalists fleeing the French Revolution, Icelanders escaping volcanic eruptions in the land of fire and ice, and later, many displaced nobles from Italy after Napoleon had invaded it. To be sure, we set up a simple test for those who wanted to immigrate. One first had to recite an oath of loyalty to the Crown Colony and its institutions, then one ate the official dish of the colony: Ostrich Steak, Fried Clams, Cheese and Bacon Soup, and a Tossed Spinach Salad with Side Meat bits. If the only way you can clean your plate was by washing it, you didn't get in.

There were also several massive slave uprisings. One in 1789, one in 1793, and a big one in 1796–7. They were put down with what would become the trademark Drakian efficiency. In the aftermath of the last, the Master And Servant Act was passed, giving citizens the power of life and death over "slaves and other bond-servants." In 1794, a man named "Albert Gallatin" appeared in Pennsylvania. He quickly joined the Whiskey Rebellion. With his amazing new bullet (a similar design was making its rounds here in the Crown Colony) and his incredible foreknowledge of the American army's movements, he quickly became the leader of the group. George Washington was shot. Down with the stars and stripes! Up with the "Don't tread on me" snake! The Constitution was repudiated. "Gallatin" then submitted the "New Articles." In 1800, he stepped down in favor of Thomas Jefferson.

Thus, began a different, more "libertarian" America. Of course, in 1805, we had to arrange his death, but life isn't perfect. In 1798, Napoleon led an invasion of Egypt. The Armies of Drakia mobilized. Napoleon had already returned to France by the time they got there, but the Drakians won, and that's what counted. They then built the Suez Canal, had a war with the Ottoman Turks, and seized Cyprus, Crete, and Rhodes. Finally, the Drakians began implementing industrial slave labor. The Napoleonic Wars were a critical time. Wilberforce was framed for treason, effectively chopping the head off the colonial slavery abolition movement. Dick Trevithick arrived from Wales and began developing bigger and better steam engines.

The Bourbon Monarchs ousted from the throne of the Two Sicilies immigrated to the Crown Colony, and the only other legitimate House with claims to the throne had no legitimate claim to France. George III died of heart failure in 1806 (Hint! Hint!) before he could go mad, and his son George IV came to the British throne. This was very important to our plan. During the Congress of Vienna, Austria was awarded Northern Italy, Spain was awarded Andorra and the whole of the Pyrenees and The Netherlands was reorganized as a kingdom under the Royal House of Orange. In addition to its new possessions in Germany, Prussia maintained its 1796 possessions it received from the partitions of Poland. With any and all possible claimants to the French Throne British Subjects, and George III having never in his madness withdrawn his claim to France, George IV became Georges I of France as well.

Africa became a British–Drakian preserve. Angola, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Rio de Oro were purchased. Also Purchased was Louisiana by the United States. In 1817 a massive campaign was begun by the Drakians (now called the Drakans) to conquer and settle North Africa. These efforts were aided and abetted by an invention by one "Richard Harrington." It was called the Harrington Mark One Rifle. This rifle was a push-button actuated break down action using a special brass plunger in the back of the chamber. The weapon fired a special metal-backed center-fire paper cartridge, which looked like a black powder shotgun slug shell. It was in .45 caliber. It easily beat out the competing design, one for a caseless cartridge black powder bolt action put forward by one Jacques Teillard. It won my Harrington persona a bonus of L5,000 sterling and a plantation in what would one day be Nova Cartago Province. Teillard would one day be the inventor of the world's first practical revolver. I don't mean Sam Colt's Cap-and-Ball, I mean one based on MY ammunition.

The years between 1820 and 1848 were full of boring tedium, either planning new projects or working toward existing ones. Thomas Jefferson's impassioned speech caused the U. S. to make its last binding piece of legislation, abolishing slavery. That triggered a massive flood of immigration to the Crown Colony in the form of pissed planters and other slave owners. Mexican Emperor Iturbe died and Santa Anna seized power. The British Reform Act of 1832 died a horrible death in committee and the scandals rocked the House of Commons causing the House of Lords to take more power. The Dominion of Draka Act granted the Crown Colony "responsible government" and control over its own currency.

The First Draka Constitution proclaimed fealty to the "Ruling and Reigning Monarch of Great Britain." The Opium War occurred, so did the Texas–Mexico/American–Mexican War. Santa Anna was lynched and Mexico petitioned for entrance into the United States, and got it. The First Paris Air Show captures the World's Imagination. Because almost no government simply means that the bigotry becomes faceless, the Mormons set out on their trek to "New Zion" on schedule. Gallatin's anti-Irish speeches during his lifetime mean that trade with The Emerald Isle was much lower (almost nonexistent) and the Potato Blight never visited there.

In 1848, revolution broke out everywhere. In Britain, Vicki Hanover had been systematically malnourished by my planted cooks in such a way that her hereditary madness would manifest itself as soon as possible. She never ate any vegetables unless they had first been boiled with baking soda, for example. When she became queen, she attempted an Elizabeth Bathory impression.

Meanwhile, the House of Lords had become increasingly oligarchic. With no way to gain real representation in the House of Commons and with representation not worth a farthing anyway, the people raised the standard of rebellion to new heights, almost to an art form. Queen Victoria fled to France to escape the hangman. Unfortunately, she found France revolting, rebellious, and generally socially unacceptable. She simply lost her head. None of her relatives survived, either, though one made it as far as Australia. His ship never came in, but was sunk at Sidney Harbour.

An unfortunate side effect of this was the stock run on the British East India Company. Much of the Tea Fleet was purchased by the Dominion. What was unfortunate about it was that the Sepoys were not resupplied on time, and the Maratha took the chance to overthrow the Mogul Empire and execute the Sepoys.

In Germany, the various rebellions found their rallying point around Karl Marx. The result was the Federalsozialist Republik von Deutschland, with its capital at Frankfurt. The French threw out the English monarch, and all the French nobles who supported her (which was all of them.) This second revolution occurred sans Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. As the Napoleonic institutions had been abolished wholesale by Georges I, Georges II, and Victoire, France was on much shakier ground. The Hapsburg Empire was ripped to shreds. Metternich was shot, Franz Joseph fled to the Dominion, and everything fell apart at the seams. The Venetian Republic was reborn. Austria became a small republic, which was eventually absorbed into the Federal Socialist Republic. Hungary and Transylvania would be ruled by the Esterhazies until 1869, when communists there would overthrow the monarchy.

In Sweden, King Olaf the Umpteenth (I don't remember his true reign number) dies without heirs. As the house of Vasa had already immigrated either to the Dominion or the United States, it becomes a free for all for the throne. Even King Christian of Denmark became involved. Not only that, but Norway declared its independence and quickly set up a republic and Marx forcibly spread revolutionary socialism all the way through the Jutland peninsula. Down south, the second Draka Constitution guaranteed slavery. It also proclaimed the Dominion to be the Domination of the Draka, and with no ruling or reigning monarch in Great Britain, declared itself outside English rule or law "until the true political and social order is restored." For a national anthem, the persona of one of my agents suggested the "Imperial March" from Star Wars. On a more technical note, the Harrington Mark II rifle was adopted. It was a brass cartridge repeater using a detachable box magazine and a special action. Similar to a Straight- Pull, one grasped the bolt handle, pulled it a quarter turn down and forward to eject a spent cartridge and cause the controlled round feeder to grip the next cartridge, then pulled it back up to chamber the new round. In other news, by 1848 the Domination had finished conquering the northeastern Sahara and then began on east-central Africa.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the United States decided to change its name to the North American Confederacy. It was wonderful! By this time, the cutting edge medicine came from tribal medicine men and medicine show quacks, and the odd herb granny. Whenever someone with a real medical solution came along, the fakes quickly firebombed his or her place. Everything was slipshod, and corporations cut corners ANY way they could! I was almost sorry I had to destroy this place. Almost.

Chapter Five:

The years between 1848 and 1870 went by fast. In most of the rest of the Caribbean Gallatinist forces began rebellions that ultimately caused slave owners to flee to the Domination. These people would later settle in the Indian Ocean islands. Hung Hsiu Chuan threw the Manchus out of China and began the Taiping Dynasty. In Russia, Czar Alexander IV died in 1853 in a hunting accident. True, there was no way to pin this tragedy on People's Will, but abolishing serfdom would have been irreversible. As his son had not yet been born, a cousin named Mikhail II came to the Russian throne. In 1856, The Mormon Patriarchy of Deseret was declared. It would hold out against the "godlessness and selfishness" of the North American Confederacy until the 1910's, but I get ahead of myself.

In 1860, Michael Faraday began testing his electric light and by 1865 most all the Domination was linked by rail, road and wire. The typical steam car had a fully independent hydraulic front and rear suspension, recirculating ball steering, a hydraulic transmission, and a top speed of about 100 kph. The usual price was A5,000 give or take a few Aurics. By the standards of the late twentieth century that I left, that would translate to about $200,000. In other news, R. J. Gatling couldn't find a market for his Machine Gun in the NAC, so he took it to Europe, where he was greeted by Draka there and invited to immigrate to the Domination.

It was used to devastating effect in the final conquest of Africa. In Brazil, the emperor and his court, as well as all slaveholders were driven out by Gallatinist Guerillas in 1861. Meanwhile, in Europe, the king of Sardinia tried repeatedly to press his claim to the throne of France. The Second Republic naturally rebuffed every attempt. Italy was never united, and Italian Nationalism eventually fizzled out. Finally, the Domination adopted its fourth combat rifle. The Mark II 1/2 got its name from the fact that other than the magazine well, the barrel, the bolt and the chamber, it was exactly the same as the Mark II. It fired a new round; a copper jacketed 170 grain pointed "slim tail" bullet propelled by fifty-five grains of nitrocellulose powder using a center-fire primer, known as 7.5 x 60 millimeter Draka Service. It would remain in active service, even if only for the last twenty years as an open field sniper rifle, until 1935. Meanwhile, a rifle using a copper jacketed version of the original .45 round, with a steel core bullet and a steel penetrator was tested and then put into production. This weapon came as a result of espionage reports that the Ottoman Turks were secretly building ironclad steam powered war cars. In 1870, the Pan Asian war broke out. The reasons for this war were many and complex.

The Turkish Empire was bitter over the slow losses of its territory, and wanted to reclaim its lands from Russia and the Domination. Persia had been fighting a slow, losing battle of attrition against Russia. The Maratha were rabidly pro-Hindu and pro-caste system. They razed mosques and killed any Muslim clerics who dared claim equality between untouchable and Brahmin. In China, the Emperor claimed Turkestan as part of "The Heavenly Kingdom." Not only that, but the religious claims made by this "Mahdi" were in direct conflict with those of Emperor Hung Hsiu Chuan.

Add to those the fact that Persia was lending support for the Uigur Rebels, and the fact that border clashes were occurring in Manchuria with Russia, and you had a war in the making. The war began as a series of border clashes between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, but quickly grew into a miniature world war. The Domination invaded Turkey quickly after that. In Japan, the Satsuma Rebellion was successful. The Japanese (mostly samurai) then proceeded to invade Sakhalin Island and attack Vladivostok. The Domination quickly learned that firing line tactics were obsolete with repeating weapons. The Anti-Material rifles proved to be extremely valuable against Turkish armor. Turkish war cars used inferior armor, but mounted six-inch smoothbore muzzle loading guns. Draka war cars much had better armor and better engines, but mounted dinky 7.5 mm infantry rifle version Gatling Guns (okay, so the Machine Gun Mark II was belt-fed for easier loading and fewer jamming problems, 7.5 was still strictly an anti-personnel round.) It took nearly five years to completely conquer the Ottoman Empire, but by that time we were really on a roll, and the conquest of Persia was relatively easy.

Then there were the Thousand Dirigible Raids on Constantinople, Baghdad, and Tehran. The war ended by 1877. Russia got all of Turkish Europe except Bulgaria and the territory around Constantinople, as well as Armenia, Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, Afghanistan, Outer Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin Island, Hokkaido, and a protectorate over Japan. The Domination got the rest of the Ottoman Empire, Arabia, Persia, Ceylon, uncontested mastery over most of the Indian Ocean islands, and the right to build railroads in India. In addition, the "Social Alliance" was signed between India, Russia, and the Domination. It stated that each nation would uphold the "Proper Social Order" and each nation pledged to aid the other in the effort to put down challenges to said order.

There really wasn't much to do between 1877 and 1906 except mark time. To be sure, there was Deseret to prop up, a delicate balance of hostility to maintain between Russia and the Federal Socialist Republic (not too peaceful, but not so hostile that it comes to open blows YET), and an economic miracle in Taiping China to frustrate subtly, but nothing of groundbreaking importance. My second computer project had borne fruit, and I quickly went on to my third. You will learn what my second project was later on.

In 1880, a lady named Alexandria Tolgren began experimenting with high-capacity, recoil action pistols using the standard smokeless powder 10x25 millimeter load. She found their accuracy to be unsatisfactory. Then in 1883, the Harrington Arsenal came out with pistol design that was basically a scaled down version of the Desert Eagle (oh, the irony!). True, as a gas action, it needed to be stripped and cleaned on a regular basis, but the only handguns that could match the weapon's accuracy at fifty yards were rifle caliber bolt-action weapons that were too slow and had too much recoil and dinky .22 rimfire target pistols that were just this side of uselessness. The design became the rage of Europe, but many militaries were slow on the uptake. In 1885, the Japanese rebelled against Russia. Armed with new Maxim-style machine guns, the Russians quickly overwhelmed the rebellion. Czar Ivan VI formally annexed Japan and reorganized the eastern part of the Empire, creating the Grand Duchies of The Far East (Manchuria, Korea, Kamchatka and the land between, capital at Vladivostok,) Japan (capital at Nagoya), and Alaska (with capital at what would have been Anchorage). In 1893 the submachine gun was invented simultaneously by the Domination, Deseret, and the North American Confederacy.

In Deseret, the weapon resembled the Ingram copy of the Thompson, though it used fifty-round drums, seventy-five round snails, or 100 round double drums like the original Thompson. In the North American Confederacy, Remington and Marlin came up with select-fire versions of their garden-variety automatic pistols. Except for the magazines, they weighed the same as their normal pistols. The only parts not interchangeable between machine pistol and conventional automatic were the magazine slot, the bolt, and the selector switch. The Domination's submachine gun resembled German copies of the Sten gun. It was used to devastating effect during the serf rebellions in Alexandria the next year. Also in 1893, a Swiss patent clerk named Albert Einstein fell down a flight of stairs and died (Hint! Hint).

1896 was the year of the semi-automatic rifle. Deseret adopted the Browning Rifle in 7.62x55. The rifle basically resembled an M1 Garand, except that it used a longer stroke piston and loaded from Mauser style clips rather than Mannlicher style ones. The Domination adopted the Mark III, which used an inertia recoil action similar to that used in Binelli and Franchi shotguns and the same detachable box magazine as the Mark II and Mark II 1/2. This design required the least amount of field stripping and cleaning and had the greatest amount of reliability. Later, the Danish would adopt the Madsen (with a magazine housing that stuck out above the sights) and the Venetian Republic would adopt the Beretta (a design that would prove to be harder to keep clean than the Pre-WWII Simonov rifle). That same year saw the two machine gun series designation in the Domination permanently diverge. Light, anti-personnel weapons would be developed under the SAW series designation, while large-caliber machine guns would go under the HMG designation. SAW Mark I was a Single Barrel weapon based on the German MG42 of World War II, though the Technical Section bosses didn't know that. It came in heavy tripod and folding bipod versions. HMG Mark I was. . . well, we won't talk about THAT.

In 1903, The Domination of the Draka adopted the Mark III sub-machinegun. The weapon superficially resembled an Uzi, but had an angled pistol grip/magazine housing, a slightly revised lock, an adjustable cyclic rate, and it fired from a closed bolt for lower recoil and less likelihood of jamming.

By 1906, everything was in place for a Great War, a war to end all credulity to war. Russia was stronger than in my home timeline at this time, but still the worms of corruption and discontent gnawed at the country. Germany had the second most advanced army in the world, but military leadership was worse than Communist China's just after the Cultural Revolution. France had better generals, especially from battling the Spanish and Sardinians who kept pressing claims to the throne. However the populace was getting intolerant of the exploitive, monopolistic variety of French capitalism that this timeline produced in reaction to the Federal Socialistic Republic. Italy was divided. Spain had fallen behind the pack in many areas, as the Royal bureaucracy was running out of steam. Switzerland remained neutral, but the Schmidt–Ruben was as poor a design for a rifle as the Canadian Ross was in the timeline I originally came from.

I said into my walkie-talkie: "It's time to tip the dominoes."

Chapter Six:

In 1907, Europe broke out into World War. The proximate cause of the war was the assassination of the Grand Duke of Yugoslavia by a Croatian terrorist supported by Germany. Russia then delivered an ultimatum to the President, Chancellor, and Parliament demanding various reparations, upon threat of instant war. In so many words, the Federal Socialist Republic told the czar to shove it. Russia declared war. It seemed that it would only be a regional dispute, until France guaranteed Russia all aid and assistance (the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that) and declared war on Germany. Unfortunately, while it didn't quite call for cavalry charges against machine gun emplacements, Plan IX (Hint! Hint!) did require an invasion through Belgium to strike at the Rhine Valley and a quick seizure of Frankfurt. Belgium refused, quite naturally.

What would have been a quick, easy conquest and partition (in the minds of French and Russian military planners) quickly turned into a nightmare when Britain and the Venetian Republic sided with Germany (with friends like these, who needs enemies?) and Spain, nobody's friend, crossed the Pyrenees one more time.

Russia faltered first. The combination of poor harvests, grain bins without elevators, ethnic troubles, and the side invasion of Hungary that bogged down all other campaigns for six months took them out of the war by 1909. Meanwhile, half the troops from Alaska were called back to join the fighting, and the North American Confederacy (or rather, the citizens thereof), began a massive invasion which resulted in the snake flag being raised in Anchorage. Just after that happened, Deseret declared war on the North American Confederacy, simply for being a nation of godless capitalists. They were fanatical, but militarily rather unorganized. Except in the small arms area, they had allowed their technological complex to fall behind. It took five years, but in the end the last patriarch was dead by his own hand. By that time, the only nation that still claimed to the earthly arm of the Kingdom of Heaven was Taiping China.

Peter IV activated the treaty in 1909, while he was fighting for his throne. The Domination then invaded up the Caucasus, and through its province of Bulgaria. By the time the Bolsheviks had captured Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Draka had Nizhni Novgorod, Kiev, and Odessa. Then the Draka made amphibious raids on Treiste and Dubrovnik/Ragusa (held by the Venetian Republic). In 1910, the Draka advanced west. They got as far as East Prussia before winter.

1911 was the most crucial part of the war. There were the Airship paratroop tactics to put to use to infiltrate enemy lines. Everybody but the Draka used firing line tactics preceded by a rolling barrage. Casualties were hideous, but they were much worse for the Germans. Thankfully, we were able to reach Frankfurt and Munich by Oktoberfest. The Germans never formally surrendered, but organized resistance collapsed. Oh, we still had problems with things like Volksturm, but the MP could clean them up well.

By 1913, the Domination had swept through France, Spain, Norway, and Italy. The North American Confederacy attempted to intervene, but their airships were wooden-frame canvasbacks. Corporate wars were for assets, not blood, and were conducted with minimum casualties in mind, for both sides. Meanwhile, in Russia, the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks, the anarchists, several noble factions and various miscellaneous brigand groups were turning those parts of land not under Draka control into a wasteland not seen in Europe since the Thirty Years War.

All the fires were put out by 1916. Switzerland surrendered without a shot being fired, the victim of not being self-sufficient in the area of foodstuffs. Sweden was a tough proposition, requiring many applications of automatic fire before they got the message. Finland would be a problem for years to come, but it was isolated from any aid the North American Confederacy could give.

Gandhi re-emerged in 1918 and his sit-down strikes crippled the Maratha Empire, but when Emperor Rojesh died and named the Domination heir, they stepped right in. Mohandas tried to organize passive resistance, but the result was similar to Harry Turtledove's "The Last Article."

Chapter 7:

To end a long story, the Draka beat the NAC in "Operation Sudden Death" in 1935. This involved Draka trading vessels moored in NAC ports unloading undercover troops (including the crew) and then detonating A-Bombs, followed up by fixed wing paratroop drops and Amphibious Landings. By this time the Draka had adopted the Mark IV rifle; a select fire inertia recoil design that utilized a 6x42 mm cartridge that used 32 grains to propel 100 grains to 2900 fps. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a Catbert complex to satisfy… Finis.

 


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