[Olefin]

(This area of the timeline is how my GM and fellow players went thru Red Star, Lone Star and then back to Norfolk. Remember the Christi as my GM played it was still in USN hands as mentioned in Gateway to the Spanish Main. As you can see things began to change from canon with how he had the US Army reorganzie after Omega. The MilGov attack on the 228th was before he got his hands on any of the modules that had this unit in it and thus changed them significantly)

Dec 21, 2000
MilGov puts into effect a plan to evict CivGov from their enclave in the Fort Meade area. The soldiers of the 228th Infantry Brigade and the CivGov administrators at Fort Meade found themselves surrounded by the 3rd Mechanized and the 38th Infantry Division. The Brigade is ordered to stand down and surrender or face annihilation. Only one battalion resists and takes over 150 casualties from artillery and tank fire before it surrenders.

While its senior officers and NCO’s were arrested, the more junior ones and the troops were given a choice between prison and swearing loyalty to MilGov. Not surprisingly with very few exceptions they took the loyalty oath. The senior officers were tried and convicted of failing to heed a direct order to bring their brigade under MilGov control and subsequently executed on January 5, 2001. The brigade’s personnel were put into the general reinforcement pool and its units disbanded, with its weapons and equipment issued to loyal MilGov units.

The CivGov government officials at Fort Meade were arrested and sent to work camps in the Norfolk area. Interrogations of these officials revealed information about possible cache’s of supplies in western PA. With this action MilGov control expanded into Maryland.

Late Dec 2000 – early January 2001

The strike team arrives in the Corpus Christi area and meets up with the DIA agent. After debriefing the team stakes out the marauder base at Corpus Christi including getting two men inside by having them taken prisoner. A revolt among the prisoners is staged coinciding with an attack by the team which successfully overcomes the marauders leading to the capture of weapons and several functional vehicles including two M113APC’s, six jeeps, two HMMWV squad carriers and two trucks as well as the head of the marauders, Grady LaMarr.

Under interrogation he reveals the operation going on at Brownsville and at Gulf Forty. The team splits with the DIA agent and a small group going back to the Christi to get news of this to MilGov while the rest heads south using the captured transport going by way of Padre Island, joined by some 35 freed prisoners who agree to assist the team.

Overcoming resistance along the way the team arrives at Port Isabel and takes it from its marauder defenders, with the captured APC’s being a key reason for the victory. The team digs in and prepares to defend the area from marauders, turning back two probes and then a larger one from both land and sea that almost succeeds, with most of the freed prisoners who joined the force dying in the assault.

On the evening of the 2nd day they are reinforced by a force of 30 men from the 4th who tell them they have seized Gulf Forty and the rest of the division is arriving in 36 hours. Another enemy assault, this time with APC’s and trucks, is broken up using explosives, RPG’s and Molotov cocktails to knock out the vehicles as the team uses hard learned urban fighting skills from Europe against the mostly Novice attackers.

After hearing panicked reports from captured radios of Soviet forces attacking Brownsville the force in Port Isabel prepares an ambush for any Soviets attacking them, which occur within hours. The Soviet BTR-70’s are destroyed within seconds by RPG’s then the team plus its reinforcements and the two APCs’, now mounting HMG, engage and destroy the rest of the force.

The Soviets in Brownsville attack again but by then the 4th has landed and their vehicles are no match for the small force of M60 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. They dig into Highway 100 and all the approaches to Port Isabel. The seriously depleted team is sent back on the Christi to Norfolk as the rig begins to pump oil to the captured refinery.

January 9, 2001

The 85th Infantry Division is moved by ship to reinforce the 4th Mechanized Division at Port Isabel. With the Soviets having destroyed the Mexican and marauder forces in the area the US forces are able to occupy Brownsville with no resistance. At Norfolk a small task force of the John Hancock, another destroyer, two empty tankers and four Omega ships is put together to carry the 43rd Infantry Division along with 3 M1A1, 3 M48A5 and 2 Bradley AFV and 500 replacements to reinforce the bridgehead in Texas using almost all the remaining oil at Norfolk in the process.

January 16, 2001

Soviet Division Cuba and Brigada Tampica attempt to take Port Isabel, launching an assault with over 1500 men, 8 tanks and 12 APC’s. The desperate attack, having to go down a narrow neck of land, is stopped well short of the city as the tanks and APC’s, without room to maneuver, get chopped up by the US tanks and AFV’s. A tattered remnant of five tanks and APC’s and 400 men retreat to Harlingen and dig in. The MilGov forces lose less than 100 men in the attack.

January 20, 2001

Texas

The 43rd Infantry Division and the replacements arrive, bringing the 4th back up to 1000 men and the 85th to 500 men. They are reassigned to the CXXII U.S. Corps. Most of the native Mexican population of Brownsville has fled back in Mexico.

Pennsylvania

The 28th Infantry Division moves to the Shrewsbury, PA area and establishes a base camp in preparation for operations in PA.

(We used to get regular intelligence briefings from our GM as part of the game we were playing. Again these posts are from the notebooks he kept of our game and its progress.)