The Republic of Scotland in T2K

[Rainbow Six]

Evening,

I've been doing some work on my own country recently, and thought I'd post the following write up which details the self proclaimed Republic of Scotland.

It is a draft work at the moment, and will eventually form part of a larger work (hopefully!), so your comments and feedback are not only welcomed, they're positively encouraged.

BTW, as usual with what I write, whilst parts are inspired by canon, it's not canonical and is not intended to be.

Cheers

Dave


The Republic of Scotland

Located approximately thirty miles from each other along the A9 road the towns of Perth and Stirling managed to avoid the worst effects of the nuclear attacks of 1997 and 1998 (Stirling was fifteen miles north of Grangemouth, but the prevailing winds saw the fallout of the Grangemouth attack dispersed to the east). Both towns also benefitted from the presence of substantial military garrisons – with a Battalion of Territorial Infantry, Stirling was the site of the Army’s Scottish headquarters, whilst Perth had an overstrength Company of Home Service Force soldiers supported by RAF personnel from the base at Leuchars.

In early 1998 an emergency committee took over the running of Perth. Chaired by the town’s Member of Parliament Alex Stewart, who also happened to be the leader of the Scottish National Party, this committee included town councillors and local military commanders.

A respected Parliamentarian and a powerful orator, Stewart was well known in the local area, commanding huge respect. Under his leadership the people of Perth worked together throughout the dark days of 1998. The military, augmented by local volunteers, actively patrolled the area, setting up checkpoints on roads in and out of the town. Temporary camps were set up to house refugees, whilst most unlawful groups soon moved away in search of easier pickings.

Stewart also made contact with the leadership of Stirling, and by the end of the summer the two towns were working together. Regular convoys were travelling along the A9, escorted by troops, and much of the surrounding countryside had been brought under control. Refugees were assigned to farms, where, in exchange for a fair day’s work, they received a wage, usually paid in food or goods rather than cash. Meanwhile communities began to form militia units. Though relatively poorly armed, these militia units began to take on some responsibility for local defence, freeing up the Territorial troops to concentrate on such tasks as anti marauder operations, escorting convoys and securing their borders.

Towards the end of 1998 most of the Territorials in the area were ordered to redeploy to the North East of England to assist in internal security duties, leaving only a nominal force behind. Alex Stewart realised that such a move might spell disaster for his enclave and met with local military commanders. After discussions that lasted for several days, the commanders advised Stewart that they intended to disobey their orders and would remain in place (many of the troops came from the Perth and Stirling areas and had family living there who they were unwilling to abandon). Further orders to move were ignored, although in February 1999 some one hundred and fifty personnel (mostly RAF) who did wish to redeploy to England travelled south in a small convoy of Land Rovers and Bedford trucks, arriving safely at Catterick Garrison several days later.

The winter of 1998 / 99 was a period of consolidation. In the spring of 1999 the Army moved into Northern Fife, securing control of several towns. They fought several battles with marauder groups, most notably to retake RAF Leuchars, which had been taken over by marauders after being abandoned by the RAF at the end of 1998. By the end of the May most unlawful groups had fled the area and troops had occupied the towns of Cupar and St Andrews as well as RAF Leuchars.

On the 24th of June 1999, the anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, in the shadow of the William Wallace monument in Stirling, Alex Stewart formally declared the formation of the Republic of Scotland, to be governed by a National Emergency Committee based in Perth. The forces under the command of the NEC would henceforth be known as the Scottish Army. Consisting of eleven members, the NEC was basically an extension of the committee that had been governing Perth for the last year; the overwhelming majority of its members were political allies of Stewart, and its inaugural meeting the following day Stewart was unanimously elected as its Chairman.

Whilst Stewart intended that what would become known as the Declaration of Stirling should apply to all of Scotland, and all of the armed forces based there, in practice it applied to only a limited area - parts of Perthshire, Stirlingshire, and Fife – and elsewhere was generally ignored (many people living in the marauder infested areas of the central belt didn’t know of its existence and would have cared even less).

The new Scottish Army included most of the Territorials in central Scotland, although in the Highlands the small Army detachment at Fort George, Inverness and the airmen at RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Kinloss remained loyal to His Majesty’s Government in Oxford.

Soon after the Declaration of Stirling was proclaimed agents of the French DGSE quietly entered the area controlled by the fledgling Republic and made contact with its leadership, initiating secret negotiations that would continue for several months, culminating with Alex Stewart making a clandestine trip to Paris where he met representatives of the French Government. Following these meetings the Scots began to receive limited assistance from the French.

During the autumn the Scottish Army undertook considerable local recruiting, and by the start of 2000 it consisted of two Infantry Battalions (one of which was mechanised) and several Militia formations; many of the new recruits were armed with weapons covertly supplied by the French (mostly Belgian produced FN FAL's).

On the 01st of January 2000 Alex Stewart adopted the title of First Minister and announced plans to draw up a boundary map that would split the area under the NEC’s control into districts; each district would then hold elections to send a representative to Perth, where a Scottish Parliament would be formed. By the end of July practically no progress had been made towards establishing a Parliament; the boundary maps were being constantly redrawn and no attempt had been made to start an election process.

Stewart has ambitious long term plans to further enlarge the area the Republic of Scotland and has set his sights on the City of Edinburgh and the area to the south of Stirling, which includes several of the surviving industrial facilities in the central belt. Taking control of Edinburgh, Scotland’s pre War Capital, would considerably boost Stewart’s claim to represent all of Scotland. Much of this region is in total anarchy however, and the NEC’s forces currently lack the manpower to forcibly overthrow the various marauder groups and local strongmen in the area. Stewart has repeatedly asked his French allies for more and heavier weaponry (including mortars and armoured vehicles); The French are playing a clever diplomatic game, choosing for the moment to neither agree to nor refuse these requests.

He is also well aware of the Highland Coalition, an alliance of towns in the north of the country centred on Fort William and Inverness and supported by the remaining HMG forces in Scotland. Stewart has made several attempts to persuade the Highlanders to join the Republic of Scotland. So far all of these attempts have failed and Stewart is content to ignore the Coalition for the moment, but he knows that expansion to the north may eventually bring him into further contact – and, potentially, conflict – with them.