Olefin's Twilight 2000 Universe thread

[Olefin]

its a real possibility - in my timeline the military leaves a small guard force there to keep guard on the equipment there along with some of the employees and their families (we have a lot of ex-military here) who raise food within the security perimeter of the factory and keep an eye on it. They have a few vehicles that they use to keep the place secure and eventually MilGov, after Omega, puts the factory back into use as a depot to repair equipment and finish the assembly and reconditioning of as best as they can.

Considering the timing they were also switching work on Bradley's (both Reman and Reset) to that plant and would have been producing the M8 Armored Gun System (i.e. the Buford).

So you could add a Reset Bradley and a Buford as well to your mix - they wouldnt have had ammo for them (we dont keep ammo here) or 50 cal MG but otherwise they would be fully operational. So if your guys can find ammo they can use them for sure.

[HorseSoldier]

Running for the hills in AFVs isn't really ideal -- comparatively major fuel consumption and specialized maintenance requirements to start with, to say nothing of the likelihood of any military or law enforcement contact likely to become confrontational. A running five ton full of supplies is going to be more of a score, in terms of military vehicles, for refugees than an AFV until you start getting into situations where organized opposition requires serious firepower to get any maneuver room.

[Olefin]

All depends on how far you have to run with the AFV and what you may be defending with it. If its the last working oil or water well in the area you may have a lot of people who want what you want - and an AFV, even one that is basically stationary, is a heck of a deterrent if all they have is shotguns and civilian rifles.

[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.)

[Olefin]

January 19, 2001 to March 1, 2001 – Last Submarine in my campaign as a player

The strike force that had already seen action in Grenada and Texas was reinforced with men drawn from the 5th as well several USN members and dispatched on the Corpus Christi to obtain vitally needed spare parts and weapons to be able to restore her and several of her sister submarines to full operational status.

Over the next few weeks the force successfully raids the Weymouth Naval Station (under marauder control) as well as warehouses in Rhode Island under the control of Governor Britt and manages to obtain most of the needed spare parts. A total of twenty two Mk48 torpedoes and four fully functional Harpoon missiles are found between the two areas, as the Rhode Island Isolationists have what is left of the Newport Torpedo Station under their control and several weapons in their warehouses came from there. The parts to restore the Christi’s faulty fire control systems were also found as well.

In addition the team recovers information from files in Rhode Island of a biodiesel plant that has been put into operation on Cape Cod that is capable of producing enough biodiesel to keep several of Carlucci's ships operating on diesel instead of alcohol or sail.

During this period they also contact the 43rd Military Police Brigade, managing to barely escape with their lives when a mutiny by lower level officers and men loyal to John Carlucci kills the commander and much of his staff, bringing the Brigade under his control and ostensibly under CivGov as well. A small group of twenty two personnel remain loyal to MilGov and escape with the team.

The team learns, from information obtained during the raid on Britt’s warehouses that Carlucci has control over the SSN Newport News, presumed lost at sea but actually found beached on Cape Cod and abandoned by all but five of its crew. He has had it brought to Nantucket to be repaired by the UBF to be used by them (ostensibly under CivGov control) to dominate the East Coast. The submarine only lacked reactor technicians which were due to arrive soon from CivGov and repairs to be made to her diving tanks to allow her to submerge.

Using crewmen drawn from the Christi the Newport News is boarded and taken from Carlucci’s men and taken out of the harbor using the emergency diesel engine, which was fueled with biodiesel. During the escape, one of four operational torpedoes on board the submarine sinks the destroyer DD 793 Cassin Young, which was also at Nantucket being refitted by Carlucci’s men.

Using crewmen and experts from the Christi, the Newport News’s reactors were started and both submarines proceeded to Norfolk. Repairs on the Corpus Christi were started immediately as she was needed on an urgent mission. The information on the biodiesel plant is also passed on to MilGov.

Elsewhere

January 25, 2001

The 278th Armored Regiment, reinforced to 600 men and 4 M47 Chaffee tanks as well as a dozen HMMVW Fire Support vehicles and five converted civilian armored cars is sent to Memphis to assist the 197th Infantry Brigade in operations in Tennessee.

[dragoon500ly]

"The 278th Armored Regiment, reinforced to 600 men and 4 M47 Chaffee tanks as well as a dozen HMMVW Fire Support vehicles and five converted civilian armored cars is sent to Memphis to assist the 197th Infantry Brigade in operations in Tennessee."


Ouch...the M24 Chaffee was a late WWII/Korean War light tank, surprisingly there are still spare parts for these vehicles in various warehouses, these are intended to support various MAPs (mostly in South America and the Far East). There are 72 still housed (and I should know, I counted every one of them thangs in 2007!!!). The complete vehicles are slowly being stripped of parts and were heading for the smelters.

The M-47 Patton is also still in storage (some 300 in Italy per "Janes Military Balance") as well as in reserve with the Belgian Army (100), another 200 in the US (currently being expended as hard targets on various USAF and Army gunnery ranges).

[Olefin]

Having the US have to use the Chaffee shows just how little they still had left as to armor in late 2000. Basically they are scraping the underside of the bottom of the barrel. But against guys armed with hunting rifles and Chinese made AK's its a very effective weapon still.