[Scarlet Storm] The North American Landings

The Americas posed an interesting logistical hurdle for the Martian military. Separated from the rest of Earth’s inhabited continents by thousands of miles of ocean, the Americas were isolated, forcing any troop and materiel movement through the use of flying machines. This is a logistical hurdle the Martian military has never had to face in its history, one that was handled by creating a completely separate “war” for the Americas. All military operations on the Americas were to be totally independent from those on Eurasia; the two campaigns were to be conducted as if they were on separate planets.

The Martians expected a hybrid of the European and Asian fronts in North America. The industrialized areas of the American northeast were prime targets, to be razed as the Martians marched down the Eastern Seaboard. Meanwhile, a more lightly armed force would strike in the Great Basin Desert. Martian forces as a whole were smaller in number than the forces in Eurasia, stemming from observations that North America was less industrialized than Europe.

By the time of the North American landings on August 21st, the American Civil War had been raging on for over a year. The United States and Confederate States had created massive armies with the intent to fight one another, armies that were critical to the human victories in North America. The Army of Northern Virginia, composed of about 55,000 men, were poised to strike at the Union state of Maryland. These plans were interrupted when cylinders landed throughout the Eastern Seaboard, clustering around Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston and Washington D.C. With most of the opposing armies busy fighting the Confederates, the Martians were able to make astounding gains, besieging and capturing these population centers. Thousands of refugees fled to the countryside or even the front lines of the Civil War, into the hands of the Union and Confederate armies.

The only exception is Washington. As the Martians moved against the city, the Army of the Potomac, situated nearby, was ordered to move its 84,000 men to stop them. General George McClellan, in command of the army, ordered the entire city to be turned into one massive fortress. He also made the suggestion to President Lincoln to ask for a ceasefire and perhaps aid from the Confederates. A debate raged for almost an entire day between pro- and anti-ceasefire factions; some accused McClellan of being a coward or a Southern sympathizer. Lincoln, willing to listen to both sides, asked for a ceasefire with the Confederate States after receiving reports from Europe and the American cities about the Martians’ capabilities. Jefferson Davis, Lincoln’s counterpart, readily agreed, believing this could be a vector for a later recognition of sovereignty and recognizing the need to defend against Mars.

One great point of contention was that of General Lee ignoring Davis’ order to retreat south to fight the Martians in South Carolina, instead opting to aid his former foes in defending Washington. Lee justified his actions by asserting that the ceasefire meant that the Union was no longer a threat to his home state of Virginia and that the Martians would not recognize the Confederacy as a separate belligerent and move south from Washington to attack Virginia, meaning that stopping the Martians on the Potomac was paramount. He also reasoned that this would give the Confederates an upper hand in future negotiations. Although many soldiers and commanders were initially opposed to the idea of fighting alongside the enemy, these perceptions changed as reports trickled in about entire armies being vaporized by the Martian fighting machines.