02: Pincher County, USSA

Jimmy's Diary
2nd of September, 2000

Finally on the move, And this time we have some idea of where we're going! That does make riding in the smuggling compartment of a manure trailer a lot more bearable.

Has it really been two months? I actually thought our "probationary period" had been longer; they've been keeping us in so many different safehouses, only letting us see daylight for short periods of time, that it's hard to keep track of just how many days or weeks have passed. It infuriated us at first, but in hindset such precautions are neccessary if we don't want the resistance movement overrun with informers.

[GM note: our confinement wasn't a complete waste; we spent much of it studying the art of war and each character will receive a one-level increase in Military Science {upon the success and survival of your first combat mission, just to make sure that all the book-learning actually took}]

Seems we passed the smell test, and now Donner has a job for us. We're more or less a ready-made guerrilla cell, so he wants us to get a resistance movement going in Pincherville. It's a small place near the West Virginia border: in the third-smallest, third most sparsely-populated and third-poorest county in the state. No one on either side has taken much notice in the region; there's just a few Quislings led by a local ex-con, so it shouldn't be too hard.

The region we're travelling through is called the Hills and Valleys, and although we can't see much from inside our hidey-hole, we get the feeling that it's well named. Riding down here is like a slow, stinky roller coaster with constant military checkpoints.

[Steve: so, not like a rollercoaster at all then?]
[Caleb: or, a really, really lame rollercoaster?]
[Kate: has Jimmy ever even been on a rollercoaster before?]
[Jimmy: no, actually.]

4th of September, 2000

Spent all day yesterday and most of today bringing the Rebel HQ into a habitable condition. It's an old hunters' shack in the back of a steep hollow, plus an outbuilding that seems to have once been a bear's den. It'll be a little cramped with all five of us in it, but it's warm and homey.

The late owner's widow and their grandchildren [Maria: or at least we think it's her grandchildren; we don't know that much about the family and it's better for everyone that we don't] are taking care of our horses and serving as our primary local intelligence.

We keep direct interaction with the family to a minimum. Near our cabin there's some ruins from a pre-Civil War iron forge, and in those ruins we have a dropbox that we use for almost all contact. Anything that can't be carried to the dropbox is "stolen" from their barn or some other outbuilding at night. When we meet face-to-face, it's always for brief periods of time and a fair distance from where we're staying. If anyone asks, she had no idea that there were squatters in the old cabin and we didn't know who the owner is.

[Steve: Not sure how she explains our horses in her pasture. Belonging to family who can't feed them no more, I reckon.]

She says that we need to keep our heads down as much as we can; local authorities consider almost anyone of military age to be a partisan until proven otherwise and even our new fake IDs may not keep us from being picked up. There's fifty or so deputies in the county, stretched thin outside Pincherville and Aintry but Sheriff Walt Williams is adding more by the week and would very much like to turn the county into his own personal gulag. Roscoe P Coltrain he ain't, and from what we've heard it seems his small army of jailbirds-turned-jailers are about as good at what they do as professional Jack-Booted Thugs.

And what of the Bluehelmets? There's two major forces nearby: a German mechanized brigade in Beckley, WV and a Chinese tank brigade in Lynchburg, VA. Word is that both are going stir-crazy from guard duty and would love an excuse to come climbing over the mountains to actually attack something (Why? For the same reason why an armoured knight wouldn't want to spend his time directing traffic; heavy-hitter have always hated asymmetrical warfare and it ain't the best use of their skills in any event). Closer to home is the Railroad Police: Kenyans guarding blockhouses near the rails and Russians guarding the trains themselves. They, on the other hand, are mostly second-rate forces: quite happy directing traffic and unlikely to go looking for trouble.

And what of the Resistance? Well, there's us. Supply and shelter's taken care of, but we could do some work in the weapons department. We have small arms only: mostly shotguns and hunting rifles. Explosives and heavy weapons will have to be procured locally and the Virginia Militia has said that they can't provide us with any material support at the moment. Indeed, they've asked for no further contact at all except in cases of absolute necessity.

[Caleb: "Don't call us, we'll call you"?]
[Kate: Starting to wonder if they only sent us here to get rid of us.]

There's various outlaws and outcasts in the hills and near the airport. In the bars and the parking lot behind the local flea market one can find various unsavory sorts who decided they didn't want to wear blue for whatever reason. There's said to be a cult squatting in the abandoned resorts near Low Springs. Any of these could potentially be persuaded to join or assist in fighting against the existing establishment.

Then there's the people of Pincher County. Ultimately, we have to gain their sympathy and at least some outright support. But how? Most of the ones who would have joined us are already dead or in hiding. The rest of the population are too scared of Williams and his army of psychopaths on leashes, and he leaves them with enough that they wouldn't want to rock the boat even if they did think he could be beaten.

The way I see it, our first job is to show the impotence of the local rulers by attacking those who enforce his tyranny. Williams will spread out to try and consolidate his rule, and if he's a real idiot he'll let the psychopaths off their leashes, attacking the people and thereby driving them into our arms. We'll keep hitting his weak spots until he crumbles. It'll take time for outside forces to be brought in, and hopefully we'll have a sturdy base of operations so that we can effectively resist or evade, whichever's more expedient.

We can do this. The communists used the same formula in countless revolutions, and we're better off than Ho Chi Minh or Fidel Castro when they started. Our biggest problem is going to be figuring out what our first strike should be, and seeing that we survive it.