The Vancouver Raids
As the war continued between the Russians and French Canadians, the chartered Alaskan government grew more desperate. While experience was on their side, their gains were minimal, absorbing hundreds of empty kilometers in the deserted western frontier. When tasked with striking key cities, the invaders found themselves unable to overcome the enemy’s supply lines, given their networks flowed not just from the east, but the south as well. This left them with one recourse, an all-out attack on Vancouver. If successful, the momentum gained could net them control over multiple Canadian provinces. An attack of this magnitude poorly executed could also lead to consequences never imagined in their wildest of nightmares…
The Invasion of Canada
The Russian American Company’s push to expand its control in North America had been a mixed bag of effortless victories and gallant defeats since the outset of the Great War, a feature of the open and sparsely populated nature of the battlefields. This geographical quality of course was something both belligerents shared in their nations, yet Russia had much more experience waging war in this manner. Canadians had not seen war since the French empire went to the aid of Italy almost a century ago. The lack of supply lines, especially in the winter, forced the RAC’s forces to progress slowly through the wilderness, trying their best not to expand too far past their caravanners and railroad expansions. Their frontline troops were composed of paid soldiers in service to the company charter, mercenaries in all but name. Meanwhile the Alaskan Defense Corps were instead sent to establish rail lines and fallback points in the new expanse taken in western Canada, and at first only encountered combat when the company’s men faltered in their assaults.
After the inconclusive battle of Grande Prairie through June of ‘39, the Russian war machine began showing signs of fatigue, especially thanks to the lack of supplies and infrastructure in their eastward push into Chipewyan Province. Edmonton was a well supplied city, which it largely received from the United States via Calgary. As long as the provincial capital held firm, any push in the region was doomed to fail. The next effort on the RAC’s part would need to be well coordinated, precise, and planned out extremely carefully.
As momentum up north had been lost, a new route through Alberta would need to be worked out, one which relied on less flimsy supply lines. Their answer was Colombie Highway 16, which ran from Port Franklin on Kaien Island all the way to Edmonton, curving its way through the roughest terrain with ease. Franklin had fallen in May, as part of an effort to extend southern Alaska’s coastal control, meaning a more focused effort eastward could be carried out along the highway. The first big obstacle on the road was the key junction at Fort Le Prestre, one of the most important transport hubs in French Colombie. Le Prestre was an old fort from the fur trading days, but had remained a modestly fortified position, as well as one of the few airstrips in the area. The local garrison of the Garde Canadienne was 1000 strong, and well stocked. Local Indigenous groups also gathered as they fled the advance of the Russians, with volunteer militias tripling the defending forces. Even still, their opponent's vanguard of professional troops could easily take the city within a few days without assistance, and the lack of a shield generator made that fate a near certainty.
The Vancouver Problem
French Colombie’s military headquarters was stationed out of the great city of Vancouver, a five million strong metropolis and the primary French harbor in the Pacific. Its sprawling layout stretched for dozens of kilometers to the south, its population blending with that of Seattle, and the British treaty port of Victoria. With the addition of a tentative agreement to keep Victoria out of the war brokered by the United States, The Salish Sea Megalopolis was truly one of the few places where three different nations could meet and ignore the war going on outside their window. Of course the most significant fact for the unfolding battle to the north, it was Vancouver that was first to respond to news of the Russian incursion.
Vancouver Headquarters deployed the 7th Division de Chasseurs northward to intercept the attackers while they struck La Prestre. The incredibly mobile unit was able to reach the town on July 8th, the second day of the Russian assault. Fighting was fierce, especially as support from within the fortified city was all but exhausted, however the Chasseurs were trained specifically for this style of motorized warfare, and the local mountainous terrain made the unfamiliar Russians struggle with maneuverability. Canadian Monowheels could easily zip between trees and other obstacles to reach their targets, as well as escape with no pursuit when a charge was broken. This led to far fewer casualties on the side of the Chasseurs, who routed the RAC Assault Force on the 11th.
Russian casualties were not irreconcilable, but significant enough to deflate their aims for Edmonton prematurely. The retreat to Port Franklin made the results an even more bitter experience, as the Chasseurs harried and tormented the fleeing forces as they passed through the mountainous stretch of highway. When word reached RAC Governor-Admiral Simon Antonovich Yanovsky, he flew into a rage, vandalizing his office in Novo-Arkhangelsk. His armies had conquered hundreds of kilometers of land, but hardly any of the territory gained was consequential in strategic terms. As if the presence of the 3rd Division in Edmonton was not enough, the 7th Chasseurs would additionally flank any effort to strike again, making any eastward push impossible as long as Vancouver could send reinforcements. The road to Vancouver was also perilous, so a ground assault southward was also out of the question. If Yanovsky was to strike Vancouver, he would have to do so from either the sea, contending with the advantageous geography of the harbor, or from the sky.
Kalinin’s Fortress
It was the morning of August 23rd, 1939, and an exhausted engineer, Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin, was shuffling into his cozy office at the Kharkov Imperial Research Institute. His work from the previous night was still stuck in his mind, distracting him as he entered through his door. It wasn’t until he collapsed in his swiveling desk chair that he noticed a visitor sitting in his corner sofa, flanked by an intense looking corporate guard. His institute, while home to many of Russia’s greatest aeronautic experts, was about to finally get its first real recognition as an authority in the military, as this guest was going to offer him the opportunity to prove his designs.
The visitor and his escort were representatives from the Russian American Company, sent by Governor-Admiral Yanovsky to inquire about supplying the Russian offensive for a potential air campaign. Kalinin’s designs had been deemed unnecessarily large in an era where the role of heavy bombardment increasingly fell to aether ships and ground artillery. This left his more recent series of heavy bombers, referred to as the Seraphim Series, out of favor with the current military doctrine. They did in theory possess a much more valuable boon for any one who wished to deploy them; they were comparatively cheap to manufacture. The same money, time, and resources needed to build an aether warship could instead be used to quickly assemble an entire air fleet of countless bombers, and were ultimately far more viable an option for the frontier colony in North America.
By Kalinin’s calculations, his team with the support of the necessary labour, industrial capacity, and logistic resources could produce a Seraphim every few hours, assuming that he could use one of his current designs for the operation and could be given access to existing assembly lines. He accepted their offer with little hesitation, knowing another opportunity for such a project may not come again. With the deal underway, Kalinin quickly presented the negotiator with the general specifications of his design and the required materials. He said that he would have his team ready to manage production by the first of September, and would use the next week to ensure that his Seraphim Mk. 7 was up to the task of the proposed battle. The final version of the bomber was a veritable fortress in the sky; a roughly 5o meter wing of steel capable of carrying 20,000 kilograms of explosive ordnance in its cargo bays. However, by the shipping deadline for the operation, Kalinin had only been able to manufacture 80 Mk. 7’s, a far cry from the hypothetical 200 that could have been feasible if his benefactors had more reach with the Central Regency. Yanovsky was notably frustrated with the minimal results, but Kalinin knew that if the raid went ahead, he could easily use their performance to convince the government to allow him to make more. In the meantime, his creations were preparing for the oncoming winter…
The Flight of Chernobog
December of 1939: The Kharkov Institute was hard at work for 3 months assembling a first of its kind air fleet for the Russian American Company. While not a particularly huge amount of crafts, the new RAC 1st Night Bombardment Wing “Krovavaya Luna” was able to do the work of hundreds of bombers with a fraction of the number of crafts. Of the 80 assembled for Alaska, only 48 were assigned to the wing, divided into three squadrons; a conventional ordnance squadron and two incendiary contingents. As there were no current fighter planes with the operational range required, the Seraphims were sent alone, with only a few onboard turrets to defend from enemy craft.
A special air base had to be constructed near Novo-Arkangelsk to house the massive fleet that was promised. While the city’s singular air strip was long enough for them to take off, the fuel, ordnance and other equipment needed much more space for storage. It would also help with efficiency if multiple craft could be launched simultaneously, so the new facility would be constructed with six runways. Kruzov Island was chosen for the site, having large flat spaces and a convenient location just outside of Novo-Arkangelsk. The base was near the site of the infamous Neva shipwreck over a century prior, and so the vessel lent its name to the new air base.
The 1st Night Bombardment Wing arrived at Installation Neva on the 21st, several days before the planned operation, so that the pilots would have time to test the planes in local weather conditions. The combined weight of over 46,000 kilograms per bomber had raised some concerns over their ability to fly at a reasonable clip. Of course had it not been for the use of cavorite in its construction, Kalinin’s fortresses may not have been able to take flight at all. The nearby city, while only having a permanent population in the tens of thousands, was bustling with activity thanks to the war, as many company personnel were recalled due to attacks by the French and Japanese. The evening after their arrival, a briefing was held with all operational senior staff, including Kalinin, Governor-Admiral Yanovsky, Wing Commander Polkovnik Alexander Nikolaievich Prokofiev de Seversky, and Acting Commander of Fire Squadron 2 Major Alexander Sergeevich Obolensky. While Seversky had largely earned his rank through merit, Kalinin noted in his private journal that the two men were likely asked to carry out the operation to elevate their status as nobility, with Obolensky (who himself held a title equivalent of a Prince) being particularly young for his rank and role in the attack. Nonetheless, the inventor was confident that his creation would perform well enough to make up for any complications.
“Operation Chernobog” was very straightforward, a shocking and intense test of the RAC’s new arsenal to simultaneously cripple Vancouver’s ability to support the 7th Division de Chasseurs and the Edmonton defense, as well as prove the efficacy of the Seraphim Mk. 7. As this was likely the only time they would be able to use this method of attack without extreme resistance, Yanovsky insisted on a full payload for each craft, hoping to not have to repeatedly bomb the city and endanger his limited planes. He had also developed quite a grudge over the past few months over the repeated failures to gain momentum, as most fronts in Canada had only moved a few kilometers in the past hundred days. He wanted to hit the enemy hard, and collateral was only a secondary concern.
The first bomber contingent, the conventionally armed Shield Buster Squadron, was to fly ahead as a vanguard, so that their bombs could overexert the shield generators in the city center. This tactic was an uncommon one, as in most scenarios shield saturation was easier achieved through time, not simultaneous and supreme force. Once broken through, the Fire Squadrons would follow in a couple of minutes later, deploying a mix of heavy bombs and incendiaries over military installations and key infrastructure. The newest generation ordnance provided by the Moskovskaya Group used a proprietary recipe that would further aerosolize the contents of the incendiary bombs, allowing it more properly coat a target in fuel upon detonation. Fortified bunkers would be able to withstand the damage, but the heat of the flames could in theory smother the oxygen within the military installations that withstood the blast, wiping out their enemy with cruel efficiency.
The biggest concern during production had been the flight range of the Seraphim Mk. 7. At a maximum load, the plane could travel 1,500 kilometers at full weight assuming a constant cruising speed. The distance to Vancouver was roughly 1,200 kilometers, meaning a return flight would be next to impossible. As there were few large settlements in the region, the operational headquarters could also regrettably not get any closer to their target. Kalinin found two contingencies for this issue, the first of which was the further implementation of cavorite circuitry. As the circuits’ main purpose was to reduce weight, it had a limited effect on fuel efficiency. Overclocking the circuits on the return voyage could allow the plane to glide at an even lower engine output, at the cost of maneuverability. As long as they were not followed for long, they could easily return home. The second requirement was simple; there could be no excess weight in the craft. The ordnance deployed doubled the weight of the Mk. 7, and even a few added tons of weight would render the gains from the cav-glide pointless. For any flight crew to make it home alive, they had to deploy every single bomb.
As preparations continued over the next few days, naval intelligence surveilled two points of interest in the Vancouver attack. The week prior had seen the generation of a freak typhoon in the Pacific Ocean, which had been veering northward for a few days. While Yanovsky was made aware of the risks, he had pressured that the operation needed to be completed before Orthodox Christmas so that the news could be celebrated back in the homeland. Optics of his future victory aside, long range forecasting anticipated that the waning tropical storm would veer clear of the operating theater, causing no issues for the flight aside from moderate turbulence.
Naval intelligence had also been keeping tabs on Canadian fleet patrols, which were constantly cycling in and out of the Salish Sea, as following some activities in Indochina they were severely outgunned. Yanovsky wished to cripple the remaining fleet during Operation Chernobog so that he could deploy his own ships afterwards to clear out any remnants. The optimal timing was determined as December 27th, as almost all of their vessels would be in harbor for maintenance over the extended holiday. The tropical storm was quite close, but still looked to divert out to sea overnight. With the operation set, the RAC 1st Night Bombardment Wing “Krovavaya Luna” set off into the evening sky, delivering death on the wings of Chernobog himself…
Through Stormy Skies and a Navigator’s Failing Eyes
“We took off in the afternoon of the 27th, knowing full and well that we’d be in Vancouver in the small hours of morning. We ate a dinner of kolbasa and bread while we were in transit, listening to the gentle rattling of bombs. Our little gift for the arrogant French bastards that had plunged our world into hell. I had thought it was deserving to give them hell in return…
If only I knew what that night was about to bring down on us.”
-Prince Alexander Obolensky, Acting Commander of Fire Squadron 2
The first few hours of the flight went without incident, albeit with some communications issues as the crew stretched the capacity of their radios. Many in the flight crews passed the time cordially, especially those who had not yet seen much combat. More seasoned airmen felt uneasy about the operation, both from old wounds and stirring emotions. They’d be lauded as heroes in the event of victory, but the potential for destruction was not lost on them. Each plane had enough explosives to completely level a small town, but most of their targets were located deep within a densely built downtown area, where the chance of collateral damage was even higher. Assuming that they returned home at all, would they be seen as heroes, or butchers?
These less immediate concerns were temporarily buried as night fell, as the updated forecasts portented disaster. The tropical storm had shifted back towards the Canadian coastline, with one of its strongest bands aiming to strike Vancouver with intense wind and lightning. While the suffering of the city was not a worry of the operation, the storm’s presence greatly put the wing’s attack at risk, as the cloud coverage would impede aiming, and the winds could crash less experienced pilots. As they were already within a few hundred kilometers however, turning back was quickly becoming an impossibility, with the only way they could do so being the full deployment of their entire payload. Through a broken radio communique, Governor-Admiral Yanovsky gave the Wing Commander a single sentence order: “Under no circumstances will you abandon this operation, buckle up and push on.”
At 21:00 local time, the Bomber Wing entered the outer band of the storm. The intense air currents rattled the crafts as they tried to climb over the heaviest clouds. Turbulence battered the bomb crew in the cargo bay, who lacked proper seating to cut down on space. Five servicemen suffered injuries in this manner, with one man dying as he was crushed between two bomb casings. Two of the bombers also were caught in the turbulence, crashing into each other as they lost control. Thankfully Kalinin’s cutting edge craft were able to escape the worst of the storm without any further accident.
The RAC 1st were not out of the danger quite yet, as they now faced near-zero visibility in the dense wall of cloud. Pilots and navigators alike struggled to direct their planes through the storm, with squadron members struggling to even see the leads in front of them. The sensors the planes were equipped with were also rudimentary, and many of them were scrambled by the weather. The electronic suite on board was unfortunately the one thing Kalinin’s team had zero say on in the construction, and had many faults. As Polkovnik Alexander de Seversky gazed down through the observation deck, he made a tough, and unfortunately consequential call. He ordered squadron leads to independently verify their bearings, fearing that if they stayed any more clustered, they ran the risk of more collisions in the turbulence, or outright missing their mark. As their formation widened, navigators scrambled to project a heading, often in vain.
December 28, 01:44: As the clouds began to break, de Seversky’s Wing emerged over a city suffering from rolling blackouts. The tropical storm had ripped out electrical infrastructure in many locations around the city, making it hard to identify in the black of the night. After a few minutes of approach, the lead navigator confirmed their location; they had managed to make it to Vancouver. The city below still had limited power in areas, including the shield generator. However it seemed that the storm had allowed the Russians to avoid long range detection, a rare blessing of their ordeal. Unfortunately their luck was not all good. Upon inspection, Obolensky’s Fire Squadron 2 was missing from the formation. His navigator had apparently led him astray, lightly obscured by the storm. Nonetheless, the mission had to go forward.
“I stepped outside to walk the dog- Though really I guess I mostly did it to get out of the house and make sure the car wasn’t under a tree or something. It was weird how quiet things were. I remember looking up at the sky, mostly to give Gaston time to do his business. At first all I could see was the stars, framed by those massive clouds. Next came the hum of airplanes, the occasional glint of metal in the sky. Then the bombs started hitting the shield, the massive fireball colliding with the crackling dome of energy overhead. The moment I saw the damned thing start to break, I grabbed my dog and ran for the subway. I never looked back.”
-Paul Bernard, Gastown Resident and Vancouver Raid Survivor
The first run against the city center hit its mark, breaking through the shield within the first minute of bombardment. The unprecedented and concentrated attack was too much for the back-up generators in the city to handle, especially with the weakened power grid. City air defenses were not scrambled until the opening squadron was already done with their first pass, opening fire as Fire Squadron One swooped in to set the city ablaze. The airport was on the outskirts of the city, and only had a few fighters available. Even as they took flight, they could do little to defend the city center, as the Russians were ready for them. On his second pass over the city, de Seversky targeted the harbor, hoping to cripple the fleet. His bombing team struck the naval yard as they passed overhead, scuttling 3 vessels. Strangely though, the presence of warships was much lighter than initially anticipated, with more than half of them missing.
“The flailing limbs of sailors in the harbor is something that sticks with me, even when I try to sleep at night. The inferno scattered across the water, like a giant grease fire boiling our ships, and the men who once crewed them. We wanted to turn our life boat around to grab as many as we could, but I could even feel the heat through my boots, the metal hull like a hot iron against my barely clothed flesh. God, the smell…”
-Ensign Fernand Dorsay, Canadian Navy
The bombing was not as precise as what was briefed, as the adrenaline from surviving a massive storm was still flowing freely. By the end of the night, the raiders successfully struck 86 percent of their listed targets with varying degrees of damage sustained. However, the dispersal of the incendiary ordnance was not an exact operation. Moskovskaya’s promise of a superior dispersion system was upheld, but as a result much of the surrounding neighborhoods around the targets were also ignited. Many attempted to evade the wall of fire by going underground, but many bomb shelters were not properly heat-proofed, the temperatures within slowly sapping the life out of them. These mass conflagrations were difficult to extinguish, and the sub-tornadic winds ultimately spun up a firestorm in the increasingly devastated downtown. As it burned through the night, the fires destroyed much of the city from the harbor to the Fraser River, destroying in part a total of 375 square kilometers of land. The denizens of Vancouver fled for their lives, but unfortunately very few of those at the epicenter survived. Estimates of the total damage are to this day being calculated, but initial figures on the bombings predict casualties in the ballpark of 200,000, with thousands more in the aftermath. The unprecedented scale of destruction exceeded Yanovsky’s expectations, and outright humbled them.
As fuel began to run down to minimum tolerances, the bomber wing rotated out of the city, beginning the slower, but hopefully quieter voyage home. The emotions in the planes were mixed, but most at least recognized the scale of what had unfolded. Even the most zealous members of the Wing were stunned to silence as they gazed back at the city; the flames they lit making it glow as if it were day. They had done with hastily constructed bombers what aether ships could not; they fully devastated a city and oversaturated a shield generator within one day. The local air defenses had managed to down 8 of the bombers committed to the attack, but this loss was expected. Yanovsky’s obsessive strategy with a little bad luck had doomed the city of Vancouver, and endangered millions with the collateral. As for Polkovnik Alexander de Seversky, one question remained in his mind as his forces retreated home: Where was Obolensky and Fire Squadron 2?
To Suckerpunch a Giant
Major Alexander Obolensky had done as de Seversky had commanded when they entered the cloud wall, ordering his navigator to independently verify their heading. This herculean task was done essentially blind, and ultimately the heading was only slightly off course. The issue came with the clouds being slightly heavier in their flight path than the rest of the bomber wing. With most of the power grid offline in Vancouver, no light shone through the cracks in the storm, and Fire Squadron 2 sailed straight past the target.
An hour passed as the squadron flew blind, hopelessly searching for their target through gaps in the clouds. Tailwinds were pushing the planes forward at an even faster clip, throwing off the navigation team’s efforts at finding their bearings. As fuel threshold alarms started to go off, the twenty-three year old commander started to panic. He had no idea if they had simply flown in circles for an hour or if they were even in the operation zone anymore. Just as things seemed hopeless, light broke through the clouds. There was a city below the squadron.
He had no idea what Vancouver looked like, and there were no signs of the rest of the 1st Wing. He joined the navigators in scanning the cityscape for a sign that they were in the right place, finding the answer as he sailed over the harbor. Sure enough, moored in the dock were a collection of ships, waving the colors of Canada. This must be it. He may have been the only squadron to make it here, but he couldn’t shake that something was off. His window to make a decision was rapidly closing however; if he initiated the operation in the next few minutes he could still have time to deploy his ordnance in two runs, and hopefully make it to Russian territory on the fumes. He wouldn't have time to find his targets, but he could at least cripple infrastructure and burn out the area around the docks. If he did not deploy his bombs, the squadron would have no chance at returning home, likely crashing down in the ocean. He felt like he had no choice, and made the call. Whether or not de Seversky was there, he had to commit to the mission.
His assessment was correct on one point, the fleet in the harbor was in fact a Canadian one. It was the same collection of ships that were missing from Vancouver. Patrols were still returning when the storm rolled in, and group command made the call to harbor at the nearest friendly port while the brunt of the system washed over Vancouver. The city that Fire Squadron 2 was barreling towards in a desperate effort to release its payload was none other than Seattle, Washington. The cities were twinned after all, their suburbs practically fused together along the border thanks to the ever-growing population. This American city, which was larger than Vancouver, was not at war with the Russians, and as a result they had no air defenses on alert at the time of Obolensky’s arrival, not even the city-wide shield generators. This critical mistake would have untold ramifications…
A little after 3 A.M. on the 28th, Alexander Obolensky initiated his raid on the unknowing city of Seattle. Canisters dropped from the bellies of the winged beasts belched fire in sweeping arcs, coating much of the blast radius in accelerant as the burn intensified. The unsuspecting Americans could do little to put up a fight, the only resistance coming from the fleet in harbor, now engulfed in flames. The Russian bombers, overly eager to release the excess weight and go home, dropped hundreds of thousands of pounds in ordnance in a manner of a few minutes, carving scars across the cityscape. The infrastructure of the city was more spaced out than its northern counterpart, but unfortunately the walls of flame once more made it difficult for victims to escape. The death toll by the end of the day would rise to numbers comparable to the main raid, killing upwards from 186,000 in the city center, and displacing millions. The inexperienced Major’s decision may have been done to save the lives of his airmen, but he had just brutally struck a relatively neutral power that had only contributed resources to the French as trade partners. While he may have been unaware at the time, he just made one of the biggest mistakes in human history.
While the city’s defenses were inert during the attack, planes were deployed from McChord Field as soon as alarms were raised. They arrived not long after the panicked Russians had finished dumping their bombs, and a pursuit broke out. Fire Squadron 2 was handedly outgunned in the encounter. One by one the Seraphim Mk. 7s were shot out of the sky, with only a few airmen managing to parachute to terra firma. Major Obolensky himself managed to eject from the craft, doing his best to gather his men and run northward. The manhunt lasted only a few hours before Washington National Guard troops cornered and captured the fleeing Russians. The young aristocrat was prepared for this possibility, but he never expected that the men he was to be captured by would be barking commands at him in English. When he realized the identity of these soldiers, the truth of what had happened sunk in. It was too late for the people of Seattle though.
After news of the event spread, every nation involved in the raids was outraged. Canadian officials declared the targeting of such a densely populated city the most heinous of war crimes, especially as the incendiary ordnance used had spread across most of the city core. Vancouver was hollowed out, resulting in the worst refugee crisis of all time. The Canadian military in response ordered a full mobilization westward, realizing that if the Russians can do this again, they will need to prepare for an even more vicious advance into their territory before they are ready. The now homeless 7th Division de Chasseurs went underground, establishing a new makeshift headquarters in an undisclosed location near Mount Robson.
As a few merchant vessels had been docked in Seattle the morning of the 28th, the British Protectorate had to issue a formal statement commiserating with the Americans. Since they were already at war with Russia, no further action could directly be taken, but supplies to the Japanese Navy doubled for the subsequent year, fueling the war against the Russian Pacific. As the only unaffected local city, one that could see the smoke from their own shores, the citizens of the neutral port of Victoria sent supplies to Seattle, aiding in recovery efforts amid the desolate crater that was once Belltown. The British government did however forbid Victoria from sending aid to Vancouver, given their ongoing hostilities…
Americans awoke on the 28th to the announcement of a special presidential address shared through all national communications networks. President Rockefeller was already visibly tired from the long morning he had, but his eyes and voice foretold a hidden fire within him; his face a mix of pain, exhaustion, and rage. His address was brief, altogether less than four minutes, but profoundly direct with the people of his nation, and the world. The destiny of the United States had been made clear in the burning light of their lost city.
“... We must go now to recover those who have been wronged in this cowardly, barbaric strike. We must extend a hand out to aid those who have to rebuild. We must comfort those who survive, having lost those dearest to them. But make no mistake, while we have a responsibility to reach out and give aid to our fellow Americans in Seattle with one hand, we must also deliver uncompromising retribution with the other. The Empire of Russia has made a deadly mistake on this day; it underestimates our spirit, our determination, and our love. Our love of our fellow countrymen, those both lost and found, will drive us onward, so that we may find those which harmed them and bring them to justice! The Russians, who now cower behind an empty chair, have awoken a sleeping giant. The time to rest is over, and the time for action is now! God Bless Seattle. God Bless Vancouver. And God Bless America!”
-Excerpt from the Rockefeller Address, December 28th, 1939.
In an emergency session of Congress, a unanimous vote was called for the immediate declaration of war against the Empire of Russia, and anyone who aids them. While the United States had hoped to stay out of the fighting, the decision had been made for them with the Russian attack, even if they'd soon learn it was done as an accident. Through Yanovsky’s bloodlust and Obolensky’s inexperience, a new age of bloodshed had dawned, one which the Americans had finally joined. The fire that had started on the fields of France over the death of two men had now burned its way around the globe. The world as we know it is gone.
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