Works in Progress?

[MGZ]

Are any personal books allowed? ie. one I may be writing right now?

[semper]

yes, of course. I had one a year back. Now its..well further a long the path to richeousness. Although I removed it from here due to copyright reasons etc etc...

[MGZ]

well, mine is somewhat original (I think). I'll post what I've got so far, see what everyone thinks.

[MGZ]

The Darkest Years
An Account of the 2nd American Civil War


Preface – The Battle of Georgia Coast
It started quickly. A small detachment of F-22’s swooping down on a carrier and gouging a long hole in the flight deck. There were four of them to be exact, and I was in the lead. We were among the best in the Air Force, record holders in Red Flag. Compared to us the naval and marine aviators aboard the carrier USS Eisenhower, almost all of whom were fresh out of Annapolis, were amateurs; and for all the good they could do with a large hole keeping them shipboard the planes might as well have been boulders. But then, boulders don’t have ordinance that explode when 20mm rounds strike them.
I led the other three fighters around again and strafed the protruding command deck of the Eisenhower. Cromis and Doherty followed suit, but Simonson broke off and instead attacked the fire-crews that had assembled on the flight deck to put out the burning F-18’s. Briefly, I considered admonishing him; however all of us considered the men below to be traitors and the thought soon passed. Personnel on the battle and escort ships had by now engaged the limited anti-aircraft capabilities at their disposal. It didn’t matter; our top-of-the-line aircraft were too fast for their antiquated guns.
“Fire at will.” With that simple command the fate of the gun batteries was sealed. By picking individual targets we could destroy a lot more a lot faster. Our immediate priority was to eliminate the pathetic resistance being offered to us; it wasn’t out of fear that we did it, but rather out of annoyance. Who wanted dirty flack clouds blocking their view of the destruction they caused? Juvenile screams of delight came across the radio as the four of us tore into the various ships of the fleet with modified air-to-air rockets. Unfortunately our ammunition was extremely limited and the sudden lack of it forced us to turn away. Just as quickly as it had begun our strike was ended.
On our way back to the airbase we were operating from the four of us encountered a flight of ten AC-130 gunships heading in the opposite direction; now that the navy couldn’t put fighters in the air the Spectre’s were in the clear to bombard the battle fleet with their 105mm guns. Because I was the flight commander for this group of F-22’s I was in the lead, just as I had been during the attack. This also meant it was my responsibility to inform the follow up group of the fleet status. I rolled over so that my underside was visible for about three seconds to indicate the disabled status of the carrier.
In response to this the whole flight of gunships did a short ‘wave’ – a short, sharp rise and fall in altitude. By the time I had righted myself the “Spooky’s” were behind me, getting minor details from the other fighter pilots. Our speed was carrying us quickly away from our friends and before long we were on our own again. The flight was quiet, each of us reflecting on the drastic change that had led to the current chain of events. My thoughts were particularly occupied by the fact that my hold high school friend James Lego was a part of the coup that had reformed the government and taken over the entire United States military – save for the Air Force.
Our arrival at the new, secret airbase we had established was greeted with cheers from the tech crews; the AC-130’s had radioed back that the naval group we had ambushed was all but defenseless against their assault. The news was good but it didn’t make me feel any better about the reality of what we had done. We had engaged in open war with military forces of our own country. Strange thing was it wasn’t really our country anymore. Lego and his new boss the “Supreme President”, another high school acquaintance by the name of Evan Smith, had destroyed the America we grew up in and that I had sworn to defend. I only hoped we could get it back.

[MGZ]

Chapter 1 – Welcome to the Bird Cage.
A little lost? Don’t worry, you’re not the first. I’ll go back a ways. By 2010 American presence in the Middle East was down to pre-9/11 numbers; that is to say practically nonexistent. By 2015, towards the end of the second term of a highly popular administration, the majority of Americans were satisfied with our position in the world and with the economic and social successes of the preceding years.
Unfortunately not everyone agreed. A small but growing group of left-wing radicals under the command of the aforementioned former friends was pushing for extreme changes in the status quo. They especially had support in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps; this was due to an extraordinary cutting of military funds and drastic reduction in use of the entire military. The Air Force alone remained content, but that was because we were already ahead of the curve. The F-22 gave us continued dominance in war games and very few countries came close to matching it.
In December of 2015 Smith’s group, under the name American Socialist Movement, launched a Guardian Coup – that is, one supported by the armed forces - and took over the government in the absence of the Vice President and assassinated the President. The established government was removed entirely and the Constitution was outlawed. The new system that the ASM put in place was unitary and supported by most of the military. Many of us in the Air Force realized that a new civil war was at hand and immediately began to relocate our bases and resources and began to conscript local volunteers with the aid of the various state national guards. By January of 2016 the Army and Marine Corps were gearing up for a land war and the Navy was massing its carrier forces for an air war. Opposite these national forces were the now ‘officially renegade’ Air Force and the individual national guards of the states as well as all the gun-toting civilian volunteers we could get.
We labeled ourselves the Armed Forces of the Constitution, or Constitutionals for short. We made the first move just off the coast of Georgia and scored a stunning victory there; one carrier, one battleship, and three escort ships were sunk and the rest of that fleet was severely damaged. Our forces didn’t suffer a scratch. The air war played out similarly for the rest of the year, but our friends on the ground didn’t fare as well; without ground forces to protect us the Air Force didn’t last long. Hate to spoil the ending for you, but we lost. One year after taking control of the government the ASM forces officially defeated the Armed Forces of the Constitution.
Now the national guards are no more, the private ownership of firearms is illegal, and the once undefeatable United States Air Force is imprisoned. Our new home is a much larger Leavenworth prison, a huge complex expanding on the old US Disciplinary Barracks. The National Guards are confined in local jails across the country, and all of the civilian volunteers who fought for us were summarily executed. The majority of the civilian population didn’t do much during the war; what could they do? In the two years since our defeat the new government has had an easy time settling in and asserting control.
Oh, and if you’re thinking that the division between the ASM and Constitutional forces was a clean one think again. There were more than a few officers and enlisted men in the Navy and Marine Corps who were quite vocal in their opposition to the new government; as a consequence they got tossed in here with us Air Force people. I’ve made friends with one of the Navy guys, a full lieutenant by the name of Drew Catlett. That’s another thing: we still call each other by rank. We’re all convinced that we’re the legitimate ones.
We don’t know what’s going on outside these walls. We don’t know what the rest of the world thinks of this new America or what its position in the world is. There are rumors of resistance groups, of special operations squads from our European allies attempting to free us. Quite frankly I don’t know what to believe anymore. Somehow everything I know has either been destroyed or turned on its head. Odds are I’ll spend the rest of my life inside this prison, never again to see my country in its glory. But you didn’t come here to listen to me soliloquize; you came to hear my side of the story, so let’s get back to that.

[MGZ]

Chapter 2 – A Brief Respite. (In Progress)
Upon our return to the airstrip, which we had nicknamed New Henderson, the Colonel in charge came out and presented us with a bottle of scotch. “Damn fine work Lieutenant. You and your squad really opened the door for those AC-130’s. Keep it up and you may be in line for promotion. In the meantime have a drink on me.”
“Thank you, sir.” I looked down at the glass container filled with deep amber liquid and smiled. Damn fine work. I passed the bottle back to Simonson and the others and started off for the locker rooms; as soon as I stripped off all my flight gear I intended to enjoy every swig of that scotch. Being cheered and rewarded like we had pushed the melancholy thoughts out of our heads and made us almost happy about what we were doing.

[semper]

I think it still need's a lot of work, but you have the begging of something good. Though I add, I only scan read it in about 5mins..lol.

Mine is original to old chum. But posting it here, you dont know who is reading it and what they could do, so I decided that even though it was copyrighted to me, I wasnt going to risk leaving it on the forums too long.

[MGZ]

ahh. well, I don't have any grand plans for an eventual book so I'm not worried about copyright. I doubt I'll ever even finish it.

[Phoenix of Terra]

MGZ, I really like your writing style and the plot. However, I'm a military brat (dad's in the US Army), so there are a few things that feel wrong to me. First, the military would probably fall more under conservative than liberal, and given the popularity of the Democrats in the upcoming election, it might make sense to have a right wing uprising instead of a left wing. Also, the President is the commander in chief of the armed forces. I'm pretty sure three branches wouldn't rise up without some very significant mutterings, or even whole unit desertions, in the process. Especially the Marines. Those guys are so full of tradition, they'd probably have a heart at the thought of killing the President.

I realize this post is going to seem hypercritical, for which I apologize. I just thought I'd throw my few objections out there, to see if you wanted to use them. They're really only tweakers, imo.