The Conflict
Prelude
In 2008, earth was three years deep into its third World War. It was, as you can imagine, a terrible time for everyone.
It was during this year that the United States discovered that Lake Erie had become toxic with nuclear particulate. A massive water supply had been ruined and large numbers of the population had become terribly ill.
The populace wanted answers.
Probing the source of this toxic particulate revealed barrels of nuclear waste had been strategically placed throughout the lake. The origin of these barrels was determined to be a reactor site on the border between North and South Dakota. Further investigations pointed the finger at the Northern Rangers For Liberty, a political party that had been growing in the United States since the 1980's. To the surprise of many, the U.S. had been sabotaged by its own citizens.
Party members were arrested and placed into internment camps, the most prominent of which resided in Iowa, 50 miles north of Omaha.
What the U.S. hadn't expected was the level of arms the Northern Rangers For Liberty militia had acquired over 30 years. Some suspect the militia was being propped up by a foreign party, looking to create civil unrest during the global war. Regardless of the source, the United States had to divert manpower to quelling this nightmare.
The Dakotas became a warzone and the first battle would take place in Rapid City, North Dakota.
After securing the borders between the rest of the U.S. and the Dakotas, forces began to press in towards the larger cities. The first focus was Rapid City in South Dakota.
Approximately 4,000 troops were deployed to Rapid City with the intention to liberate innocent citizens who wanted nothing to do with the Northern Rangers For Liberty. At the same time pressure was to be applied on any NRL Militia to feel out how many were embedded in the city.
The situation was much worse than US Intelligence had realized.
"We pulled up and it was a like a ghost town. We thought we'd roll into town like John Wayne and the women and children would run up to us and point at wherever the bad men were.
That's not what happened. No one ran up. And I know all of us just got that heavy lump of tension in the pit of our stomachs. Nothing felt right.
And that's when the goddamn horse showed up."
Despite believing they had the advantage, the U.S. Military found themselves in immediate trouble upon entering Rapid City.
Reports indicate that an aerosol form of LSD was released into the air from a remote locations. It wasn't long before troops were hallucinating in the empty streets, claiming there was horse wired to explode at any moment.
Though there is no clear evidence of an actual horse bomb, soldiers began firing at the animal but were unable to put it down.
"They say there was no horse, I saw it. It was wild. Feral eyes. And it was strapped with C4. Then we started hearing explosions going off outside the city and some guys were yelling about an army of horse bombs everywhere. Surrounding us. I didn't buy that. I wasn't crazy. But that one horse. The one that got away. That son of a bitch was real."
Once the soldiers were under the effects of the LSD aerosol weapons, missiles fired from an unidentified location landed near the mobilization units stationed outside the city. Though it's unclear if any casualties to the U.S. Troops were a result of these explosions, it did result in a bizarre sequence of events.
Troops emerging from the city started firing towards their own comrades, in an attempt to save them from what they perceived to be an army of exploding horses. The soldiers who were being bombed and fired upon weren't aware that these men and women were tripping their asses off on LSD. Instead they thought the worst, and they were being betrayed.
The result was 4,000 troops fighting each other just outside of Rapid City.
"Yeah, man, we ended up shooting our own people. It was all fucked up. And the NRLs they snuck in there and stole a bunch of humvees and assault rifles. All kinds of stuff. We looked like fools."
Despite little direct combat with their actual target, the United States had to retreat from Rapid City in disgrace.
However this loss motivated U.S. Officials who considered this proof that the Northern Rangers For Liberty were indeed the enemy and had been planning this attack for some time. Recognizing that they would have to put more resources into securing the Dakotas than they had, the United States focused on securing the borders of the states, with only marginal cooperation from Canada, who was sick of the U.S.'s bullshit. I mean it's always something with these guys, right?
So instead of directly invading the interior, The U.S. began forming a militarized perimeter around The Dakotas hoping to merely contain the bad and filter the good citizens back into the society.
By focusing on containing the problem, the U.S. allowed the Northern Rangers For Liberty to further embed themselves into the Dakotas, along with the thousands of other citizens caught in the crossfire.
After a few more years, the world war had ended, but sentiment towards the Dakotas had softened, with voters growing worried that innocent people were being unjustly held prisoner for the crimes of a select few. This difference of opinion stalled any further military excursions into the interior of the Dakotas. Instead walls were erected and military outposts were created to process Dakotans who wanted to return to the United States.
Years have passed, and the Dakotas have become a lawless no man's land, whose inhabitants have had their citizenship suspended indefinitely.
It's rumored that the justice system has begun sending other criminal offenders to The Dakotas just to alleviate some of the pressure on the overflowing prison system. But no one really gives a shit to know the truth.
The Dakotas have also proven to be a subject of contention between Canada and the United States, The U.S. believes that because of Canada's softer stance at the border, Dakotans are escaping into Saskatoon or Manitoba and possibly re-entering the country through Montana or Minnesota.
The Canadians are all like "who cares, it's your mess, eh."
This of course has resulted in some very petty incidents at the borders involving professional hockey teams traveling between the two countries.
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