Third Mexican-American War

Location
 Causes
 Result
* Mexico is annexed by the United States.
* Destruction of the MexAmerican Wall
* Reintegration of Aztlan back into the United States
* Integration of the Space Colonies into the United States Proper
* Fall of the Intermarium
* Nuclear Winter
 **1**
 **United States-Allies**
**1**
 United States
 France
 Rhineland
 Hanover
 Italy
 China

**Client and puppet states:**
 Ecuador
 Mapuche
 Patagonia
 **Mexican-Allies**
**1**
 Mexico
 Aztlan **(until 2134)**
 Poland

**Co-belligerents:**
 Occitania
 Fujian
 Guangdong

**Latin American Union:**

 **1**
 Lionel Halvidar
 Joseph Loveridge
 Ha-eun Zaya
 Rohan Mustafa
 Deandre Garcia
 Edwin Jaso
 David Castillo
 **Terrestrial:** 1,765,000
**Colonial:**2,393,950
**Total strength:** 4,158,950
 **Military dead:** 1,049,450
**Civilian dead:** 12,494,221
**Total dead:** 13,843,221
**Civilian dead:**78,365,950
**Total dead:** 79,130,000

The **Third Mexican-American War,** also known as the **Third Mexican War,** and occasionally known as **World War IV**, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico that started in 2133 and ended in 2139, over territorial claims to the American Southwest and Caribbean territories. The war involved an extended siege of Mexico, ending in the nation's thorough defeat. The resurgence of the struggle can be explained by growing anti-American agitations in the Southwest and the Caribbean, and the visible improvement of Mexican wealth and martial power in the forty years since the Second War.

The war had its origin in the fractious issue of Mexican American autonomy, especially the extension of Mexico's influence into the Southwestern United States and Caribbean. Mexico directly intervened as Union forces neared the Texas and Californian borders, annexing the rebellious "United States of Aztlan".

## Chronology

The start of the war is generally held to be 2 February 2133 beginning with the secessionist attack on Camp Navajo, following the secession of Arizona from the United States, shortly followed by the secession of New Mexico, California, Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.

## Background

Part of a series on the

### US-Mexico Relations

Since the latter nation won its independence from Spain in 1821, relations between the United States and Mexico had gone through turbulence time and again. Events such as the First Mexican-American War, the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican Drug War, and the turbulent presidency of Donald Trump clearly emphasized that.

From the 20th Century through the first half of the 21st Century, Mexico was considered by many to be nothing but a third-world country and a source of cheap labor and immigrants to the US. After the Third World War however, Mexico would see unprecedented growth, surpassing Japan to become one of the top five economies by the 2080s. Mexico would even form its own sphere of influence, consisting of most of Central America, some South American nations, and even their former mother country of Spain.

### The Second Mexican-American War

*Main Article: Second Mexican-American War*

The Second Mexican-American War was the first conflict to highlight Mexico's rise as a global power. While the conflict only lasted two years and ended in a stalemate, the fact that Mexico was able to fight a conventional war with the US to a standstill revealed that the world's dominant power, the United States, now faced a real challenger that could upset the global balance of power. Following the end of the war, the American alliance system engaged in several small proxy conflicts with the ever growing Mexican sphere, separated at home by a complex network of fixed fortifications along their borders.

The last war forced Mexico into an arms buildup to guard itself from future confrontation, while forming a detailed network of diplomatic channels with the government of the United States and with the local governments of the decidedly Mexican states of the American South West.

### Mexican Invasion of Brazil

*Main Article: Battle of Brazil*

In 2129 Mexico staged a massive invasion of Brazil with its alliance structure, annexing neighboring territory, supporting secessionist movements, and installing a puppet government in Brasília. The invasion gave Mexico access to the riches of the Amazon, and would keep Brazil largely out of the war once it started. Mexico maintained a contingent of "peace keepers" in Brazil well into 2134.

### Aztlan Autonomous Movement

With the mass deportations of the 2080s and the military patrols of their borders that were put in place during the Second Mexican-American War, animosity between the majority Mexican Southwestern States and the rest of the country began to grow and fester during the interwar period. The Dignidad party formed out of this animosity and won majorities in most state governments in the region, and controlling the majority of congressional and senate seats from the Southwest as well. The Party was normally seen as a regionalist party, not advocating secession, rather a degree of separation. A radical offshoot of the party was the Aztlan Autonomous Movement, which did seek to break off from the United States and form either an independent nation or rejoin Mexico.

### Post-nationalism

In his memoirs Lionel Halvidar argued that the central cause of the war was the erosion of national identity and the threat that posed to the equity lords on both sides of the US-Mexican Border. As the cultural and ethnic distinctiveness between the average Mexican and average American had eroded to being virtual unrecognizable by the 22nd century (the US and Mexico were both nations dominated by mixed race/mestizo populations) there would likely soon be no immediately obvious physical or cultural distinctions to motivate Mexican national cohesion. Various administrations had attempted to solve this problem through the creation of a Hispanidad-identity, and artificial and often anachronistic cultural mores. Edwin Jaso argued that the erosion of cultural distinctiveness was both a danger and an opportunity, as it meant either side could relatively quickly integrate the conquered population in a war.

### Mexican Parity with the US

As the US economy began its slow decline in the 2070s, Mexico would see its economy continue to grow (albeit at a slow pace), reaching parity by 2112. The fallout from the Second-Mexican American War bolstered a new generation of Mexican nationalists who felt that the previous generation of leaders didn't go far enough during the war, and supported Dignidad party members in the US. Bolstered by a growing alliance system, and engineering proxy wars against the US to limit its access to space based resources, Mexico became more than just another challenger for the United States to overcome, but rather the first nation that had a real chance of overtaking them as the world's dominant power.

### Second Martian Revolution

While the situation on Earth continued to degrade the colonies feared Mexico's military buildup in the Trojan asteroids. This gave fuel to the long dormant Mars Society for Independence and Freedom or MSIF, which began a more aggressive and often militant push for a formal separation from the United States on Earth. The MSIF argued that only as an independent power could Mars and the rest of the colonies hope to defend themselves, and achieve the rights that the US on Earth had long denied them. Some in the colonies believed that even if war did not spread to the colonies, Earth would be devastated by a conflict between Mexico and the US, and the colonies would be left to manage untold waves of refugees. To prepare or this the ITC collectively funded the construction of a series of ruggedized, high speed spacecraft in the Asteroid Belt. Their construction was stipulated to only fit them with weapons if and when war on Earth broke out between the major powers, and they were intended to be used to defend the colonies from attack, and possibly restore order on Earth after the fighting ended.

## Course of the War

### Aztlan War (2132-2134)

When civil war broke out in the United States, Mexico lent military support to the Aztlan rebels, led by President David Castillo. Over 30,000 foreign volunteers mainly consisted of those who are descended from American nationals overseas, known as the Foreign Patriot Militia, also fought against the Aztlan Nationalists.

The conflict began with the outbreak of the Second Civil War, a conflict initially fought within the United States to contain rebel states attempting to gain independence from the Union. Seven states in the American southwest, all with overwhelming majorities of citizens with Mexican ancestry, seceded from the union. Seven states with similar ancestry remained within the union during the war. Mexico initially attempted to remain neutral, but militant elements within the Mexican government pushed to engage the US via proxy conflicts around the planet, to give the rebels a fighting chance. By 2134 the conflict escalated and threatened to spill across the border into Mexico, as northern Mexicans, many of whom were once US citizens, began actively supporting Aztlan's bid for independence. In some cases, Mexican volunteer regiments joined up with the Aztlan Army. By the end of 2134, the moderate Garcia administration was removed and replaced by the more radical Jaso administration. The Jaso administration began directly engaging the US across the planet, while supporting the Azlan rebels with weapons and intelligence. Some of the more radical rebels conducted public executions of all those who spoke out against the rebellion or stood in their war. This ultimately led to greater escalation in the conflict, as US forces were recalled from engagements in Africa and Eurasia to put down the rebellion at home.

Aztlan claimed that they owned all bases and other federal buildings in the Southwest. Camp Navajo was in Arizona - one of the Aztlan states. However, the fort was controlled by the Union. On February 2 2133, Aztlan forces attacked the base, and after a 9 hour fight, accepted the surrender of the base commander. Following this, President Halvidar nationalized the national guards of the Union states, and called for a buildup of domestic military forces. Shortly after this call to arms was issued, three more southwestern states, and Panama joined with Aztlan instead of supplying forces to fight the rebels. The US Navy then organized a blockade of the California and Texas coastline, and issued an ultimatum to Mexico and the Latin American Union, that any effort to support the rebels would be considered an act of war.

Despite this early showing of support, Aztlan quickly faced setbacks along its periphery. The National Guards of Oklahoma and Colorado remained loyal to the Union, while Eastern Texas subsequently seceded from Texas, joining the Union as the two new states of Brazos and Jacinto. By the end of 2133, Colorado and Oklahoma were effectively under Union control, with Aztlan state governments in exile. The US invaded the rebel states on February 22, 2133, moving through Northern California, Brazos, and Oklahoma. The US saw victories in the Aztlan state of Shasta and Northern Nevada rather quickly, retaking critical military targets, while forces in Texas found the Aztlan rebels more willing to fight than they'd expected.

US Space Marines were deployed to support the Army in Texas and California and with momentum in New Mexico stalled, President Halvidar approved the use of orbital weapons on certain Aztlan targets. By the end of 2133, the rebel forces had been forced to relocate their capitol to Phoenix, Arizona. Utah, an autonomous state in Aztlan, went so far as to sue for a separate peace on May 11, 2134, allowing the US to surround the remaining Aztlan forces. At this point Deandre Garcia was ousted by a cabinet vote of no confidence, and the country began quietly sending arms to the rebels. By the end of 2134 the US had successfully recaptured much of Texas and California, and were nearing the Aztlan capital in Phoenix. As Union forces prepared to surround and capture Phoenix, Mexican president Edwin Jaso issued an ultimatum to the US: turn back now or face a larger war. Many northern Mexicans supported Aztlan’s bid for independence, and under the dual citizenship program, Mexican citizens.

### Mexico Attacks (2134-2136)

The US ignored Jaso's ultimatum, and upon entering the outskirts of Phoenix, Mexico detonated its nuclear arsenal along the DMZ to clear a path to invade the American Southwest, killing 10,000 National Guard/Border Patrol officers during the attack. Upon reaching Phoenix, Mexican forces were met with cheers from many citizens in the Southwest and silent awe from those unsure of what this war now means. Bombardment from the Mexican Orbitals, laser and missile attacks by satellites, and advanced ground based defense systems severely reduced the American ability to respond, leaving fighting primarily on land and at sea. With US allies and worldwide forces engaging Mexican client states in Eurasia and Africa, few reinforcements could be recalled to defend the homeland, and by the end of 2135 Mexican forces were engaged in the southern halves of Oregon, Idaho, and Colorado.

After pushing US forces as far back as Denver, and destroying the US Naval blockades, President Jaso arrived in Santa Fe on November 19, 2135, declaring the rebel American states Mexican territory and committing to secure the territory lost to the US in the First Mexican American War. Many Mexican-Americans that had supported the Atzlan rebellion, were opposed to outright annexation, and form independent resistance groups, while previously neutral citizens side with the Union.

On November 25, 2135, the US lifted its self-imposed ban on using bombardment weapons on its own territory and began striking Mexican held assets in the South West. Orbital bombardments by Mexico and the US were constantly being interrupted by space forces on both sides, leaving the fighting on Earth largely to terrestrial forces.

### Poland Enters the War (2136)

In a secret meeting in Athens on January 9, 2136, Mexico and Poland agreed to ally against the US, with Mexico guaranteeing Polish dominance over Northern Europe, and Poland agreeing to engage the US directly to limit any movement of potential American forces. On January 25, 2136 Poland entered the war with Mexico pulling the US into a protracted war across the planet. One week after the Athens Pact, Poland invaded through Brandenburg into Hanover and from Bavaria into Rhineland overwhelming US-Allied forces, and pushing them as far west as Lorraine. While American-Allied forces retreated into France, Mexican-Allied forces invaded north through Occitania into Southern France and Burgundy.

After consolidating their gains in Germany and the Low Countries, Poland prepared to take Paris and take France. The US engineered a joint Itallian-Venitian invasion into Austria and Sicily, while coordinating a Turkish invasion into Bulgaria on February 21st, 2136. The two invasions forced the Poles to stay their hand in France and send aide to their allies, fearing the Intermarium would crumble. The Polish-Intermarium forces pushed the US-Allied invasion back into Venice, while US Naval forces supported the invasion in the Balkans, keeping the Poles bogged down in Southern Europe. Mexican supported forces in Southern France moved to aide their Polish allies by launching an invasion into neutral Lombardi, and routing the US forces in Italy south into Sicily.

### Lunar Invasion

Mexico's first act in space following the invasion of the Southwest was an initial blockade of lunar goods to Earth. By depriving the US of its most immediate source of Helium-3, the American war machine was severely hindered. US forces in North America were now fighting just to hold onto loyal states like Oregon and Idaho, while abroad France, a US ally, was jointly occupied by the Poles and Occitania. To keep the momentum in their favor, on May 9th, 2136, Mexico began an invasion of Luna, securing Helium-3 supplies for Mexican orbitals and disabling American shipyards. The blockade, and subsequent invasion of key Lunar assets, were resisted by the Lunar Planetary Guard and local Space Force personnel, but with the majority of US Space Forces committed to Earth Orbit, Luna's forces were only able to limit Mexico's access to Helium-3 supplies and shipyards, rather than retaking them for the US.

### Operation Stardust (2136)

As Mexico secured its gains in the Southwest and left American forces stretched thin across the planet supporting their allies, President Halvidar initiated a bold strategy. Just after assuming office and granting statehood to many colonial territories, President Halvidar seized the ships of the potential colonial fleet and completed them as US Space Force vessels. On August 11th, 2136, Halvidar nationalized the Planetary Guards of the colonies and called them to defend the Homeland in what would become Operation Stardust. The colonies used this secretly constructed fleet to speed toward the Earth to relieve US terrestrial forces. The ships were outfitted in what was the latest in military hardware, including next generation Space Force armor, that were capable of re-entry and orbital flight.

     Mexico detected the fleet on August 24th, and on August 27th the colonial forces would reach Earth. Every simulation assured Mexico's leadership that the colonial fleet's forces would overwhelm them in short order, leaving Mexican war planners to prepare for the worst. Hoping to end the war before the first wave of the fleet arrived, Mexico launched a daring attack of its own on the US capitol of Washington D.C., detonating a nuclear flare above the city and invading in force on August 26th. President Halvidar, while in the White House bunker, ordered all available US forces and armed personnel to defend the city, and took the field in to directly oversee the defense of the nation’s capital, the first President to do so since James Madison. Halvidar donned the armor he wore during the Guardiola Incident and coordinated forces in DC from the ruins of the White House, which was converted into a Forward Operating Base. While Halvidar intended to stand in defense of the city, he ordered Vice President Cora Fabian, who was campaigning for Halvidar's re-election in New York, to remaine out of the city in the event that he should fall. The Battle of Washington was the bloodiest the war had yet seen, with house to house fighting and open field warfare on the National Mall generating casualties in the thousands. For 31 hours the Mexican forces attempted to take the Capitol, until the colony fleet arrived on August 28th at 4:21 am EST.

The reinforced US Space Forces engaged the Mexicans in orbit, invading Mexican Orbitals in force and destroying dedicated military platforms in a matter of minutes. Where Mexican military platforms were quick to destroy, the invasion of the Orbitals lasted nine hours, in some cases continuing for some time after the colonials arrived to the relief of DC. After the Victory of DC, the colonial forces outnumber the Mexican allied forces 2 to 1, and with supremacy in space, the US begins a sustained campaign against Polish and Mexican-allied assets from orbit. The first wave of Colonial forces invaded in the tens of thousands to the relief of American allied forces across the planet, while orbital bombardment of Poland and Mexico crippled the Mexican-allied war machine.

#### Europe (2136)

While the first wave of the colonial fleet were engaged primarily in North America, a small division of forces from Task Force Atlantic were diverted to defense Europe was left to defend until the second and third waves of the fleet reached Earth by October and December 2136. Poland, unlike Mexico, did not attempt any desperate grab for total victory, but instead focused on consolidating their gains, hoping to reach an armistice before the Colonials completely overrun Mexico. President Halvidar refused any Polish attempts for peace, requesting unconditional surrender. Poland instead attempted to break up America's tentative alliance in western Europe, even going directly to the Governors of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to attempt to broke a peace through secession. With the exception of the Dutch government in Exile, no American ally broke ranks. The Elzinga government was promptly arrested for their treason.

When the Second Wave arrived in October, Task Force Atlantic was partially redeployed to Europe where they overwhelmed the Poles and Spaniards in a matter of weeks, taking western Europe as far east as the Harz Mountains. Secondary invasion forces in Russia and the Caucasus successfully captured the Volga grain belt, drove the Intermarium out of Germany by the end of the year. As the US advanced into Germany, the Supreme Commander Loveridge of Planetary Task Force Atlantic established a provisional government from Brussels, and directly governed the regions of Euorpe controlled by the colonials, implementing the QEM, deploying robotic military police units to patrol occupied territory, and governing under the US Code. While this was certainly a controversial decision among the Earth's various leaders, the Loveridge Government proved to be far more effective than the previous regimes. Additionally, martial law was seldom exercised, and local elections and governments were promptly recognized to govern areas cleared of enemy presence.

#### South Asia (2136)

While the conflicts in South Asia had been going on in one form or another even before the Mexican invasion, the arrival of the colonies drove Mexico to draw the Americans into a conflict on every front. Outside of the Southwest, South Asia was the bloodiest of these "distraction campaigns." Colonial forces were dispatched to aide local forces and US military elements that had been fighting Mexican backed conventional forces, and rebels since the war broke out. The first wave of the colonial forces constituted less than half of the total US forces dedicated to the conflict in South Asia, but by November of 2136 the US-Allied forces had managed to clear and hold the majority of territory Mexican backed forces had been occupying since the war began.

Simultaneously, the Colonial forces had begun an invasion into Mexican allied Chinese and Indian states. These operations were conducted without traditional US-Allied forces who were left to hold the territories they'd spent the last decade fighting to clear. The Colonials advanced south to take Wuhan, Fuzhou and Chendu, the anchors of Mexican-Allied military operations against Northern China. Wuhan fell first on November 19, 2136, while American-Colonial forces prepared to take Fuzhou. With the loss of critical staging points and major economic centers inevitable, Mexico introduced scorched Earth tactics to China. On November 24, 2136 just after US forces had taken Fuzhou, the Fujian Republican Army detonated a series of tactical nuclear mines in the west of their country, killing 5000 US Space Forces from the colonies. With Mexican-Allied intentions made perfectly clear, President Halvidar authorized the use of Reletivistic Bombardments against Mexican-Allied Forces, in the hopes to end the war quickly. The first target was Hongzhang, where Yangtze forces had retreated to after US forces had invaded Northwestern Yangtze.

Supreme Commander Zaya of Planetary Task Force India re-instituted the provisional administration from Shanghai that had disbanded shortly before their arrival. Unlike the previous administration, General Zaya's regime in Shanghai was modeled heavily off of the Loveridge Government in France.

#### Africa (2136-2137)

Africa saw comparatively little action for most of the war, with only the Mediterranean states engaging in open combat. The central Sahara was formally allied to Mexico, but in reality only the former Lybian states had directly engaged the American allies. Once the Second Wave of the colonial fleet arrived, the conflict in the Mediterranean was quickly put to rest after the Battle of Zawilah. After Zawilah, the colonials began moving south into the Saharan states, engaging local forces in two events before a separate peace was reached. The African front continued in Nigeria and East Africa where the ongoing wars between Mexican and American client states had been at a stalemate for years before the Third Mex-Am war broke out. The colonials dedicated more forces to East Africa than any single campaign in Europe in 2136 after Task Force India arrived. After landing the bulk of their forces in Uganda, the colonials would spend the rest of the year fighting to secure the region surrounding the Uganda Space Elevator, firing relativistic strikes just outside of Kismayo and Lodwar.

In Gabon, the colonials deployed a relativistic strike on the Mexican fleet at anchor in Rio Muni. Planetary Task Force Atlantic cleared the way for the US Army Corps of Engineers to begin construction on major infrastructure projects Middle Africa, among which were the Celestial Tower in Liberville.

### Mercury campaign (2136-2137)

The situation on Mercury had remained largely unchanged from its cold war conditions. Mexican and American drones engaged eachother into a stalemate as they had for decades, and US space forces were unable to deploy until the end of 2136. Deploying 7 strike squadrons from Battle Group India and Pacific, the Colonials engaged the Mexican orbital defenses and space forces at multiple incursions over the course of the burn toward Mercury. The Battle of Venus-Solar L4 saw the destruction of 2 strike squadrons on both sides. And by the time American forces had entered Mercurial orbit for the drop against the Mexican polar colony, Mexico's space fleet was spread extremely thin. Fighting lasted 3 months from orbital insertion to the capture of Mercury, with intermittent firings from Mexico's orbitals stalling the American advance. With the capture of Mercury

### American Advance (2137-2139)

For the whole of 2137, Mexican forces made the Americans pay for every inch of ground they gained in the Southwest, deploying tactical nuclear mines in scorched Earth tactics to deny the U.S. forces strategic positions, spreading their lines thin and slowing the advance south to a crawl. After the loss of their orbitals, and the arrival of a quarter million Planetary Guard forces to the North American theater, Mexico adopted a more literal form of Scorched Earth Tactics to slow the American advance. The Mexican Army was ordered to arm bridges and highways to detonate once US forces contacted them, burn crops, and destroy captured US bases with nuclear devices. In Ecuador, the Quito Tower was secured and forces from Columbia and Peru were pushed back into their own territory, while US forces continued to advance toward Bogota and Lima. By the end of 2137, Mexico had been pushed back to their own borders, but much of the Southwest was left in ruins. President Halvidar formally accepted the surrender of General Joaquín Guzmán at San Antonio, Texas. While officially the former Aztlan States surrendered unconditionally, President Halvidar agreed to admit the states back into the Union under their current divisions, rather than their larger, pre-war, divisions. Reconstruction also placed population relocation policies in place that encouraged Southwesterners to re-settle on Venus, which was allowing early settlement in certain cities. These former Aztlanians would be mixed with colonists from across the planet, breaking up the cultural homogenity that helped spur the Aztlan rebellion in the first place.

In South America, Mexico's allies found themselves with invaders on every doorstep after the Third Wave of colonial reinforcements arrived. The victory at the Quito tower allowed tens of thousands of forces to descend onto the Continent with ease. Forces from Colombia and Peru were pushed back to their homelands after coming to within a hair's breath of victory in Ecuador. After a surprisingly successful cyber-attack, the bulk of Colombian drones were disabled clearing a rout to a Bogota in May of 2137. Peru was more slow going, with Lima holding out until January 2138. These were minor victories, but boosts to American morale. The fight in Venezuela was still dragging on, and an Amphibious assault against Santiago just wasn't possible until the spring thaw cleared the harbor, and space forces were spread too thin until the second and third waves of colonials arrived. But the big break for the U.S. forces came with the February uprising in Brazil. The various disparate resistance groups had come together (with a little help from the CIA) to stage a chain of attacks on Mexican-Allied positions in the country. The attack caused a panic across the Mexican Sphere, and created an opportunity for attack.

While Mexico attempted to resist the US advance in the Americas, the Poles see their gains completely erased in Northern Europe, and are now fighting a two front war in Russia and their own territory. The second and third waves of Planetary Gaurd forces, now fully integrated into the Space Force, had arrived by June 2137, and had routed the Poles out of France and the German states, and were making significant gains in Russia, reaching Moscow by November 19th. US forces in Skandinavia and in Orbit were preparing to invade Poland directly on December 1st.

Oversees Eurasia had functionally become a single theater of the conflict, with Planetary Task Force India and Atlantic making a coordinated push against Mexican-Allied and Polish forces towards the center. On June 14, 2138 US-Allied forces in China entered Guangdong in a combined orbital drop and amphibious assault from Taiwan. After a two week assault the industrial heart of China fell to the US-Allied forces, recapturing the port of Hong Kong in the process and opening South-East Asia for a full assault. In India, with the arrival of the third wave of colonial reinforcements and the capture of the New Maldives, Mexican-Allied naval forces were left crippled, leaving southern India without a shield from an assault like that seen in China. Simultaneously in Europe, Task Force Atlantic had captured Berlin and had begun its invasion of the Intermarium propper with coordinated bombardment campaigns and drops into Russia, Hungary, and Poland itself. Nuclear weapons were deployed by the Poles in an attempt to halt the US-Allied advance, but after the relativistic strike on their military command center in Lotz, the command and control of nuclear ordinance was no longer possible. The campaign in Russia was that of unparalleled brutality. The Colonials, not wanting to risk a prolonged assault, conducted a series of drops with the highest casualty rates of the war to secure key Russian economic and military positions before the Russian winter would stall the conflict in its tracks. On September 14, 2138, Moscow fell to the US, leaving the poles to fight a two front war.

After more than a year of slow, bloody fighting Mexico was pushed back inside their own land, with only a few positions along the border remaining in Mexican hands. Some called for a ceasefire, but the colonials were angry, and vengeful after 15 months fighting just to take back the Homeland; the attacks in Brazil left Mexico confused and vulnerable, and the majority of the country wanted to end the Mexican threat once and for all. The Invasion of Mexico was a two front attack from the North by land and the East by sea. The Northern Invasion was stalled by nuclear attacks along critical positions along the Rio Grande, preventing drones and resupply lines from being established. It wasn't until the Battle Rio Bravo that American forces were able to break through and secure the line into Mexico, while a smaller force took the town of Ojinga to reinforce the North Eastern forces as part of operation Doniphan. Out west, the US enjoyed more success. Earlier in the year the battle of Tijuana-San Diego ended with a relativistic strike, destroying the bulk of the retreating forces from the California campaign. Another strike was used against Nogales, the location of most of Mexico's forces on the Arizona border, smaller forces opposite the town to push south unmolested by Mexican Army units in Operation Trident. Naval forces in the West were largely assigned to amphibious assaults against ports while assisting the combined Space Force and Army push south to the port city of Mazatlan. In the East it was slow going. Any attempt to gain a foothold on the coast was stopped by Mexican nuclear detonations and conventional scorched Earth tactics. The Battle for the North-East would be decided at Monterrey-Saltillo. The battle lasted months, and both sides needed the city to control the North. For Mexico, loosing Monterrey mean loosing a critical position to guard against invasion in the North, for the US, the city was a choke point to Mexico City. As the battle raged, a second front was opened at the critical port city of Veracruz.

As has always been the case, Veracruz was seen as the key to victory in Mexico. Thus it should perhaps have been no surprise that Mexico was willing to destroy the port to rob the Union of a foothold that would take them the Capital. Mexico held nothing back against the Americans, detonating nuclear ordinance every step of the way to Mexico city, and where there were options in the North to withdraw and simply find a new rout, the road to Mexico City was far less flexible; the soldiers of the Veracruz campaign saw some of the heaviest losses of the war, a fact that was true for both sides. The Union responded with the largest bombardment campaign of the War, Operation Starlight, hitting three key military positions surrounding Mexico City. The ash cloud generated from Nuclear and Relativistic strikes blanketed the land and brought nuclear winter to the country. Millions of Mexican nationals poured over the border to flee from the fallout, but the fight in the Southwest hadn't left the region in much better shape. The war took a toll on the Earth that humans had not seen before. By the winter of 2138 the conditions in Mexico had become unbearable, the government was facing food shortages and uprisings across the country, but the Mexican military never yielded. The battle for the capital was a bloodbath, but the city was spared from nuclear or angel fire once the Union broke through the Mexican lines into the city center. President Jaso intended to fight till the last man, but was killed by his Secretary of Defense who promptly agreed to the American terms of surrender. The last battle in South America came to an end a few weeks later after the last holdouts in the Rio de La Plata finally agreed to surrender.

## Treaty of San Juan

The informal ceasefire remained in place while millions of Mexicans and Americans fled to the now reopened Quito Tower and the newly completed Macapa Tower. The US Government was offering early colonization passes to war refugees, as billions of people the world over, affected by the harsh winter of 38'-39' sought to find new homes in space.. Some have argued that winter did more to force an end to the war than anything else. Poland sued for peace after a coup overthrew the sitting President after death by exposure became a real problem in most Army units. But the constant around the world was hunger and civil unrest. The U.S. Congress approved a budget infusion to spur the construction of President Halvidar's Global Transit Network, which promised to unite the world and a network of new space elevators, and ultimately bring the Earth easy access to the riches of space. All people cared about now was getting food from the colonies to Earth just to get things to quiet down.

In Mexico the situation was even worse. The decimation of their homeland and the "Gran Vaciado" left the country in a state of near lawlessness. U.S. patrol drones were now doing most of the actual police work to keep the country together; and much the same could be said across the Western Hemisphere. With the hemisphere in ruins, and the nuclear winter not expected to end until summer 2140 at the earliest, the U.S. called for a summit in San Juan. At the conference, largely made up of provisional governments established only in the last few months, the U.S. agreed to pay for reconstruction efforts and aid local forces in keeping order, effectively formalizing the U.S. occupation as a fact of life. In addition, the Executive branch of the U.S. federal government assumed direct control of local commercial and social services to place them under the Quantum Economic Model. Doing so would make the delivery of goods and services to those who needed it far more efficient, and would improve the economies of these countries, as it had in the US and the military administered zones in Eurasia. The Treaty of San Juan was signed on April 4th, 2139, and on January 1, 2140, Mexico was formally annexed by the US, and officially ceased to exist as an independent soverign nation.

## Aftermath

President Halvidar had been working with the recovered powers of the world on a Great Experiment during and after the war. All nations occupied by the US were fully disarmed, including liberated allies. And in all territories administered by the American government/military, new domestic policies kept in line with the US Constitution and the QEM were implemented. The most important of those policies was the installation of a unified network of administrative AIs that handled virtually all logistical issues of statecraft. The nuclear winter of 2139 drove a number of northern Mexican states to seek greater ties with the US, enthusiastically adopting the QEM to save their economies from disaster.

The London Conference is where the first steps were taken to consolidate Terran reconstruction efforts. Leaders from American allied states worldwide, as well as the provisional governments in Shanghai and the Hague, and even some former Mexican allied states, were all gathered to discuss the post-war world order. President Halvidar announced that the US was no longer going to pursue a diplomatic policy of keeping Eurasia divided, but rather hoped to unite it; and indeed the entire world. The members of the conference weren't really in any position to challenge this, and the promise of full integration into the QEM was more than enough to bring them to the table. Unification would begin with the establishment of new regional states in free association with the US. China, India, Siberia, and Atlantic Europe would each be organized under singular governments. Buffer zones of varying degrees of American occupation would be slowly reduced to expand these associated states, but the goal was to eventually unify all of Earth under this system. Certain key territories would become direct protectorates of the US, such as space elevator sites, key ports, etc. All remaining martial forces would ultimately be integrated into the new Unified Command Structure.