Jack of Harts

Former Vice President Freemon and his children reappeared in Lexington, Virginia mere hours after their disappearance from Federal custody. Their feed went live on every network that would carry them, and inventive hackers pushed the signal to many networks that refused the feed. The elder Freemon could barely stand, and both he and his children wore clothing that revealed the obvious signs of long-term, systematic torture. His address to all the nation that would listen was simple. He recanted his admission of partaking in sedition, and every single named coconspirator, stating they were the result of torture. He said that he did not believe his wife was alive. He charged the government with killing her and demanded justice. He ended with a smile of broken teeth and a simple statement. “Sic semper tyrannis.” The Commonwealth of Virginia motto. “Thus always to Tyrants.”

There were many side effects to the Federal and Commonwealth of Virginia law enforcement’s actions in Lexington. The burning of downtown. The arrest, transport, and eventual rescue of Lexington’s mayor. The negotiated withdrawal of Commonwealth officers after the Feds fled the field of battle with their mayor and his family. The officers felt like they had been left high and dry to fight their fellow officers from Lexington while the Feds ran for safety. That caused many of them to question certain talking points from Richmond and Washington. They did not voice their questions though. Questions were dangerous in those times. But they made preparations. They called in favors. They may have even swapped duty assignments. It was a sad day when former Vice President Freemon and his children disappeared from Federal custody. A sad day they had nothing at all to do with, of course.

The majority of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s military self-destructed and left its ruins all over eastern Virginia in a few days. A mix of Commonwealth troops loyal to Richmond and Federal special forces attacked troops that showed signs of declaring their support for Lexington, and the casualties in both men and material proved devastating to all sides. The National Guard forces were particularly savaged, and perhaps a quarter of those stationed in the Commonwealth of Virginia’s eastern counties survived the fratricidal conflict. Many of them streamed into the western counties without weapons or vehicles to their name. The Richmond loyalists suffered similar casualty rates, and there were fewer of them to begin with. The Virginia Defense Force represented Virginia’s primary surviving fighting force in the end, and nearly all of them had declared for Lexington.