Jack of Harts

Most of the Virginia General Assembly left Richmond after their eviction from the Assembly chambers. A few were arrested, but soldiers from Fort Lee helped many of the others make it out of the city and escorted them to nearby Petersburg. They actually managed to assemble a bare quorum of both legislative houses there, and quickly went to work. One of their first official announcements was the Impeachment of Virginia’s Governor and Lieutenant Governor for supporting the Federal actions. They followed that with a vote to declare former Vice President John Jefferson Freemon the interim governor until a new election was called. You may imagine that the rump Assembly in Richmond did not support these announcements.

Many people all over America still believe that nuclear missiles flying over America during the Second Great Depression is a myth. Many networks refused to air the footage, declaring it fake news and not worthy of broadcast. The Federal government declared any network that aired the footage to be acting on the behalf of foreign agents and ordered them shut down. But the Virginians never doubted it. They watched the missiles rise up out of the water. They watched the missiles come down. They watched the missiles impact with the ground. They were there when the recovery teams pulled the nuclear warheads out of the impact craters. They do not know why none of the warheads detonated. No public record has ever answered that question. But the missiles clarified the situation to everyone in and around Virginia. And Virginia has never forgotten it.

The fighting over Naval Station Norfolk drew in more and more Federal forces in their attempt to retake the largest military port in the world. Troops from Fort Lee and fighters from Langley moved in to support Norfolk’s defenders, and the Feds ordered the Naval forces based at Norfolk to attack their own base. Norfolk called on their ships to support them as well, and the fighting continued to spread. It raged in the air, on the ground, on the water, and under the water for days. The damage inflicted was substantial, and while the Feds occupied large parts of the base, they could not maintain control of it. And when that became clear, the Federal government unleashed its final solution for traitors. A ballistic missile submarine hiding off the East Coast followed Federal orders and fired a spread of nuclear missiles at Norfolk, Langley, Fort Lee, and Lexington.