Multiverse War 01 Carrier Wars by Chris Nuttall

Author:Chris Nuttall [Nuttall, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-07-17T09:02:16+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six: Strike South

Royal Palace

Isabella City, New Spain (TimeLine B)

The Royal Palace had been built for the Spanish Emperor, before the role merged into the French Emperor – which was another way of saying that the French took over – during the period when the resurgent British America had begun to expand again into the west, heading towards new Orleans. As a symbol of Spanish determination to hold the remains of New Spain, Viceroy Cortez had always distrusted its walls. A massive city, built near Panama, Isabella City was always too vulnerable to an attack.

His military staff were French, he knew; apart from one who was a descendent of an Aztec commander when Cortez’s distant ancestor had conquered the Aztecs and their subject civilisations. Three hundred years of development later, and massive investment by the French, the Mexican people had been forged into one nation, one that was staunchly catholic and determined to fight a holy war with the protestants in the north.

The meeting room had been designed, rumour had it, by the original Cortez himself. Viceroy Cortez knew that that was nonsense; Cortez had been disgraced and then died long before the palace was ever conceived of. It was just another lie designed to keep him – and his family, the last pure Spanish noble family – in power. If they ever lost their importance, he suspected, the French would take over…and New Spain’s unique identity would be lost.

“The British and their American lackeys are massing then,” he said, as the map was unfurled. New Spain was littered with telegraph cables; the handful of tribesmen who had damaged them had been exterminated until the lesson had sunk in – if there were any left.

General Bether nodded slowly. He wore the famed stovepipe hat of the French Army, but his face was grim under the ceremonial uniform. “They are massing near El Paso,” he said. The tiny town sat near the border between New Spain and the North American Union. It also had more spies and sabotage operators than any other town its size. “There is also a second, smaller, development near Corpus Christi. This attack…looks to be more serious than their other attacks.”

Viceroy Cortez inclined his head. His family had considered attempting gaining independence for New Spain – under their rule, of course. But with the Americans on the border, only the equal might of the French Empire kept them out…along with nearly two centuries without a major war. Except, if half the reports about the George Washington were accurate, the war was about to take a major shift in the wrong direction.

“In fact, they have several hundred of the new land ironclads,” Bether continued. “It is quite likely that they will punch through the defences.”

Cortez drew in a long breath. “What about the new aircraft?” He asked. New Spain had quite a capable aircraft industry; it had been a requirement for control of the Caribbean – before the British developments had shown them how much more was needed.

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