The hope that the Chimera might have disregarded the North American continent and been satisfied
with the rest of the world, was one of the last desperate gambles of the United States.
It reflected the delusional attitudes of the Noah Grace administration, which for the first critical
years of the Chimeran invasion had willfully ignored the slaughter of mankind in Europe,
and kept its own population unaware of the growing disasters abroad. When the first Spire attacks hit
New England in 1951, and tens of thousands of Americans were infected by the Chimeran Virus,
the absurdity of American foreign policy was revealed, and quickly replaced with a last
ditch effort to preserve the human race; it was known as the Liberty Defense Perimeter.
Though the United States government was unwilling to undertake any measures on its home soil that
might alarm its populace, the inevitability of a Chimera invasion on the continent was discussed
as early as 1950. By analyzing the collapse of the European defense efforts, the destruction of the
Royal Navy, and the accelerating advance of the Chimera across Asia and Africa,
the Joint Army and Navy Board began developing contingencies to repulse a hypothetical invasion.
Three likely scenarios were discussed, codenamed Yukon Thrust,
Continental Pincer and Heartland Defense. Through various wargames and analysis,
it was determined that the whole of the United States could not be successfully defended.
Only a consolidated perimeter, behind which American industry and manpower would be evacuated,
had the potential to create a stalemate and even some kind of armistice.
If this were not forthcoming, then this new American rump state could exist in perpetuity,
and create a bastion from which an eventual counter-attack might be launched.
The Liberty Defense Perimeter was therefore envisioned as a 4,500 mile boundary
extending from Idaho and Arizona in the west, to Alabama, and Ohio in the east. It was nearly
entirely landlocked, with only a small coastal area preserved in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Much of the perimeter was deliberately set back a minimum of 300 miles from the coasts,
and the borders of Canada and Mexico which could not be effectively defended.
This reduced American state would be unable to sustain the total population of the country,
and great care was taken to determine which citizens would be allowed to evacuate within
the Perimeter. Priority was given to essential government personnel,
the Office of the President, the members of Congress, and their immediate families.
Industrialists, scientists and influential private citizens would follow, and finally the soldiers,
workers and farmers needed to preserve the perimeter and the populace within it.
The Perimeter’s primary defenses were a network of artillery platforms; towers
1400 feet tall and equipped with a single 90mm naval cannon and four 44mm anti-aircraft guns.
Their effective range was rated at 50 miles through the employment of sophisticated radar
and other targeting systems. The towers were to be placed
every 50 feet, as local terrain allowed, for a total of 38,780 artillery emplacements.
These towers however represented only part of the Perimeter’s defensive measures.
Mobile strategic reserve forces were to be stationed throughout the interior zone,
reacting to wherever the Chimera seemed poised to breach the static line. Additionally, a secret
provision within the Liberty plans suggested using chemical weapons to completely eradicate Americans
outside the zone who were not to be evacuated. This was to be aided by poisoned supplies,
delivered by the air under the guise of a relief operation. These harsh measures,
it was believed, would deprive the Chimera of the biological material they required to reproduce.
With the Chimeran invasion of the United States no longer hypothetical,
construction of the Liberty Defense Perimeter was approved on September 3rd,
1951 immediately after the New England attack. It was completed by August of the following year,
though surviving materials provide evidence that the initial plan
might have been significantly altered, and likely downscaled in the intervening time.
On May 15th, 1953 the long awaited attack on the United States occurred with Chimeran
airfleets arriving simultaneously over the East and West coasts.
Their advance was more rapid than even the most pessimistic projections
and over 60% of the US Armed Forces were destroyed in the first 72 hours.
The Liberty Defense Perimeter was breached less than two weeks later on May 28th by a Chimeran
thrust from the South. Within a single day, roughly 75 million Americans had been infected.
Less than 4% of the country’s pre-war population survived, scattered across its former territories.
Despite local successes that inflicted heavy damage upon the Chimeran fleet,
the Liberty Defense Perimeter ultimately failed in its objective. It was constructed out of
desperation and only completed when the war had already been lost across the rest of the world.
In whatever manner mankind survives today, the decaying ruins of its towers prove the
truth behind the words of one of America’s most famous generals,
that fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.