Militias
TROY, NY - The North Country Regiment held Troy today despite extended shelling from the Long Island Troop, amid the continuing militia battles which followed the failed stand-down of the New York National Guard.
Meanwhile, in Bennington, VT, the assembled governors of Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania called on the federal government to intervene in the spreading New York violence before it spread into their own states, and asked for support in dealing with a growing number of refugees.
"The Federal Government's interpretation of 'federal' seems broken today," said Governor Howard Thurston of Pennsylvania. "Their 'laboratory of the states' had a major explosion, and they don't seem to recognize that the continuing fire is a real problem."
Presidential Spokesman Charles Tutino issued a prepared statement after the governors' press conference calling for "citizens and militias to restrain themselves," but promising no immediate action because "troops are more critically needed in other theaters of operation" and because "New York State has no remaining command and control structures with which our military can reliably interact."
New York has been unstable since the Albany Detonation of January 2049, during Governor Fortunelli's State of the State address. That massive natural gas explosion cost New York nearly all of its political leadership, and started a cycle of regional blame and retribution that continues to accelerate. While Downstate remained a unit, dominated by the Long Island Troop, Upstate Guard units fragmented into a number of loose coalitions.
In Troy, shelling damaged the southern part of the city, though no ground assault followed. The North Country Regiment had claimed that they would be receiving air support in the afternoon, but no planes or helicopters were visible as of 4:00pm.
Meanwhile, Auburn Prison, west of Syracuse, saw all of its prisoners freed as the Canandaigua Division assaulted the city. The walls were breached early in the battle, but it wasn't clear whether guards had put up resistance to either the inmates or the attackers. By nightfall, Candandaigua Commandant Cody McLaren had proclaimed the city to be under his control.
Just to the north of the Pennsylvania border, commanders from Jamestown to Binghamton ordered their troops to be ready to defend their territory, but have not made any offensive maneuvers. The commander of the Olean barracks, Colonel Calvin O. Wilson, emphasized that last month's Southern Tier Compact was intended to ensure that the residents in their commands were spared the "depradations and chaos we've seen to the north and east", relying on "skilled troops, faith in God and country, and our superior knowledge of our home terrain to keep invaders out."
