Survival of the Species
Chapter Twenty-Two
The taking of the President was vital to the plans of the Nationalists; things would have been immensely harder if he couldn't be captured.
The importance of the ceremonial President lay in the fact that he was technically the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Also, he was the mechanism by which parliament was convened and prorogued, and he "installed" all new prime ministers and government cabinets.
Getting the President to install the new government, and putting the ceremony on video for the public to view, would legitimise the new Nationalist Government, and thus enable the Nationalist takeover of government functions to be a smooth process (or, at least, smoother than it would have been otherwise).
However, possibly just as important, if not more so, was the fact that gaining control of the armed forces, via a compliant Commander-in-Chief, meant that the military could not only be neutralised as a threat to the Nationalists, but that they could also be put to work for the new government; in effect, helping the Silent Brotherhood to do its work.
A meeting was quickly arranged between the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, and the top personnel of the armed forces; this meeting taking place at the President's Sydney residence (the use of which conferred an air of legitimacy upon the Nationalist government). It wasn't that easy to set up the meeting, especially since the heads of the armed forces had perished in the Canberra bombing. However, the top military personnel from the other states were quickly flown in. Various orders had been issued via telecommunications, but it was considered important to have a conference in person, as part of the establishing of the new Government's legitimacy and authority.
The first orders given by the Defence Minister were in regards to the Canberra explosion - obviously there was a huge amount to be done, and the military was put in charge of the clean-up, evacuation, and the sealing-off process. This first order was not only designed to have a legitimate air to it (if the first order was to round up dissidents, that could have jeopardised military co-operation), but was also useful in tying up a large number of military personnel - who might otherwise, with idle hands, be thinking about overthrowing the new government. Thanks to past governments, the military was nothing like it should have been; smaller numbers were easier to control.
The area affected by the atomic bomb was cordoned off by the Army - no small task, considering the circumference of the area. Military personnel were flown in, and trucked in, from all over Australia to help with the various tasks at hand - and, realising the enormity of the task, the Army requested, and was granted, Navy and Air Force personnel to help with the massive operation. The military were kept busy rescuing people from under collapsed buildings, etc; and operating military field hospitals in conjunction with civilian ambulance services. Fire fighting services were coordinated to bring the raging fires under control - and to stop the fires spreading beyond Canberra. The military carried out the evacuation of the blast area as best it could, as well as tackling the huge task of providing shelter and amenities for the displaced population.
All in all, it was amazing just how many resources were required to properly cope with the effects of just one nuclear blast.
* * * * * * *
At the same time, it had been explained to the top military men just how important it was to keep the civilian population calm, and to keep from them the full details of the Canberra explosion. Indeed, it was true that no government - or military - would want a panicked populace that might go out of control; it would be an easy thing to worry the city populations that other cities might be subject to a nuclear bombing too, thus panicking the population into a headlong flight from the cities, creating absolute chaos nationwide. In the absence of enough food, shelter, and services in the country areas - certainly not enough to cope with several extra million people - it wouldn't be long until food riots occurred, and a state of anarchy would come into being.
With such a scenario laid out before them, the new military chiefs were willing enough to go along with the new government's censorship ideas. The military were told that special units - clothed in Army uniforms - were already in place, controlling the censorship of media outlets. It was explained that these were part of the National Emergency Response Organisation, a highly secret organisation originally set up in the 1930s to deal with certain aspects of national emergencies, and were under the personal direction of the Governor-General.
The military chiefs were a bit dubious of NERO, considering that they hadn't heard of the organisation before; however, it was explained to them that it was even more secretive than ASIS had been pre-1970s, and that its structure was such that even the men under its command, at the lower levels at least, had no real idea of what the name of the group was or who ran it - all they knew was that when they were called-up, that they were to leave their normal occupations immediately and carry out any and all orders issued by their section leaders; the military chiefs were further informed that the organisation had been set up on the same secretive basis (except more so) as the Committee for National Security (also known as the White Army) of the 1920s and 1930s, and, indeed, NERO had used the CNS as its foundation structure.
The military accepted the explanation, especially those that already knew about the CNS of the 1930s; but even if they were still somewhat dubious, they didn't really have a choice but to go along with it all.
The Defence Minister arranged for military units to supplement the Silent Brotherhood activists (in their role as NERO units) at all of the media outlets, and that the military units would be placed under the control of the NERO officer in charge. Although there was some initial reticence about NERO being in command of military personnel, the Defence Minister convinced the military chiefs that it was necessary, and issued written orders to that effect (as a bureaucratic measure, this allayed the military chiefs' fears about being held responsible for handing over command of some units).
The military had been kept neutral, and was now assisting the Revolution to carry out its aims.
Previous Chapter - - - Next Chapter
Contents