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The Ohio Crisis (known as the Summer Revolution by the Leftist Front and its sympathizers) was an armed rebellion by militant leftists in Ohio in 2035. It came as a result of a series of U.S. interventions in Latin America the previous year. A group of left-wing parties called the Leftist Front was angered by this and sought to take control of Ohio because of its political importance. When they failed to do this democratically, the began preparing for an uprising. Active hostilities commenced on July 23 and ended with the surrender of the Leftist Front on September 11.

Background and causes
The conflict’s root cause was a series of uprisings against governments in Latin America in 2034. The organizations involved in the rebellions were largely anti-American in ideology, and the fear that they would be successful caused the United States to take action. Troops, supplies, and humanitarian aid were sent by the U.S. to countries suffering from insurrection with the hope of preventing the rebels from taking power.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., a host of left-wing parties and organizations held a convention in New York to decide what they could do about “American imperialism.” They decided to form a coalition named the Leftist Front and move their base of operations to Ohio, seeing as it had had significant political importance in previous elections, and attempt to democratically win control of it. Their master plan was to move on to the other swing states afterward, and eventually win control of the entire country.

The plan, while it did increase their membership, failed overall. Unwilling to wait for another chance at an electoral victory, they began preparing for a rebellion of their own. Frederick Paulson, an ex-U.S. Marine veteran of the War on Terror who joined the Revolutionary Communist Party (now part of the Front) because he had “witnessed American imperialism firsthand and wanted to help end its grip on the world,” was chosen to oversee the secretive creation and raising of the Front’s military wing. The People’s Revolutionary Brigades, as it was called, received covert armament support mainly from Cuba and Venezuela and volunteer support from various other countries with left-wing governments.

CIA infiltrators became wary of the Front’s preparation and warned the government that a threat may be imminent. In response, the Ohio National Guard was mobilized within the state and began to function as an active military. The state defense forces, the collective term for the Ohio Military Reserve and the Ohio Naval Militia that were previously unarmed, were converted into combat-capable units. A number of counties were even permitted to raise local paramilitary units with the assistance of the CIA. On July 23, 2035, when Paulson deemed the time was right, the Leftist Front made its move.

Commencement of hostilities and early engagements
The Leftists’ first military action was the hijacking of a freighter on Lake Erie before sunrise on July 23. The crew was taken hostage and radio communication from the ship was ceased. The hijackers positioned several mortars on the deck and moved the ship to an area off the coast of Camp Perry, a major base of the state defense forces.

At seven o’clock in the morning, land-based mortars opened fire on the camp in coordination with those on the freighter. The garrison was caught completely off guard. While they were busy scrambling for their sidearms, Leftist insurgents armed with assault rifles advanced on the camp and began firing on OHMR and OHNM personnel. The defenders put up considerable resistance, but they were hopeless to ward off the attack. After about an hour and a half, the barrage let up and the Leftists voluntarily retreated. The OHMR remained active, but the OHNM had lost large amounts of equipment and needed to recuperate, so it ceased operations for the time being.

Taking advantage of this, the Leftists seized the Bass Islands with great ease and established the “Provisional Socialist Republic of the Bass Islands.” Paulson set up his main headquarters in the village of Put-in-Bay, much to the dismay of his executive officer, Nicholas Kirsten. The Leftists had gained control of several airstrips when they captured the islands and intended to make good use of them. They pioneered a new type of terrorist attack known as “strafing,” or firing handheld weapons at ground targets from inside a small plane. This hindered the OHNM’s recovery process and was a dangerous nuisance to civilians living in coastal towns.

The Leftists then began the people’s war, their campaign to surround the city from the countryside. They initiated a series of uprisings in the smaller towns in the vicinity of Columbus, the capital and largest city of Ohio, to draw the National Guard out of the city and leave it open to attack. Bellefontaine hosted the latest of these uprisings, and all of them were quelled by August 2. The Guard, commanded by Major General Charlie Malone, failed to catch wind of the plan and were completely unprepared for its implementation.

The next day, the Leftists slipped into Columbus and suddenly began a series of violent attacks and bombings. Governor Randall Byron was nearly killed when the Statehouse was bombed, and the government was moved to the city of Cleveland to prevent similar future incidents. Panic erupted among the civilians, who fled the downtown area in droves. Refugee camps were hastily set up on the outskirts of the city, but many were left without a home. Columbus had fallen in less than a day. The “Summer Revolution,” as the Leftists called it, was in full swing.

Loyalist counteroffensives in the south, Cuban invasion in the north
The Guard realized their mistake and quickly worked to rectify it. They withdrew troops from nearly all other parts of the state to concentrate on the push to retake Columbus. General Malone reluctantly ordered the Ohio Air National Guard to be activated under pressure from his executive, Colonel Sheila Spitzer, though he also ordered that airstrikes and artillery were only to be used against areas that were confirmed to be Leftist-held. Under Malone, the counteroffensive was half-hearted at most, consisting of a gap-ridden siege of the downtown area and periodic infantry patrols into it along with the aforementioned sporadic mini-bombardments. Malone’s indecisiveness was not normal of him, however, and was only brought about by his unwillingness to fight his fellow Americans. The campaign dragged on indefinitely.

Meanwhile, in Geauga County, northeastern Ohio, the conflict seemed almost as distant as it could be. Columbus and the Bass Islands were both halfway across the state from the sleepy rural county. It had been one of several to raise a CIA-sponsored paramilitary unit, but the Geauga County Militia seemed almost unnecessary. That changed on August 20.

Cuba, a discreet ally of the Leftist Front, hastily trained and equipped a battalion of fifteen hundred volunteers known as the Guevara Battalion and inserted them through the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes to eventually end up in Geauga County. They had originally hoped to pry some of the National Guard’s attention off of Columbus by wreaking havoc behind enemy lines. When they learned of the Militia’s existence, they proceeded with the mission anyway as it would threaten Cleveland, the de facto capital of Ohio, which was in the neighboring Cuyahoga County.

The first target of the invasion was the town of Chardon, the county’s largest population center and the home of a Militia garrison. They lurked north of the town for a few days before ambushing a platoon of militiamen who were running a drill. The garrison was quickly readied and the public warned, but they were completely unprepared for the ferocious mortar bombardment that followed. The Cubans entered the city shortly afterward and the Militia called for reinforcements from other parts of the county. The town held out longer than it would have without the assistance, but it fell within the day nonetheless. The vast majority of civilians fled the town and the Militia retreated south to the village of Burton.

Back in Columbus, General Malone fell victim to his own negligence when he was killed in a bomb attack on his poorly-defended headquarters, presumably by a Leftist that had exploited a gap in the siege. The more aggressive Colonel Spitzer replaced him. A CIA infiltrator in the Leftist Front had discovered that the Leftists were in control of secret base areas in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains to the east, and that they were using them as a logistical advantage. Spitzer was notified and promptly persuaded the Pennsylvania National Guard to send troops across the border and capture the areas.

Before August 23, the Pennsylvania National Guard had only joined the other surrounding states in containing the crisis by stationing troops along the border to keep Leftists out. On that day, Operation Turbulence was initiated and four thousand troops led by Brigadier General Tobias Richardson and backed by artillery and even armor crossed the border. The areas were captured within the first few days, but the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team retained a presence in the region for the remainder of the conflict. All the while, Colonel Spitzer strengthened the blockades around downtown Columbus, heightened the intensity of airstrikes and artillery bombardments, and ordered a full-time occupation of areas within the blockade.

The tide turns
In the week after the fall of Chardon, the Guevara Battalion made significant progress against the Geauga County Militia. They established several forward bases south of Chardon to launch attacks from more easily. However, they began to face problems soon after. The Canadian Navy had blockaded the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, cutting off the route of supplies and reinforcements from their homeland. The Militia also received a shipment of mortars and armored personnel carriers, giving them a technological advantage.

Nevertheless, they decided to move against Burton on August 26. Under cover of night, they began a mortar barrage, but one that paled in comparison to the hail that had fallen on Chardon. They entered the village on foot from the east and were not expecting the Militia garrison’s preparedness and new armored vehicles. They fought house-to-house for about an hour, but withdrew in short order.

At Camp Perry, the OHNM finally recovered from the surprise attack that started the crisis. They set their sights on the Bass Islands, which had been held by the Leftists since early in the conflict. The OHMR, which was being used to occupy parts of Ohio that the National Guard could not, recommitted the bulk of its troops to a planned invasion of the “Provisional Socialist Republic of the Bass Islands.”

The state defense forces landed on the islands on August 27 under the cover of air support from the Michigan National Guard and missile strikes by a U.S. Navy littoral combat ship. Put-in-Bay was liberated that same day. Paulson and Kirsten, the latter of whom was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the cause of the Leftist Front, fled the islands in a boat, just barely avoiding detection and landing in northeastern Ohio near the city of Conneaut. The rest of the Leftist survivors escaped to Canada and took refuge on Pelee Island. The tide had now turned on all fronts.

After a week of preparation, the Geauga County Militia was ready for its first major offensive. Kiwanis, a neighborhood situated in a valley surrounding the eponymous lake, had been captured by the Guevara Battalion in the week between the battles of Chardon and Burton. The Cubans had only met resistance from a ragtag gang of armed civilians. They used it to mount their assault on Burton. Liberating it was the Militia’s first objective.

The raid took place on August 28. The Militia began the attack by using its mortars to bombard a camp that the Guevara Battalion had set up in the neighborhood. The infantry assault was supported by a column of armored personnel carriers. The camp was secured in a short time, but the Militia patrolled the community for the next six hours, engaging in sporadic firefights with stragglers.

They withdrew from the valley when the area was confirmed to be clear and the offensive continued. When the Militia entered Chardon two days later, they found it completely deserted. The whereabouts of the Guevara Battalion and its leader, Colonel Enrique Valera, were unknown.

End of the crisis and aftermath
Paulson and Kirsten made their way across the countryside until they arrived at the city of Steubenville. Paulson, adamant that the revolution would succeed, ordered that all members of the People’s Revolutionary Brigades migrate to Steubenville and capture it. Kirsten began openly demanding that Paulson face the truth and give up the fight, but his superior’s stubbornness remained unshakeable even in the face of news that the Canadian Special Operations Regiment had killed or captured every Leftist on Pelee Island during Operation Whitewater.

In Geauga County, the crisis had evidently already ended for the people there. Things seemed peaceful enough to hold the annual Geauga County Fair in Burton on Labor Day weekend. Still, though, pairs of armed militiamen were stationed at every entrance to the fairgrounds and on every path corner for precautionary reasons.

On Saturday, September 1, the second day of the fair, the peace was violently disturbed when a large explosion erupted on the main path, killing eleven people and wounding many others. A group of militiamen, in their panic, opened fire on fleeing civilians near the blast site and killed four of them. A second bomb in the fine arts display buildings was detonated shortly afterward and claimed the lives of five more. A third, in the barns, killed a militiaman and a young girl. Needless to say, the fair was immediately called off.

The incident bolstered Paulson’s anti-American fervor, not least because he took part in a similar shooting in Iraq in 2005, an event that forever scarred his memories. The last remnants of the People’s Revolutionary Brigades arrived at Steubenville on September 8, taking the town with minimal resistance and causing many of its residents to flee. The West Virginia National Guard responded by blocking every bridge across the Ohio River to the east and setting up a fire support base on opposite side. The forces of Ohio and Pennsylvania surrounded the city on all other sides later that day, securing several sites on the outskirts and beginning an artillery bombardment.

Inside the city, Paulson had all but lost touch with reality. Kirsten eventually saw that there was no hope of getting through to him, and decided that it was time to take matters into his own hands. In the basement of their headquarters, Kirsten shot Paulson in the head and set it up to appear as if Paulson had done it himself. The next morning, on September 11, he carried a plain white flag to the Guard’s perimeter and announced the surrender of the Leftist Front. The Ohio Crisis was officially over.

Whether or not it is officially over, low-intensity resistance by Leftist sympathizers continues to this day. National Guard troops from the surrounding states are stationed in Ohio to supplement the occupying forces, which will remain active until the violence ends. While the civilian government remains active, it is effectively controlled by the occupying authorities. Internationally, the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela and blockaded Cuba for aiding the Leftists. Tensions between the U.S. and Russia, an ally of Cuba and Venezuela, escalated into armed preparedness. The repercussions of the Ohio Crisis are still being felt and will continue to be felt indefinitely.