Dillon, Beaverhead County, Montana, United States…

Sheriff Brandon Bismarck of the Beaverhead County Police Department looked out from the front terrace of his lonely office at the edge of Dillon, Montana, smoking a cigarette when a Hope County police car weaved erratically and braked with a loud screech in front of the office, startling the sheriff.

"What the- ?!"

An uniformed black man rushed out, and yelled frantically and histronically, waving a US Marshal badge, "Quick, call the SWAT teams, the National Guard, the Army! Terrorists are coming after us! Now! Before they kills us all!"

"Wait, calm your ass down, sir-"

"What he means is there's a damned huge number of crazy, armed cultists chasing us!" The woman declared, holding up a badge. "Deputy Joey Hudson, Hope County Police Department! The cultists are drugged up, have killed hundreds of people, commit torture and all kinds of atrocities! They destroyed our helicopter, took over the police station and jail, and overran the entire county! No information or traffic gets out without their knowledge! We had to flee for our lives!"

"Wait- that all makes sense now!" Sheriff Bismarck exclaimed. "That's what all the National Guard troops are doing in town!"

"National Guard troops… are here!" Marshal Burke looked so relieved he was about to faint.

"Yes!" Sheriff Bismarck gestured. "I'll drive over there, you can follow behind me!"

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Several kilometers north...

Junior Deputy Stevens and the other members of the Resistance were firing, picking off another scouting group of Peggies.

"We need to hold the line here!" Sniper Grace Armstrong shouted to several Resistance members who were beginning to panic and break ranks, as she sniped off two charging Angels.

"Mayor, Sheriff!" Deep within the entrenched command center protected by technicals, sandbags, and makeshift concrete barriers in an impromptu defense, Tracey Lader rushed over to get the attention of Mayor Minkler and Sheriff Whitehorse. "The Marshal is coming back! He's got the National Guard with him already!"

"What, that's impossible! How did he call them so fast-"

BOOM! BOOM! A pair of advancing Peggie technicals detonated in short succession, blown apart by what seemed to be rockets. The remaining Peggie forces immediately turned tail and fled, as if hell were on their heels.

"What- wait- is that- " Junior Deputy Stevens turned around to look behind him.

A score of National Guard Humvees and three SWAT Police Vans from Missoula rolled down the main street leading from the town of Dillon, flanked by about a half dozen police cars, much of Beaverhead County's paltry law enforcement contingent.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Marshal Burke exclaimed, clambering out of a Humvee. "Now we can show that fucking cult we mean business!" He stood next to a stern-looking National Guard officer. "This is Major Lucas Barley of the Montana National Guard! He's here to rout these goddamned savages!"

Deputy Hudson, however, was less impressed. She parked her police car next to the Humvee Marshal Burke and Major Barley had been riding in, and tried to get their attention. "Are you sure that's enough? Don't you remember the numbers the Peggies have?! Where is like, our air support and stuff?"

"Don't you worry about that," Burke dismissed offhandedly. "Major Barley already said the Air National Guard and the Army Air Wing helicopters have been setting up base in Missoula. They'll get here as soon as we call for air support, and also intercept any of the Peggie fighters and helicopters."

As he was speaking, another dozen Army supply trucks arrived and began unloading mortars and unhooking towed guns.

Sheriff Whitehorse relaxed a little, but he was still casting displeasured glances at the foolishly-optimistic Burke.

"Hey, Dutch," Archer Jess Black nudged the survivalist with her elbow. "Do you think we have a shot at plugging up the Peggies for good?"

"Hmpf. I've got to admit, the government has good hardware. Not as good as my bunker though. Still… why aren't they here in more force? Where are the tanks, armored carriers, helicopter gunships? Heavy guns? The government's always been control freaks- they've hunted me with SWAT teams for violating minor ordinances and now they and now they are sending the same SWAT against an enormous army of crazed, ruthless cultists, the largest goddamn army Montana has ever seen?"

"Something's not right," Eli Palmer admitted, confiding his unease. "The government usually reacts with overwhelming force to even minor provocations. Look what they did at the Waco siege. I would expect the government to bring the hammer down hard upon the Peggies. But where are the helicopter gunships? The battle tanks, self-propelled artillery, SAM batteries? Why are there only novice, untested National Guardsmen, not Special Forces, Army Rangers, or Marines? Something's not right…"

"No time to think about it!" Mary May Fairgrave warned. "Peggie warbirds inbound!"

From the north of flight of Adjudicor FBW-2 fighters roared in, their propellers churning with the terrifying sound. Behind them, slower Kaumbat R-31 helicopters trailed behind.

"Air support, get fucking air support!" Marshal Burke exclaimed, and a soldier relayed the order.

"On the anti-air guns!" Major Barley screamed orders into his radio.

Anti-aircraft shells lanced up into the sky sporadically from the convoy, and the enemy aircraft began jinking evasively. One Adjudicor's wing was blown away and the plane plummeted in a downward spiral. But the other three strafed the column of Army and police vehicles, bullets ricocheting off of the Humvees but punching through the police cars like paper-mache.

"MANPADS, take down the helis!" Major Barley ordered.

Several soldiers dropped to one knee, leveled their light, shoulder-mounted SAMs, and fired them off. Cheers erupted from the defenders as two of the helicopters spun away in flames. But moments later, the Peggie technicals burst forth from the forest and began raking the Beaverhead defenses.

"Fire, fire!" Major Barley ordered, but he didn't really need to, as the young National Guardsmen, police officers, and Resistance members were all unleashing hell upon the attacking cultists.

The crossfire riddled Peggie soldiers, shattered windshields, and punctured tires. One Peggie technical careened into a roadside ditch, rolled over, and exploded. At first, it seemed like the defenders' firepower would win the day- until an explosion burst through the lead Humvee, flames torching the vehicle and incinerating the driver and gunner.

"What the fuck?!" Marshal Burke exclaimed. "Where did that come from?"

Junior Deputy Stevens glanced quickly to the abandoned barn houses flanking them, and more importantly, the forests behind them. "Oh God… you've got to be kidding me!"

More explosions lanced into the convoy, blowing up more police and Army vehicles.

"Damn it, we've been outflanked!" Grace Armstrong bellowed. "Retreat, retreat!"

Technicals and armored vehicles burst out of the woods to their left and right, with weapons far stronger than the Resistance had previously seen them wield.

As the Resistance and police units began to break ranks, Major Barley shouted over the radio, "No! No! You have to hold the line! We have orders to hold the line!" Crouching behind his fortifications, he yelled above the cacophony of explosions and machine gun fire to his comm officer. "Damn it, where is our air support! Tell Missoula we need it now!"

"Sir! I can't raise Missoula! They're not answering any hails! Is it- is it possible Missoula has been overrun too?!"

"That's ridiculous!" Major Barley scoffed. "There's no way the goddamn cultists could strike that far! Keep trying to hail them!"

"YAAHOOO!" Hurk Drubman Jr., fired off his rocket launcher, blowing up a Kaumbat R-31 that was sniping at the Beaverhead defenders, before rambling into insensible chatter about a Monkey God and the Rakyat.

A bright yellow Kimberlite HP seaplane swooped over the battlefield, hard on the tail of a Peggie Adjudicor. "Watch your fire!" Resistance pilot Nick Rye's voice came over the Resistance fighters' radios. Marshal Burke grabbed Major Barley and quickly relayed the information to him. Rye fired a salvo of rockets from his seaplane, the Carmina, blowing apart the rear part of the Adjudicor's fuselage. "Adelaide is patrolling the air over Dillon- she'll help cover your retreat… but we can only hold for so long!"

As the mortar and towed gun crews hastily turned their weapons to face the new threats on their flanks, a massive silhouette burst out of the woods, trampling small trees and underbrush.

"Is that… a tank?!" Major Barley exclaimed, consternated.

Fire burst out of the barrel of the armored vehicle, causing two Humvees to explode, one of them tumbling over so hard it squashed an adjacent police and continued rolling off the road.

"No, that's a goddamn M10 tank destroyer!" Eli Palmer retorted. "Does anyone have anti-tank weapons?!"

A National Guard crew hastily finished unloading a M3 MAAW anti-tank weapon and fired it off.

The rocket tore into the M10's armor with a brilliant, loud flash. The tank destroyer ground to a halt immediately.

But it was no respite from the enemy onslaught. Peggie-marked Humvees and Buffalo MRAPs rammed the Army vehicles and mowed down the defenders at point-blank range. With their mortar, gun, and heavy weapons crews running out of ammo, the National Guards' defensive line was breached in multiple locations.

"Watch out!" Deputy Hudson shouted, pushing Major Barley down as another explosion erupted right behind them.

By this point, the defense had entirely collapsed, scattered to the wind by the ferocity of the Peggie assault, with soldiers, police officers, and Resistance fighters falling into a total rout. Many of them didn't make it, cut down by machine gun fire.

"It's time to get the fuck out! Sheriff Whitehorse bellowed to Major Barley and a terrified Marshal Burke.

"Retreat!" Barley ordered, in a futile attempt to keep some semblance of order. "Fall back down I-15 to Ford! We need to regroup with local law enforcement and wait for reinforcement from Missoula!"

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Governor's Mansion, Helena, Montana...

The phone rang suddenly on Montana Governor Steve Bullock's desk.

"What is it, Meg?" The Governor groaned to his secretary as he picked up the phone. "It better be important. I'm preparing for an important meeting, you know."

"Um, sir, Representative Eck- the Democratic leader in the State House is demanding to speak to you. She's uh, very insistent."

"Very well. Patch her through." The Governor sighed.

"Governor Bullock!" Representative Jenny Eck called out. "I'm sure you've heard about the National Guard's defeat in Dillon! There's an uproar in the state legislature and the media. This is a disgrace to the Democratic administration. I hope you have a concrete plan or we're both screwed in future elections!"

"Now, now, Representative Eck," Bullock tried to sound soothing. "I do have a plan. The Peggie uprising is indeed unfortunate, but I'm going to turn this into a political opportunity. My plan will not only destroy the Peggies, but undermine the Republicans and consolidate Democratic power in the state. I could very well see to it that you become the next Speaker of the House."

"Very well," Representative Eck replied, somewhat mollified. "You'll better make good on those words. I'll be waiting."

As she hung up, a broad smile spread across Bullock's face. Oh, he very well intended to fulfill his assurances- just not in the manner she would've imagined. Everything was going as planned. He dialed the number of his Lieutenant Governor, Mike Cooney.

"Mike, it's time. Gather the cabal."

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Irrelevant Historical Fact:

Four years ago, June 29, 2014, the notorious radical Islamist terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declared itself as the caliphate of all Muslims in Syria and Iraq, under its evil leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

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Two years ago on this day, July 3, 2016, the notorious radical Sunni Islamist terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launch a pair of horrifying truck and suicide bombings in Karrada, a Shiite and Christian community in Baghdad, Iraq. The attacks targeted a Western-style shopping center in the multicultural and multi-faith Karrada district, killing 340 civilians and wounding 246. Most of the victims were late-night shoppers, many of them Shiites and Christians hated by ISIL.