Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.

Let's get to it.

Chapter 7- Build Up

(December 1, 2017)

The sounds of a busy port ring through the air as Admiral Philip Davidson walks along the harborfront of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. As he looks out across the waters of Hampton Roads, he can see the USS Dwight D Eisenhower and her escort ships heading for the open sea. The Eisenhower and her escorts are on their way for the portal to Arda, where they will be the third Carrier Strike Group deployed to Arda, after the Harry S. Truman and Nimitz groups.

However, after watching the ships for a few moments, Davidson shakes his attention away from them and instead focuses on his destination. Just up ahead is a gate leading through a large fence.

"Welcome, Admiral," a guard says as he opens the gate. Another guard salutes Davidson as the admiral walks through the gate.

Beyond the fence, Davidson now finds his destination in full view. One of the biggest dry docks in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. And resting in the dry dock is the USS Wisconsin.

After the declaration of war on Morgoth, the Navy had, under President Trump's orders, looked into General Neller's proposal to return an Iowa-class battleship to service. After a few months of deliberation, it had been decided that doing so would prove very valuable in the amphibious landings that were expected to take place. The Navy had decided that Wisconsin was in the best material ship, and had received the most advanced modernization during the 1980s of all the Iowas. It was also decided that, due to the lack of necessity for the most advanced systems when fighting in Arda, the Wisconsin would require the least amount of work.

The Navy had approached the Nauticus museum and City of Norfolk and requested they relinquish the battleship back to the Navy. They had done so gladly, and without any request for compensation for it. The Wisconsin had been re-instated to the Naval Vessel Register on August 1, 2017. The same day, the battleship had been towed across the harbor to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, where the refit would be done to return her to service. Refit work began a little over a week later. It was estimated, so long as the shipyard crew remained on their rather strict schedule, that the refit work would be completed near the end of the following June, enough time for her to complete her necessary shakedown cruise and prepare for combat that November.

This was not the only expansion work the Navy had done. The Navy had started a construction program to try and build a number of troop transports to help with the massive numbers of troops that would need to be shuttled across the sea to Beleriand when hostilities commenced. In addition, the Navy had decided to return a number of decommissioned ships to service. Most of them were transport or auxiliary vessels. However, in order to keep up with the need for aircraft carriers in Arda, while avoiding taking too many carriers away from Earth, the Navy had decided to reactivate the decommissioned carriers Kitty Hawk and John F Kennedy. Both carriers were currently in dry dock to be returned to service, and were estimated to be recommissioned and ready for combat by the time hostilities commenced in earnest.

"Admiral." Davidson turns to the sound of the voice and sees the foreman at the dry dock approaching.

"Foreman. How goes the work?" Davidson asks.

"Very well, admiral. Some of the consoles and systems meant to go into CIC have been delayed, so it may push back work a few days, but everything else is on schedule," the foreman responds.

Admiral Davidson sighs a bit. However, in the overall scheme, it won't be too much a problem. The Wisconsin is already set to be fully ready for combat and fully shaken down at least a month before the landings. A delay of a few days isn't too worrisome.

"Disappointing to hear, but not of too much concern. Keep me updated of any further developments," Davidson says. The foreman nods in response.

Davidson continues ahead to the dry dock. A worker escorts him around the dry dock so that he can do a full walk around to see all of the Wisconsin to get a view of the progress being made on the battleship. He feels a sense of anticipation, looking forward to seeing the Wisconsin in action in Arda.

(Pentagon)

In his office, General Mark Milley is going over the most recent reports on the number of new enlistings and how many people have been drafted into Army.

It's been months since the declaration of war, and the Army is now the largest it has been since WWII. President Trump had authorized for divisions to be increased from their normal size of around 20,000 troops to wartime size of 40,000 men or more per division. In addition, the Army and Marine Corps had begun a mass reactivation of deactivated divisions. The Marines had brought the 4th Marine Division up to active duty and reactivated the 5th Marine Division. However, the Army's reactivation had been on a truly massive scale. Prior to the declaration of war, the Army had had 18 divisions, with 10 in active duty and 8 in the National Guard. Now, the Army had swelled to a staggering 55 divisions between Active Duty and the National Guard. Forty of these divisions would be deployed to Arda, while the remaining 15 divisions would remain behind in America, either to be ready to use elsewhere in Earth to situations that may arise or be ready to deploy to Arda as reinforcements if they were needed.

However, Milley and other Army commanders had faced a small problem in the raising and training of the new troops. They had discovered that a number of young adults who had been drafted instead of enlisting, generally ranging from 18 to 24, had proven very difficult in training. A number had in fact faced a court martial for insubordination or refusal to follow orders. However, it hadn't taken long for that to halt after it became clear that the Army would not tolerate it.

Milley moves over to another memo. This memo talks about the progress of the procurement of tanks. The Army had had about 2,500 M1s prior the declaration of war, with about 3,700 more in storage. As part of their mass division reactivation, the Army had reactivated 8 armored divisions, 7 of which would eventually join the 1st Armored Division in Arda. Not only that, but a number of reactivated infantry divisions were to receive tanks. The Army had begun the process of reactivating all of the tanks held in storage, and had also placed an order with General Dynamics Land Systems for over 1,500 new tanks. The memo Milley is reading shows that the progress of the reactivation of the M1s in storage is well underway, with about 3,000 of the tanks already returned to storage. It also shows that about 300 new tanks have been delivered. With General Dynamics having hired thousands of new workers to help with tank production, production is expected to begin picking up greatly in the next few months.

Right then, there's a knock on the door. "Enter," Milley says.

One of his aides comes walking in, reporting in to the general. After Milley says, "At ease", the man, a young captain, says, "We just received word from Arda Command. The 10th has just made its transition to Valinor and is now setting up camp."

Milley nods. The Army, like the Navy, has slowly been adding to the forces in Arda ever since the 1st Armored had deployed. In the months since, the 101st Airborne, 1st Cavalry, and 3rd Infantry had all deployed to Valinor. The 10th Mountain Division had been due to travel to Valinor today. Most of the Army's divisions would actually remain in America until the initial landings by the Marines had been completed and secured a portal on the mainland of Beleriand. However, the Army wanted a number of divisions in Valinor in case Morgoth decided to attack it.

"Good. Keep me informed of any new developments," Milley says. The captain nods before leaving the office.

(The White House)

"Mr. President."

Trump looks from a number of papers he's been going over, and sees Secretary Tillerson entering the Oval Office.

"Rex. What have you got?" Trump asks as he sets the papers aside.

"I just got out of speaking with Ambassador Darroch. He delivered a new request from Parliament regarding involvement," Tillerson says as he hands over a set of papers to Trump.

Trump sighs a bit as he looks over the papers. Not long after news first broke about what had happened in America, American allies, and even Russia, had approached America about allowing them to send forces to participate in the war. Russia had been turned down hard, and even most American allies had been turned down for the most part. However, Trump had relented somewhat to the Canadians and British, stating he would allow them to send some fighter squadrons to help provide air support.

However, the British had been adamant about wanting to send troops, and the Canadians had voiced similar sentiments. Trump had admitted he was not opposed to the British sending SAS to help in special ops missions, but was reluctant to allow non-American troops to take part, not wanting any other country to claim it had a role in defeating Morgoth. Partly because Trump considered it an American matter given that the portals were all in America and Morgoth had attacked Dallas. And partly because Trump and other American leaders didn't want other countries having a stake in Arda. American and British leaders had gone back and forth several times.

Trump reads through this latest proposal by the British. It outlines a plan for a "Commonwealth Corps", comprised of a Canadian division, a British division, and two additional British brigades, which would comprise about 60,000 troops and be deployed to assist the Americans in Arda.

"I think we should consider allowing this, Mr. President. The British and Canadians are clearly serious about this. We could even just use them as reinforcements or to protect our territory while our forces conduct offensive operations," Tillerson says.

Trump leans back in his chair, considering this. By now, although much about Morgoth is still unknown to the rest of the world, it is becoming widely known that Morgoth would love to conquer the entire world if given the chance. If he continues like this, he could end up straining currently good relations between America and other nations.

"Maybe," Trump says, wondering how the war is going to end up going, and knowing neither world is going to be the same afterwards.

And, I'll end there.

So, this was mostly done to show the progress of American re-armament and preparation for the war, as well as to show that other nations are trying to get involved.

I now have a question for all of you. The British and Canadians will definitely be involved, and will end up having some ground units take part in the war. But, should I have other countries take part as well beyond just some fighter squadrons.

Next chapter will show the first real combat between American forces and Morgoth's. It should be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review and stay tuned!