12. Sight of Victory

As stated in the last chapter, the tide temporarily turned in favor of the rebellion after a few Capitol victories. With President Fuler and Capitol citizens celebrating regaining two districts, that gave the rebels at the command of District Thirteen an opening to strike hard in claiming some of the other districts.

Regaining Land

District Five had already been secured from the Capitol, but as Fuler gained Six and Eleven, the rebellion had to fight back in order to save them from the Capitol. Another hotspot was District Ten. So many battles occurred there between June of 2070 to January of 2071, that it was actually a surprise that the district was still afloat. Most of the victories were Capitol wins, but the people did not back down. Since most of the local and districtwide government was pro-Rebellion, this lead to an upper hand for Ten. The Board of Farmers and the Precinct Commissioners approved a military bombing of the only held Capitol area in the district, the Peacekeeper Headquarters. Thirteen sent in hovercraft and completely levelled the facility. Capitol hovercraft attempted to take down the ones from Thirteen, but they failed. By the end of January 2071, District Ten was officially secured from the Capitol.

District Seven, the anarchist state in Panem, was definitely interesting in the war. Many people, ironically, joined together to fight off the Capitol. They bombed any area with Capitol soldiers, sadly without thought of civilians of Seven in mind. Then again, who would have expected less from that district?

Thirteen's Big Dilemma

Near the middle of 2071, with little major advances on either side, a weakness in the Capitol was discovered by the authorities of District Thirteen, led by Commander Kati Halston. Halston was one of the nuclear scientists that majorly opposed the obstruction of their studies from the other districts.

The weakness was the necessity of the districts in keeping the nation running. Ever since the passing of the Thirteen District Act, the districts produced the goods, not private companies. Halston knew that the Capitol needed the districts or a worse, Somali-like, chaos would ensue. She began utilizing a style of warfare seen in the United States' Civil War in the 1860s, the scorched earth policy. She began advising all rebel strongholds to begin destroying all of the resources that are necessary for the Capitol for survival, but after making sure enough has been distributed among themselves. The Capitol began to flinch at the realization of this tactic.

President Fuler began to fight back, using nature in her own way. She sent out a lot of different muttations, or mutts for short, to the districts. These mutts were genetically engineered animals with a particular trait. Jabberjays recorded entire human messages and played them back to the listener. Tracker jacker wasps always attacked a person who messed with their nest. There were other forms of mutts out there as well.

Almost at the end of 2071, another stalemate occurred. Nearly half of the districts were secured by the Capitol, half were secured by the rebellion. District Twelve was finally forced into the fight and was quickly secured by the rebels. Commander Halston decided to ambush the Capitol with everything they got. In a failed attempt on Christmas Day, rebels climbed the mountains that bordered the city of the Capitol. Hovercrafts bombed every single soldier on the mountain they saw. Any survivors were imprisoned by the Capitol.

On New Years Day, 2072, Thirteen made one last ditch attempt to stop the rebellion in victory. They set their nuclear arsenal to be directed at the Capitol. Unfortunate for them, the Capitol had an arsenal close by to the city. Both aimed for each other, and a policy of M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) that was originally seen in the Cold War of Communism versus Democracy, was enacted. Both groups knew that launching one bomb would lead to nuclear retaliation, and a nuclear fallout would occur.

The Bargain

Seeing this war going no where with District Thirteen on the front lines, President Fuler decided to make a deal. She travelled, unarmed, to Thirteen and scheduled a meeting with Commander Halston. Halston had guns pointed at Fuler at all times in the case she was assaulted.

Fuler's deal was simple, if District Thirteen decides to pull out of the war and adopt a legal secession from Panem, as well as allow the carpet bombing of their surface by moving the populace into the well built emergency bunkers, then when the Capitol wins the war, Thirteen will have autonomy and will not be punished in anyway for actions that occurred in the war. Fuler stated that if Thirteen refused and the M.A.D. policy was held by both sides, provocation could lead to a never ending winter. No one wanted that. Since no other viable solution was available, Halston agreed to the terms. Fuler and her signed a small document, The Autonomy of District Thirteen, PN in which stated the legality of the secession and named Halston's second-in-command, Larry Pall, as President of District Thirteen.

The Captiol taped the carpet bombing of Thirteen and sent the footage to all of the districts. No one else except the Capitol and Thirteen knew of the agreement, so Fuler stated that the Capitol destroyed the district for their treason. This lead to discouragement throughout the whole rebel group. Within five months, the Capitol subdued all twelve remaining districts and won the war. The Dark Days were over. But, the Capitol needed to enact punishment on the rebels in order to prevent them from ever rising up again. And so came the Treaty of Treason...

Note: You guys know the whole spiel about my update schedule, so I'm not going to keep reiterating it. Anyways, I forgot to mention during Chapter 7 about the districts was that the precincts were not just voting districts, but also served as county governments. Technical counties were appointed for areas that were not involved in a certain precinct (like what Thirteen had to deal with in the nuclear areas). And District or local governments that supported the rebellion were the ones in charge of their individual troops and relations with Thirteen. (Just talked about local government in my Gov't class).

Also, I've been getting into Halo lately, as you can see as Kati Halston's name came as a basis of the name Catherine Halsey.