Jaycee Woods

I took a break from editing to draft some more of Boudica and The Beast.

In the new drafting, I expanded on the reasons The Butcher chose Pilgerruh (aka Cleveland) to siege. Immediately, he cut off critical rail lines supporting rebel cohesion in the Great Lakes region by blocking rail traffic on the CSX tracks parallel to I-90. As rebel control of cities has cut off Union access to ports, he seeks to seize the port at Pilgerruh to support future threats against rebel cities throughout Ohio so the Union can gain control of the Ohio River as a launchpad against the Mississippi basin to retake that river down to New Orleans. Additionally, he seeks to intimidate Canada, so it stops its ‘secret’ smuggling support of the rebels while also granting the Union access to the St Lawrence for Atlantic trade to supply Union forces.

I have also expanded on tactics of the early stages of the siege, including the risk that The Butcher has created a pocket for his army within rebel-controlled territory where he is outnumbered 20 to 1 based on the fighting forces in Pilgerruh alone. Yes, in planning fortifications of bases to control the interstates leading to Pilgerruh, he referenced the battle of Wizna as memorialized in Sabaton’s song “40:1.”

I discussed The Butcher’s uses of deception and psyops to prevent the rebel leader Cleaver from squashing the rogue Union brigade. Additionally, I have started to describe additional details of the plan to encircle Pilgerruh by taking the west side up to the river, blowing the river bridges, and digging a shallow canal from the river to the lake around the south and east of the city. Civilian refugees from the city and suburbs will be used as slave labor to dig the canal and build an earthen wall along the canal. 

I have also expanded on Boudica’s effort to get The Butcher to reciprocate her love for him. In addition to Olga, in the growing draft Asclepia becomes another source for girl-talk about tactics to ensnare The Butcher. As Boudica establishes emotional intimacy with The Butcher, his late wife grows as an absent character and the toll the war has taken on him is explored.

At one point, he describes himself metaphorically as a revenant who died with his wife and son in that rebel terrorist car bomb but persists on a mission of vengeance to end the war by destroying the rebels. He feels guilt over his wife and son’s deaths as before the war, he had been a business management professor, who failed to fight the battle of ideas against the Leftists who had taken over the humanities so that left him to fight a battle of blood. Even his saving of Boudica’s life at the start of the story is framed within his guilt over being unable to treat his wife and son’s injuries from the car bomb as they died in front of him.

The Butcher has no illusions about what the war and his own choices have made him. As Boudica witnesses the four years of battle scars on his body, he confessed that the war has left his soul even more scarred. At another point, he calls himself a war criminal who is willing to break every modern civilizing rule ritualizing warfare that stands in the way of ending the civil war. His crimes are not normal warfare as he has executed prisoners, enslaved women to sell to finance supplies for his army, and understands that 100k people might die in Pilgerruh from his use of famine, disease, and fire as an ancient weapons of mass destruction. The Butcher’s sole purpose is to end the war, after which without a purpose he can lay down for the last time forever.

To complicate Boudica’s goal of romantic reciprocity, through the story she must help him discover a purpose to live for after the war and to accept the atrocities he committed during the war in a way that leaves him a pathway to redemption. That remains to be drafted although the drafted scheming of Boudica, Olga, and Asclepia suggest the way.

I don’t want The Butcher’s path to redemption to be Christianity. He is essentially a normie so it would not violate his character. Olga is devout so there is a path for her to influence Boudica to explore that path. I just remember how disappointed I was when one of the characters in Anna Karenina (Kostya?) took that path. Theory for an alternative: his discovering a purpose beyond the war, and life-boat ethics, which I had recently referenced in the draft.

Some things that I need to add includes, The Butcher establishing supply lines through rebel territory to New Camp Perry in Union territory south of Port Clinton. That relocated Ohio National Guard base will be his lifeline to supplies and markets. Additionally, that is where his division is headquartered. He holds his superior in contempt for his withdrawal from Port Clinton and failure to menace Columbus. Once the supply lines are established then Gen. Broderick (named from Adm Broderick from movie “In Harm’s Way”) can appear to dress down The Butcher for his unauthorized advance.

New Camp Perry will be located outside Marion OH as the CSX network can be used to establish supply lines from The Butcher’s location outside Pilgerruh to Marion. That location puts it far enough from Columbus but able to defend Union control in Delaware OH.

Before the siege on Pilgerruh, The Butcher’s area of operation was north of Marion not including Toledo, the lake shore area, and Sandusky/Port-Clinton. While Toledo and Sandusky were potential targets for his siege, he selected Cleveland as harder, more impactful, and getting him beyond the limitations of Broderick’s direct orders. The Butcher’s support for the naval attack on the smuggler’s supply base on the lake had already exceeded his orders but was necessary to cut off supplies in the rebel sector he pacified.