Siege of New Washington D.C.

The Siege of New Washington D.C. was a tense battle between the citizens of New Washington D.C., assisted by the soldiers in the Alliance for the Survival of Humanity, & the shadowghosts. The conflict started as early as 2157 & ended in 2163 when the city walls blocking off the entire area from the Wastelands gave out.

Early Years
Following the loss at New Boston & New Orleans II, Core ordered Axia to take New Washington D.C.. On January 23, 2157, the shadowghosts began to bombard the city walls. On January 9, 2160, the shadowghosts succeeded at breaking open most of the main wall & entered a section of the city. Fortunately for the rest of the city, the walls were rebuilt back further to prevent the shadowghosts from accessing more of the city. Those left outside the new walls died by the exposure to the Wastelands or being mauled by the shadowghosts. The entire area that was lost to the city became a dead town called the Washington Ruins. Following the opening bombardment, the Alliance for the Survival of Humanity stepped into New Washington D.C. & took control, securing the city & training their troops to prepare for when the city walls would fall.

2162-2163
In 2162, Commander Jackson became the leader of the New Washington D.C. divisions of the Alliance as Marshal Ferguson was relocated to the offensive forces trying to break the shadowghost encirclement. At this point, just a year before, the shadowghosts began pummeling the wall harder & harder, wearing it down more & increasing the likelihood of an invasion. With the entire city doomed to be attacked in as little as 2 years, Jackson began securing wall patrols & sending agents into the dead town to destroy the enemy encampments, thus reducing the shadowghost numbers & destroying or damaging whatever equipment the shadowghosts were using. For about a year, the soldiers continued to attack the enemy, yet the pace the weaponry outside was being destroyed was too slow & unspecifyed carriers left in the city unchecked had infiltrated the power grid, sabotaging the wall security defenses, such as the electric borderline in the middle of the wall. Because of this, the walls began to crack & holes started appearing. In 2163, the first hole appeared around March & began to grow. More cracks appeared around the bottom & giant chunks of the wall were battered to dust from the outside, allowing the shadowghosts to tunnel through the wall into the city.

Invasion
Because of the irresponsibility of the Alliance enforcements, the shadowghosts finally destroyed sections of the wall, which were then deactivated completely, allowing shadowghosts to break through & attack the city. On March 15, 2163, the shadowghosts broke through the walls that were not replaced. Because of the deception of the shadowghosts by the politician carriers, Commander Jackson ordered more reinforcements to be placed near the new wall of the Washington Ruins as the carriers reported that there was a weak point & the walls will collapse any day then, along with the hoax that the shadowghosts have constructed a new drill weapon that could destroy the wall. The Alliance soldiers began to fight the shadowghosts & defend the citizens while some of the soldiers fled, fearing the battle lost & the city dead. James Anderson, who was patrolling the wall from the New Washington Monument, fought in the battle. The shadowghosts mauled the citizens & soldiers, wounding or killing them. In 2 hours, the Alliance repelled the forces, who gave them a grace period to clean up their wounded & dispose of their dead. With all hope lost, the remaining humans gathered up their dead & wounded & fled the city while the shadowghosts came back to destroy the city.

Alliance leadership
A formal investigation was conducted into the causes for the invasion. Many aspects of that investigation were looking into the performance of the soldiers based under their newly appointed commander in comparison to prior years & the conditions of the walls along with their structures & ability to withstand attacks. Because the Alliance found that the soldiers had failed some of their dutys, they blamed Commander Jackson, who was permitted to obtain the names of those who failed. He later punished them for allowing him to be humiliated & disgraced from his position. Others, such as Emily Love, provided accounts of the dutys of the soldiers & gave explanations about what happened in comparison.

Personal aftermaths
The battle ended with various casualtys. One notable casualty was Mariah Love, who was the fiancee of James Anderson & had just given birth to a baby boy she named after him. Love died in Anderson's arms just minutes after he found her. She did not get the chance to tell him of the child's birth, leading Anderson to believe his son was also dead inside her. This caused Anderson to enter enemy territory after stealing weapons & slaughter all the shadowghosts he found. Commander Jackson, who was Anderson's commanding officer, soon found out about Mariah Love's pregnancy & deduced from the facts that James was behind it & he was also responsible for the shadowghost killings. Jackson, however, withheld from the report as to who the killer was to protect James from being court-martialled for violating the rules of the Alliance.