For reasons unknown, though probably in response to American deaths in Bosnia, a company of Army National Guard M1A1(HA)s based near Columbia, South Carolina defected and took over their base. Any loyal soldiers in the area were killed. As if following the lead of the one company, many other ARNG units defected, stating that the South was rising again. Soon enough, loyal US forces throughout the Appalachians in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were either driven out or destroyed. The President, eager to avert the media's attention from the most recent White House scandal, immediately set a deadline for the defectors to surrender by. When the deadline passed, US forces attacked ARNG units throughout the tri-state area. The first battle to take place was in Mariah, South Carolina, where a reinforced Marine battalion assaulted two dug-in ARNG companies, one armored, the other rifle. Though it was planned to be a quick, brutal battle, it quickly degraded into a bloody stalemate.*
