post-TRP

Victory in the Golden State
With SkyNET now totally pushed out of California, the Resistance consolidates its presence in the southern portion of the state. The boost in morale leads to a massive increase in enlistment: skilled civilians are incorporated into fledgling reconstruction efforts. In San Diego, the capture of the General Dynamics manufactory by The Free creates an avenue of industry for the Resistance, which is now able to produce its own plasma weaponry and (controversially) friendly drones.  Research also begins towards developing new technology from captured SkyNET pieces within this facility.

SkyNET Strikes Back: Summer 2033-Fall 2034.
The survivors of the Battle of Sector 12 spend some time recovering at the Salinas staging area. There, many participants are awarded with high honors for their actions in the battle, and many civilians are formally inducted into the Resistance.

As Major (soon to be Commander) Sakamoto offered his men the choice of official enlistment, about half of Tech-Com and its affiliates choose to leave the service and travel elsewhere. Those that remain are reorganized into Alpha and Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Resistance Infantry Division; at this point, the 132nd Special Operations Company, Tech-Com, technically ceases to exist.

The unit serves with distinction in the invasion of Nevada, the first organized land campaign since the fall of Sector 12. The Resistance initially is incredibly successful, rapidly resecuring the strategic I-80 trade route, and permanently retaking the long-contested armory at Fallon. However, logistics had never been made to support strategic success on this scale, and supply lines soon run thin. Unit cohesion was also never planned to last beyond the battle, so this incosistency leads to an uneven advance by the individual units within the 5th. SkyNET is able to stall the advance via airstrikes on reinforcement and supply convoys all along the highway, bringing the Resistance to a painful crawl.

During the Battle of Los Vegas, the Tigers are effectively destroyed after a disastrous ambush by SkyNET leads to the unit being caught in a barrage of their own artillery and close air support. Horrified at the loss of his men, Sakamoto abruptly resigns from the Resistance, taking several members of his command with him. Brief fears spark over the creation of a rogue deserter force, but this turns out not to be the case. The survivors are not officially reassigned to any unit, and are allowed to move themselves however they choose. Some of those that survive remain with the 5th, and continue onward.  However, the concentrated destruction of some of the American Resistance's most trained fighting force is felt widely, and morale begins to slide among the 5th.

The 5th Division continues to suffer heavy casualties in its trek through Nevada: Raiders and Luddites also compound the problem, conducting hit-and-run and suicide attacks on Resistance positions. The incoming Nevada winter forces operations to a near halt, whereas SkyNET continues to raid with impunity.

During an assault on Carson City, Luddites detonate a tactical nuclear device which decimates the division and eliminates almost all of the 5th's Command staff. Without its marginally fuctional leadership, the 5th Division collapses and its many units scatter across the Nevada landscape, no longer a coherent fighting force.

The rest of the Resistance in the West Coast Region are now spread thin: Northern Californian and Oregonian Resistance deal heavily with a large group of raiders known as the Huns, currently operating an effective shock campaign against the Resistance. Southern Californian garrisons, now drained of manpower due to losses in the Nevada campaigns, are barely able to hang on to their own territories.

The situation in other states, Canada and Mexico are little different from what they were before the Battle of Sector 12: They are unable to provide assistance to California. While the Resistance establishes Civil Defense Corps and other forms of militia and community policing, it's unclear how much damage the losses in Nevada will ultimately cost.

Resistance presence in cities like Los Angeles remain scant, only there to ensure law enforcement and security against SkyNET stragglers.  Fortunately, SkyNEt conducts no offensives against California proper, and the lines remain stagnant for over a year.

From the Ashes: Fall 2034.
With the American resistance's largest unit effectively decapitated, High Command hastily establishes an Officer Candidate Program that accepts both volunteer civilians and experienced soldiers: However, recruitment drives lead to the majority of OCS graduates being the former, with little formal leadership or combat experience. Conscription begins in several settlements, and able-bodied men and women not otherwise assigned to reconstruction, agriculture or specialist roles are drafted into the Resistance. Recently retired veterans are also returned to active duty in leadership roles.

Concurrently, High Command also enacts the RSOG Program, which utilizes Military-Independent-Machines (aka Self-Aware, R/W Capable Drones and Infiltrators) in teams for special and black operations. The existence of these units are initially highly classified, as they are also deployed into enemy human areas for espionage purposes.  Recently integrated specialist units such as the Highlanders, which had been employed for this purpose, find themselves underused and undeployed to combat areas, relegated to police duties and guarding the tentative homefront.

Having captured and repurposed some SkyNET production facilities and gained access to the required raw materials, the Resistance also begins to experiment with SkyNET-influenced vehicles and weaponry, beginning with the UVTOL-1 Albatross transport. The aircraft is essentially an armored Black Hawk chassis with the HK-Aerial Engine System and coltan alloy frame, creating an effective human response to SkyNET airpower. These only exist in small numbers, but High Command intends to use these to re-establish the "air-assault" tactics previously in use by the United States military and later by SkyNET.

Spring Cleaning: January 2035.
In December of 2034, the reluctant Commander Masayuki Sakamoto is transported back to Los Angeles to assist in the formation and training of the 7th Airborne Division, along with a freshly minted officer corps and conscripts from Los Angeles. In January, an unprecedented 10,000 men from the ANZAC Marine Corps  arrive at Camp Pendleton, and half are immediately assigned to the new 7th AD.

The failures of the Nevada campaign are largely blamed on poor unit discipline and cohesion, differences in training and equipment, and the lack of skilled manpower capable of replacing casualties on the front line.  While the ANZAC Marine contingent includes raw recruits, it also includes hardened veterans from the Solomon Islands campaigns, as well as elite regular units descended from the surviving Australian and New Zealand militaries.  It is hoped that these units and their training officers are capable of reforming American resistance into a regular fighting force capable of large scale conventional engagements on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the 3rd Resistance Infantry Division finally gains the upper hand on the Huns.  Sergeant Oliver Takaoka is awarded the Medal of the Resistance for organizing a slave uprising while in captivity, and personally killing the charismatic warlord Attila in hand-to-hand combat.  Organization and cohesion quickly collapses among the Huns, and reinforced by ANZAC, liberated slaves and volunteers from the Bay Area, the 3rd poises to launch a counter-offensive to finally resecure San Francisco, as well as the several communities near the California-Oregon border.