NationStates Jolt Archive

Consul Pieter de Luvre, acting chief ambassador in the absence of Lady Rolt, had received the priority message from The Vortex Corporation early that morning. Minutes later he had been aboard a Windjammer sonic jet headed for the Vortex capital.
However, he felt uneasy. His attempts to speak with Admiral Perry, Baron-Administrator Strausburg of New Bergia, and Assistant Director Klogden had all gone unanswered. Perry had been in a strategical conference with Vice Admiral Gersein, Strausburg was erstwhile occupied with administrative affairs, and Klogdens gruff, belligerent receptions merely said the Assistant Director was "not to be disturbed at this time." He had only been able to contact General Edmund Vernis of the Sardaukar. Vernis had said he knew nothing of the event, other than he had dispatched to representatives to the Knootian/Skargraden war games who he was assured by Admiral Perry had been cleared.
The Sardaukar co-pilot enters the main compartment from the cockpit.
"Consul, we will be at Uthar in two hours time."
"Thank you," de Luvre says nerveously. He then goes back to looking distractedly out the window.

Uthar, Central Airfield

The Jet touched down, and immediately diplomatic vehicles slided up to it. As the craft slowly came to a halt, several Daiamid officials exited their hoverdynes, ready to receive the Valonian ambassador. It rained slightly, as was common in the autumn periods of the Utharian Peninsula. As umbrellas were unfolded, the sun started breaking through the dense clouds in the west, creating a beautiful sight of sunrays falling onto the earth.

The jet doors slowly opened, and the Valinon ambassador exited the aircraft, followed by his Sardaukar guard. A woman walked up to him, and introduced herself.

"Consul Pieter de Luvre, welcome to Uthar. The Vortex Corporation is most grateful that you could travel here on such a short notice. My name is Admiral Kiira Manaan, acting commander of the SATO RDF for Sisgardia. I have been temporarily relieved from my duty in order to receive you. Please, be so kind as to follow me into the hoverdyne."

Consul de Luvre and two of his Sardaukar guards took their places in the hoverdyne. The rest of his guards were allowed to take a seat in several of the other escort vehicles. As the rain stopped falling from the skies, and the sun finally broke fully through the clouds, the hoverdynes slowly powered up their Zephrim engines and headed for their destination...

Uthar, Council District

The hoverdynes approached the Council buildings, laying in the center of the city. One of the vehicles made a turn left, leaving the convoy. It was to take the luggage of the ambassador and his escorts to their rooms, so that everything would be ready and stored for the night. The rest of the hoverdynes continued to the main Council structure. The doors opened, and the ambassador and the admiral exited their hoverdynes. Standing in the light of the sun, with the huge skyscraper in front of them, surrounded by a huge park and even more tall buildings, Kiira smiled at the ambassador.

"I apologise if it is any trouble, but I must request you and your Sardaukar part ways for now. If you agree, they will be escorted to their hotel. For your safety, they have been assigned rooms on the same hall as yours. This way, your own personnel can guard you, together with the men and women we have additionally assigned to guard your personal safety. If you agree, they can get back into the hoverdyne, and then we will proceed to our meeting..."

De Luvre breaths a sigh of relief, having the four Sardaukar assigned to him had seem an excess to him any way. And this is a most convenient way to get rid of them.
"Lieutenant?" de Luvre says to the Sardaukar non-com.
"Yes, Consul?"
"You have heard the Admiral. Take your men to your rooms and stay there for the duration of my meeting. I will contact you as to when I will be returning."
"Of course, Consul."
De Luvre waits until the Sardaukar have installed themselves in the hoverdyne and headed back for the lodgings.
De Luvre turns to Manaan, "Now, Admiral Manaan shall we proceed? It seems that there is much to be discussed."

Kiira nods at the ambassador. "Indeed, there is". Gently, she guided him into the building, where they entered a huge hall of white marble and subtl silver ornaments. The first six floors of the structure had been replaced by galleries, allowing visitors to look directly at the floor of the seventh floor, where beatiful mythological scenes were depicted, engraved deep in the marble.

Proceeding to a large elevator shaft in the middle of the building, the ambassador was guided into one of the waiting elevator pods. As he and Kiira entered it, the door slided down and the pod accelerated, heading up. After three seconds exactly, a small blue energy beam scanned the entire body of the ambassador.

Nothing else happened, but de Luvre raised an eyebrow at Kiira after recovering from his initial reaction. Kiira smiled and apologized, after which she explained that the scanner had now given a technician in a control room somewhere confirmation that he carried no active or passive scanning or recording equipment. The system was very reliable, and it was now 100% sure that de Luvre had not been bugged with unwanted devices. Standard procedure, Kiira explained.

After 46 floors, the elevator came to a halt. As they exited the pod, they found themselves on a floor with marble floors and a lot of glasswork, allowing them to take a peek at the magnificent view on the Utharian landscape. Strolling through the halls of the floor, they eventually reached a luxuous meeting room, where two other men awaited the ambassador. Smiling, the oldest of the two got up, and shook De Luvre's hand.

"Ambassador, it is a pleasure to see you in good health. Please allow me to introduce my collegues. You already know Admiral Manaan, of course. This young gentleman here is Robert Stone-Soban, Defence Council Chairman. My name is Nejra Paktu, I am the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs council. Please, take a seat. Anything to drink?"

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Yup.

"A glass of water if you please, Sir Chairman. And please, I am only a Consul of His Majesty, The Lady Ambassador Rolt is away on a trip to Proxima."
De Luvre takes a seat, "It has been put before my attention, that the Vortex Corporation as certain matters that need to be redressed with the Empire. Tell me, what is it you require of me?"

While Kiira hands de Luvre a glass of water, Nejra calmly starts explaining the situation. First, he gievs a short description of the helicopter incident, supported with some holographic imagery and a small written summary which he hands to the consul. Then, he continues:

"Consul, I hope you understand this disturbs me. The Corporation had repeatedly requested that the Valinon forces would stay out of the vicinity, and Skargarden never gave permission to enter their territory. Also, if I may refer to the Shadow War, we see that Valinon forces also tried to observe the terraforming of the Whispering Voices owned island there, something which the Vortex Corporation also protested against.

Now, even though both occassions ended in good fashion, it is still a fact that the Empire of Valinon is very reluctant to coöperate. What I hope you can tell us, is why Valinon has this urge to meddle with the affairs of the Corporation. And not just us, all nations involved in either the Shadow war aftermath or the Skargarden wargames would be very interested in your answer.

So tell us, what does the Empire of Valinon hope to achieve with these actions?"

De Luvre sighs, "I cannot answer the questions in regards to the recent incident regard the Knootian/Skargraden war games because I do not understand the situation myself. I have been unable to raise Admiral Perry or any of the other major fleet officers involved in this. I was hoping to speak with Lieutenant Colonel Nylander, but it seems he is also unavailable. So in response to the first part, Mr. Nejra, I know no more than this. There appears to have been some miscommunication between the Empire and the other parties, Admiral Perry had the impression that he was cleared to dispatch a small party of four or five men to see Knootian forces in action. That is the my knowledge of the situation."
De Luvre takes a sip of his water, "But as for the Knootian Civil War, or as you call it the Shadow War, I can answer that question more fully. To be perfectly frank, Mr. Nejra, the Empire has never approved of large alliances such as the GDODAD, SATO, or CACE. We have stayed out of them and like organizations except in a few situations. The Empire feels that international relations should be dealt with on a more "personal" bases such as we are doing now. Finally, the Empire did not agree with the terms of the treaty brokered by Tarasovka and yourselves. We felt that its terms were inappropriate, and we also felt that SATO was seemingly trying to dictate policy to nations that were not in its membership. Therefore, we did not sign the treaty and never will. In regards to the satellite affairs concerning Funfair Island, the officers responsible their were personally reprimanded by the Imperial High Command."
He takes another sip, "However, I must say that the same question may be raised of the Vortex Corporation. After all, the Empire has several treaties with the Knootians that include a trade agreement, a mutual defense pact, and several other states of affairs. It seems that the Vortex Corporation has interfered with our affairs as well, affais between to mutual sovereign nations. Most notable our attempt to establish an open port near Knootian territorial waters."

Nejra Paktu thought about what he just heared for a moment, and then made his reply:

"We are fully prepared to accept the recent incident in Skargarden as an unintended event. However, there are some remaining flaws in your explanation. First of all, the existence of large organization such as CACE and SATO does not give Valinon any right to meddle in the affairs of those organizations. Also, the moment that the island-treaty was signed, the island became sovereign territory of Whispering Voices, and that nation never gave you permission to monitor their activities or enter their territoral waters, hence our urgent requests to remove yourself at that time.

Also, we deliberately blocked your attempt to establish a base in Knootoss, yes. In the treaty, it was clearly stated that TVC and DNL would be the only foreign presences in Knootoss after the Shadow war. Whispering Voices and GDT were our GDODAD counterparts. Valinon presence would have only unbalanced the situation, and would have possibly created a new armsrace.

But that is all in the past. Our true reason for requesting your presence here today, is a simple yet important one. We want to know what Valinon intends to do in the future. Can we expect more confrontations, or is there anything else we should know of? Because at two occasions, your nation has formed a grave threat to international security, and we were involved in both of them."

De Luvre looks at Nejra reproachfully over his glass of water.
"The full policies of what the Empire may do in the future are known only to His Majesty, Duke Sterling, Lord Supreme Commander Young, and the other ministers. I cannot even begin to say that I understand the whole picture, nor if I did would it be a matter to be shared quite so openly. However, I suppose I could divulge something of a basic run down."
Luvre sits down his glass of water, "The Empire will continue to pursue relations with certain nations on Earth. Most notably will be the Dutch Democratic Republic of Knootoss, the Grand Duchy of Tarasovka, Omz222, and the Dominion of Crimson Sparta. We fully intend to pursue matters further on Mars, look into establishing some colony of sorts on Venus, and finally look at creating an orbital station near Pluto. Secondly, the Empire will pursue the Sol System as a more economic/commerical field."
De Luvre then smiles, "As for calling us a 'threat to the international community' I think you would be hard pressed to found that opinion outside of the group of nations you mentioned. His Majesty's Government will continue on a course to insure that the Empire remains safe, secure, and prosperous. If this means we will not enjoy such strong relations with the Vortex Corporation or the SATO organization, I assure you the Empire will make due. And it would seem that SATO and your own nation have far more pressing concerns than ourselves, with what is being released by CACE."

Kiira, who had been standing after pouring in the drinks, took a seat next to de Luvre, and straightened out her uniform a little. After that, she looked at the Consul and started speaking at serious tone:

"Consul, please note that we consider our relations with CACE and with Valinon two entirely different things. And we feel it is justified to lable Valinon as a threat, since you have disturbed the peace on two separate locations, at two separate times. Many members of the Councils think you are over-confident, a nation that thinks it has the right to get involved in whatever it wants."

"Considering the number of affairs Valinon stays out of," de Luvre says refilling his water from the nearby picture, "I find that unlikely. We merely have interest where it seems you do as well. As for your Council's opinions, I leave them to think what they will. If you have your mind set on this foray already, I see no reason as to why I should try to dissuade them. The Empire stood alone for many years, and we have become very adept at it, so the fact of choosing a course that made lead to a future with fewer supposed "allies" does not disturb us that much."

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Yup.

agreed

"I understand, Consul", said Robert, "But you must also understand something, and that is we had to be sure that Valinon did not seek direct and open conflict with the Vortex Corporation. From what you have told us, I think there is no reason to suspect it does, unless you are intentionally misinformed by your superiours."

While the other two nodded in agreement, Robert got up, walking towards De Luvre.

"Consul, I am sorry if we have wasted your time, but we needed the re-assurance. Thank you for coming here today. Although nothing will change in our relations with Valinon, for now, we are very glad you have taken the time to enlighten us. Is there anything we can help you with, perhaps?"

"As a matter of fact there is," de Luvre says. "The Empire wishes to establish a treaty port near Knootoss. This port would be more of an open trade city than anything else. With an embassy station, aerospace port, and of course your average harbor facilities. What would be the opinion of the Vortex Corporation on this?"