NationStates Jolt Archive

It was nothing grand or elegant, infact it was rundown and old. But it still served a decent cup of coffee. The lights were dimmed, not to give it an atmosphere but to save on electricity so the shop could keep going for another month. If it wasnt able to though, there was always a mysterious benefactor who would keep it open. He never told the owners his name, but even then they felt as if they knew him all his life. It wasnt far from the truth. The cafe was owned by several generations of the same family all the way back to the great great grandfather. Pictures hung on a hall gave a different story black and white photos, one of which was of particular importance. Yet no one ever paid attention to it. It was a picture of Gregory de los Santos, and the coffee shops original owner, standing infront of the buisness, both of them in military uniform.

Every couple of weeks the mysterious benefactor came into the coffee shop with another man. The second man always changed every ten to fifteen years, but Gregory never changed. It lead to rumors amongst the staff and management but nothing ever harsh was said. The owner looked at the clock, it was about the time of month and day Gregory would show up. And like clockwork stepping out of the cold wintery street Gregory showed up. In a black long coat and a tailored pressed black pinstripe suit under it. Behind him another man in a suit walked inside slightly shorter than Gregory. Both wore sunglasses as New York City was unusually bright during the winter time. They were both covered in a light dusting of snow but it didnt matter as much, the cold was instantly replaced by warm, even as they removed and hung up their jackets on the coat rack. The sunglasses were next to come off as the two men moved to the back of the coffee shop which was virtually empty save for a few diehard patrons.

Gregory slid into the booth and across from him his Vice President, Vincent Generosa who also parked himself in the booth and waved off a waitress who approached. "So Greg, what is it going to be this time? Buisness talk or are you going to indulge me on something else?You know like your lack of a personal life, cause you spend so much time on your buisness life." Vincent loved to rib Gregory every now and then for his Puritan work ethic, and more so to try and get him out of the office more. Gregory just shook his head slightly and sat back inside of the booth waving his hand over toward the waitress who came over and smiled to the both of them. "Coffee," Gregory said and looked over toward Vincent who just shook his head. The waitress left and Gregory looked over at Vincent cutting to the point immediately, "We need change Vince. The country is stagnant." Vincent blinked and looked surprise by the words and lowered his voice,because if he didnt he would have screamed these next few words,"Change?! What do you mean change? The country is doing just fine the way it is...."

The waitress returned with a kettle of coffee and two cups. She placed one infront of Vincent and smiled at him before putting another infront of Gregory. She poured him some and left the kettle there incase he or Vincent wanted more. When she was out of earshot Gregory looked over toward where she went and then looked ahead once more. "Nice girl, lets make sure to leave her a nice tip. As for change...listen, the way I see it, the country cant go on forever like this. We'll see the Republic crumble in fifty years. We've got to do something to keep the people on their toes. First of all we need to get the hell out of SATO..." The last few words were lowered to a whisper to which Vincent almost shot up out of the chair, "Leave SATO, why?Its still a viable defensive alliance." Gregory tried not to laugh, but he did snicker and poured some cream into his mug as he spoke, "SATO is the Titanic, and our people might as well be Lower Level passengers.We've got to get out and off of the ship before people realize how bad its really gotten." Gregory knew though, that in the eyes of the world SATO was already defunct. He was late in realizing it though. Vincent however had yet to realize the fact and he just shook his head pouring himself a cup of coffee as well, "SATO has come to our aid in the past, they've kept us safe from outside interferance when other nations would have seen us turn communist...." Cutting him off Greg poured the sugar in the coffee next and began to mix it, "That was ONCE. SATO has talked much more than it has ever acted. We can do far better by ourselves, than we can with SATO. Their goals are no longer our own. Heck to be honest I dont even remember our goals anymore." Vincent was disheartened by this and just drank his coffee straight as Greg continued on.

"Listen, Vince....SATO was good when it was actually doing something in the world. We should have left months ago when that was no longer the case. We need to do something else. The world is changing and we're getting left behind and if we dont catch up the Republic will be more worthless than it is now. But getting out of SATO isnt my only idea," Gregory trailed off and shook his head as he took a sip from his coffee mug and put it down once more. "Hmmm...coffee is pretty good today." Vincent was just awestruck...there appearantly was more to this but Vincent could never have expected this bombshell. "I want us to shift our trade, move us away slowly, nothing obvious. I'm not turning out backs on our allies, but we got to move. We need to rediscover our ideals. The world has changed a lot and havent kept up with it." Gregory went silent looking at a visably shaken Vincent who didnt believe a single word he had just heard. It was all rather unthinkable to him. None the less though it was being said, "We struck ADK for a reason. Our fleets needs to be trained they need to be on the ready. ADK was not just an annoyance to the world, but they have colonies in orbit, and on the lunar surface. They even had a colony on Mars, before it...broke away..." Gregory once more trailed off and decided to take a stroll around the block, and allow Vincent to digest what he just heard.

"I'll be back in a few. We'll talk about it some more when I get back. I think that waitress likes ya.." Sliding out from the booth Gregory walked over to the coatrack and slid his coat back on. Openning the door he stepped outside into the cold once more. A walk would do him some good to clear his mind and form his words for the next round of the discussion with his stunned Vice President.

It was only a few minutes before Gregory returned to the coffee shop. He was always the fast walker. He walked quickly for two reasons though, the snow was picking up and the weathermen predicted a blizzard to overtake the tri-state area in a matter of hours, the second reason being his wounds which werent healed completely. He stepped back inside of the coffee shop and rested himself against the doorframe for abit. Stepping all the way inside he patted off his jacket and walked over toward the coat rack hanging it up once more as he walked over toward the booth. Vincent looked a lot better than he did several minutes ago. As Gregory was walking in Vincent was tucking away something into the breast pocket of his buisness shirt. Vincent hadnt even paid attention to the door when Gregory caught him offguard once more by practically jumping into the otherside of the booth as he sat which sent him back, Vincent grumbled something to himself which Gregory only laughed about,"Listen Vince...I'm sorry to have sprung all this on you without any warning."

Vincent just raised a hand to stop Gregory from saying anything further he spoke up, "No no no....your sorta right. At least on the issue of SATO. However your also wrong, at least on the trade issue. New York and New Jersey has deep routed trade with several nations who continue to this day be faithful allies. Just how faithful do you think they'll be if we begin to cut trade with them?" Gregory nodded his head slightly, he knew Vincent would bring this up either now, or back in the capital building. Bringing it up now though would save Gregory from having to argue this point later. The government never looked strong when the Vice President, and President were opennly arguing over the issue. Even if the President had almost absolute power,"I'm not saying we cut off all trade with out allies. I'm saying we stop awarding them lucrative contracts all the time. I'm saying we start giving some of those contracts to other nations, or even our own people. Even if it means spending alittle more, we need to start showing alittle more favoritism." Vincent pondered that for a moment, he had almost finished the entire cup of coffee on his own and he was on his fifth mug. His neurons were firing and he mind was going at a mile a minute, "Yeah but sooner or later our allies are going to notice and they'll want an explination." Gregory smirked alittle and shrugged abit as he poured himself a second cup off coffee following the same ritual as before.

"Vince, we'll give them an explination when they want one. Believe me, they wont notice soon, and they wont notice ever. The change will be so slow, and so miniscule I doubt we will be allied with any of the nations we are currently allied with by the time we have finished cutting off all the trade." Vincent sighed and put the mug down. He had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldnt win this arguement, infact, he knew that moving the Republic into a more open market would eventually be a good thing. In the short run though it seemed like a suicidal manuver. "Okay fine, no complaints over SATO, and trade. What other changes do you have in mind?" Gregory smiled and became slightly more relaxed, getting his VP onboard would ensure a unified nation when he finally moved out into the open with his intentions, at least those of leaving SATO. "So I take it you got the waitresses phone number?" Vincent turned slightly red as he looked around and then down at the table and whispered, "How the hell d...." Gregory laughed so hard the quiet coffee shop patrons looked over toward the booth, it was as lively as the place was expected to get that day. "I saw you pocket something in your shirt pocket. I mean really now, I was going for only a few minutes." The two laughed abit and then the silence returned back to the coffee shop.

He had dodged Vincent's question he knew. It was time though to come back to it though, at least in a slight way. "Well I'm going to stop wearing military uniforms. It's time I look like a national leader and not like a general of an army. Besides it hasnt gotten me any girls in years." He gave Vincent a weary smirk, retiring the military uniform hurt him greatly. His military past was his life. Not to wear the uniform anymore troubled him greatly, but it was a trouble he would need to get over. Vincent looked as if he was staring into headlight at the announcement. He couldnt even get the next set of words out, but it didnt matter as Gregory withdrew his wallet and left a 100 dollar credit on table sliding out. "Come on Vincent, I've got a speech to prepare to announce." He walked by the waitress and smiled abit, "Keep the change courtesy of my stumbling friend." Gregory got his jacket on and waited for Vincent to get his own jacket on before the two of them stepped back out into the cold, leaving the poor waitress who discovered the centurary credit and collapsed from disbelief.

Several Days Later:
The local and news channels had all been asked to give airtime to President de los Santos for the hours of 8 o’clock to 8:05. When broadcast CEOs wanted to know why the President needed the time, they were only told it was something of the utmost importance. Inside of the capital building Gregory looked over his speech once more and went over it with a red marker crossing out things he wouldn’t say or didn’t say all together. From across the room he was in a voice called out, “Mr. President, two minutes until the airtime. The cameras are ready, are you done with the speech?” his secretary had called out moving through the crowd and checking over Gregory’s suit even fixing his tie. Gregory smiled slightly and shook his head a bit and couldn’t lie even though he wanted to right now, “No I’m not done with the speech, and I’d like a few more minutes.” His secretary stepped back and made sure everything was all right, she even fixed his hair so it didn’t look as bad, “How many more minutes do you think you’ll need?” Gregory took a moment to think about that before he finally said, “About a million.” The secretary shook her head and turned Gregory toward the door to the next room and pushed him ahead while saying, “Not a chance in hell.”

“I had to try anyway,” Gregory moved into the next room and sat down behind the large executive desk. The New York City skyline was visible behind him including the construction project downtown, the two new Trade Center Towers, and the Freedom Tower. A pair of flags was on both sides of the television picture and in the middle was of course President de los Santos. At homes across the nation their regularly scheduled programming was cut and a seal of the Federal Republic appeared on the television, “We interrupt this scheduled programming for an announcement from President de los Santos.” The screen went black before it showed Gregory who was staring directly at the TV camera ahead of him, he wore a pair of reading glasses something that was a rather rare event, but he didn’t have as much time as he thought he did and he didn’t want to be caught on TV putting on his contact lens.

“Good evening and thank you for allowing me this time to speak with you on this important night. Many of you know our nations ties with the South Atlantic Treaty Organization stretch back many years. However as time progresses circumstances change and we must reevaluate our commitment to such an organization. As the Military President of the Federal Republic of New York and New Jersey it is my duty to protect the nation from both foreign and domestic threats. The South Atlantic Treaty Organization is not just a threat to our foreign standing but domestically as well. We run the risk of being dragged into war, because of certain allies who shall go unnamed because of their actions and this will not stand. The reputation of SATO is such that our nations association with SATO has hurt our reputation.” Gregory knew this was a stretch, New York and New Jersey had no reputation, and it hadn’t had one for anything important in over several centuries, but what little it did have left was completely tarnished by SATO. Of course this was all without pause as Greg thought this over while talking. “My fellow citizens I come before you not to berate SATO, for they have done a good job, but I come before you to announce that SATO no longer shares the same goals as the Federal Republic of New York and New Jersey. The reorganization of SATO has progressed far slower than what we would have liked and in a constant changing world slow actions breed complacency and create the possibilities for events far beyond the capability of the Federal Republic’s Armed Forces power. It is with a heavy heart that I say, since SATO no longer shares the same goals as the republic that we must submit in no uncertainty the withdrawal of the Federal Republic completely from the South Atlantic Treaty Organization. Our troops no matter wherever they are, are to recalled to the homeland for reassignment or they will stand down all together and the soldiers will be allowed to return to their families once more. This is a choice that has not come easily to me, and I have struggled with this thought for many months in advance of what has happened tonight. Our allies need not fear that we will cut ties with them, this is not cutting ties with anyone, and this is just a rearrangement of our strategic policy in general. We cannot be tied down with an alliance that does not know its own future. I as my fellow countrymen know am a person who enjoys planning ahead. Even if the future is uncertain, the direction of an alliance that purports itself to be a major defensive alliance should never be in doubt for as long as SATO’s has been. Our nation faces a brief period of uncertainty however I promise you, my fellow citizens, this choice will be in the best interest of the nation. I thank you for this time.”

The screen went black and when it came back the scheduled programming wasn’t brought back it was the news, which cut right into the programming. The withdrawal from SATO was a major event in NYNJ. Back at the capital building Gregory was sitting back in the chair, as the camera crews wasted no time dismantling their equipment and working to put it away once more. Gregory did something he hadn’t done for several years, not since the bombing in central park. He prayed. Loud and openly, that the choice he made was the right one and it wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass in the long run. But then again, all choices had their downsides. And if this one had a downside, he would see its effects soon enough.

tag

The Republic of Syskeyia mourns NYNJ's leaving SATO.

Perhaps we might increase our bilateral ties, a Syskeyian-NYNJ alliance perhaps?

God bless,

Benedict Michael Sukothai
President and First Consul of the Republic of Syskeyia

<<tag>>

We would send someone to snoop around, but we kinda stand out a bit.

Were you lead, we follow. Events sped up a little bit- (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=116807)

To: NYNJ government
From: Knootoss ministry of Foreign Affairs

The decision for us to leave the South Atlantic Treaty Organisation has fallen on the same day. However, we would still like to entertain ties with New York and Jersey. We would look forward to any proposed relations that you deem acceptable, from a trade pact to a full alliance.

~Hans van Mierlo
Minister of Foreign Affairs

"Oh boy..." Sitting in his office as he read the comminique from Knootoss, he hadnt expected another nation to follow him out of SATO. He chuckled slightly, New York and New Jersey actually did something positiive and cause a nation to follow in their footsteps. Well it was a start of course. Standing up from his desk he walked over toward the door peeking his head out looking over toward his secretary. "Grace take this down quickly please, To Leaders of Knotoss, blah blah blah...We wish you well on your choice to leave SATO. We know that your country has spent a lot of time attempting to reform SATO. With your annoucemnt of withdrawing as well, you have more or less assigned SATO its death knell, unless someone decides to take up the reigns of SATO, which is highly unlikely. We expect several other nations to follow and withdraw from SATO, however for reasons of security we can not disclose those nations. Once again we wish you well on your future endevours, signed...blah blah blah..."

Of course Grace made the letter look a lot better and it didnt have blah blah blah in it of course. Greg moved back into his office looking over at the Syskeyian message, he pondered a response to that as he moved behind the desk. Finger tips drumming lightly ontop he signed slightly and looked around for some inspiration. He would of course need to figure out some sort of response soon. What though he had no clue.

Bump.....fvcking NS ate my post...post will come later.

Bump.....fvcking NS ate my post...post will come later.

As Prime Minister Telrase looked dejectedly on the latest report from SATO he sighed and glanced out of the window. He had foreseen this day but never imagined that it would come so soon. New York and Jersey had left; one of the most powerful nations who had signed the treaty, in truth if they hadn’t many smaller countries wouldn’t have had the courage to join him. With out the strength provided by such a large military many delegates would advise their superiors to withdraw, as Knootoss had already shown. As the sun went down over the lush rainforests on the horizon he felt an emotion he had not experienced for a long time, he feared. For at the next dawn he would have to face a new world, one where SATO could no longer protect him.

nice.

((OOC: Now it ate my post damnit! *does the shortened version*))

KNN report, soundbit by Minister van Mierlo
It is my pleasure to announce the signing of a Treaty of free trade, and an exchange of embassies between Knootoss and New York and Jersey. Trade of drugs will be bound to restrictions as they apply in NYJ.

Both countries are still allied militarily through the Black Diamond Initiative.