NationStates Jolt Archive

Marlin Stroede watched as squads of hard bitten, unpleasant sounding, looking and smelling merceneries boarded the dropship. "Are you sure about this?" asked a woman at his shoulder, "It's a rather cruel joke."
"Now now Samara, these Affronters -"
"Effrenatans."
"Effrenatans need a lesson in why they should be able to defend themselves."
"Well, do as you wish, but try to bring the dropship back, they're expensive."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

An hour later the dropship was falling in the general direction of the nation of Effrenata, its stealth systems and defences contemptuously offline. Marlin stood in the small cockpit, watching the displays, "Try to put us down near their parliment building, or some national monument."

#tag# o.0

(Re: Effrenata’s military capacity: See these threads:

http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=113835&highlight=

http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=115504&start=0)

It was a Militia of the Devagas Union satellite that first tracked the “dropship” and fired a request for identification of its origin and purpose. The MDU Net initiated standard procedure, flagging the trace to human review. The Net Operator looked at the profile of the incoming and routed it directly to the Devagas Miliarch and the Combined Military Forces Network.

It took less than a moment for the Miliarch to reach Devran Macantir, the Military Figurehead, via Cbox. He was on an inspection tour of the Upper Kertebren military bases at the time. That made things easier. The Net immediately went to ALERT2 status, linking all Tribal Militias into the CMFN and scrambling all active CMF and Militia units to READY status. Macantir notified the Council of Figureheads and assumed his military rank of General Commander.

Heck, even if it turned out to be a dud, a nationwide drill wouldn’t hurt. Besides, it was always good to remind those chartered security firms where their primary priorities were. It had been nearly a year since the last one, and that had hardly been a surprise. He activated the GENERAL ALERT2 protocol.

Within eight seconds, every Cbox defaulted to ALERT2 mode. With a groan, every adult Effrenati not currently on active duty with the CMF or a Tribal Militia, or employed by a Chartered security firm, reached for a Primary Weapon.

This involved a little scrambling for some. Although the Administrative Regulations required Reserve members to keep their Primary Weapons within five minutes’ reach, as usual some had forgotten to bring them to work, and many had stashed them in attics or under beds. There would be tags and fines issued at the end of the drill, and many and loud were the cusswords flying.

Primary Weapons in hand, everyone assembled their Secondary Military Equipment Unit and headed for their Assembly Points.

The Tranest Corporation, the Kyth Agency, and five other Chartered security firms scrambled all undeployed units to CMF control (it would cost millions, and once again they’d fire up their Special Interest Groups to demand a change in the Administrative Regulations,) and placed deployed units on NOTIFIED status.

A Fury Transit had already landed at Upper Kertebren to pick up Macantir and convey him to a Command Unit. He’d make the decision of which Unit in the air.

Squads of Frenzy Evaders, fully armed, were scrambling. Defense networks swiveled detection units to track the incoming, and from underground in more than four dozen locations, S/A defence guns lifted into position and acquired target.

The Figureheads, together with the Interdepartmental Committee members, headed for their ALERT2 locations and jacked into the Civilian Logistics Network. Although certain it was a drill (and his fellow-Figureheads were preparing a ‘warm’ welcome back for Macantir,) they began the routine of identifying and securing Essential Resources, and coordinating the Civilian Security Reserve units in deploying from their Assembly Points.

At the Combat Reserve Assembly Points, every citizen who had custody of a Secondary Military Equipment Unit was engaged in the job of assembling their items into some form of heavy ordnance for Dispersed Defence. The Five-Year reservists (those who were less than five years out of their compulsory military service) were already loaded onto hovertransports and ground trucks for conveyance to their Coordinated Deployment Points to link up with active military units.

Schools, day care centers, Adult Activity centers, and other non-Reserve personnel gathering points organized the children and elderly into orderly groups prepared for evacuation to Safe Points. Cboxes coordinated the activity into the CMFN.

In the Fury12 that was already airborne, Macantir monitored the ALERT2 compliance. As each Reservist reported to their Assembly Point, the Assembly Points checked off readiness on the Net. As each item of heavy ordnance was fully assembled and each truckload of Five Year reservists checked in its last personnel, they checked off readiness on the Net. Civilian Security Reserve units checked off their readiness as the various Essential Resources were secured and non-Reserve personnel gathering points were verified as ‘ready.’

The CMF ALERT2 status updated constantly on Macantir’s monitor, while he waited on the direct feed from the SatCOM to forward the response to the request for identification.

As a courtesy, although they had no formal obligation to do so, Interim Lord High Executive Fordal March and Provisional Prime Figurehead Aldegar Mantelish informed neighboring nations in the Schminkland region that they were tracking an unidentified, possibly hostile, unit approaching Effrenata, so that the neighbors would understand the skies filling with Frenzies and Furies, the bristlingly active S/A and I/G launch units, and the heavily upgraded signals across the Effrenati military bandwidth.

(Please see the following threads:

http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2803417#2803417

for related response.)

Stroede watched the displays light up, "Well, they are armed after all, another myth disproven," he paused for a moment, "Abort the approach and take us away, in a random direction. No response to their requests."

Hofburg, Lavenrunz

Baroness Hentzau walked with Palee Blackotter out of the hall and said quietly, "We actually regret the loss of Effrenata as a place to headquarter the council. GMC Military Arms is neutral now but has not recently been so; your lack of association with any known alliance was an excellent compromise. However, we do wish you well, and if you need assistance for anything, please let us know. I will arrange for a Concorde flight ASAP." she bowed her head politely.

Macantir’s adjutant was monitoring the SatCOM feed and the analysis. “Sheering off, Sir. Whoever it was thought better of it.”

Macantir frowned and brought up the trace on his own box. “No response at all? Are they out of range?”

“Yes, Sir.”

The Watch Officer queried: “Stand down, Commanding General?”

Macantir thought for a moment. “Not just yet. Let’s go ahead and bring everything up to 100%. That should take another half-hour or so, and by that time it should be clear whether that was just a teaser, or a scout for something else. Go ahead and alert the Command-level CivLog Net, though.”

He stood up straight, stretching the tension from his back, and ran a hand over what was left of his hair. “Bright’s gonna want my butt in a sling. And the Charters are going to be howling from here to breakfast.”

“Already have Tranest on the line, Sir. Vingal Eremetyne himself. Will you take it?”

Macantir grimaced. “I suppose I’d better. Patch it through.”

In a moment, the figure of the Tranest Top Dog, nattily attired in the latest Ceyce fashion in evening clothes, appeared. He surveyed the Commanding General mildly.

“Four million, one hundred and twenty-seven three thousand mercats and change, General.”

Macantir grinned. “You got off cheap, Ving. It wasn’t a dud, but they thought better of it. Might have been very expensive indeed.”

Ermetyne surveyed him for a moment with narrowed eyes, then matched his grin. “Alright. Our snoopnet collected quite a lot of interesting information from them before they hightailed it. Want it?”

Now Macantir’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think the CMFN doesn’t have the same info?”

Ermetyne didn’t respond, just kept smiling.

“Oh, hell. What’s the price?”

Ermetyne managed to look hurt. “Why General! I’m a patriotic Effrenati. Tranest is a pillar of the national economy. How can you ever imagine I would exploit this situation for mere crass, commercial gain?”

It was Macantir’s turn to remain silent, one eyebrow tilted.

Ermetyne dropped the wounded look and shrugged. “The CMFN upgrade that’s currently being discussed in the Figureheads Council, General. I understand that certain of your colleagues have been, ah… doubtful about the value and timing of the project.”

Macantir grunted with amusement. “What makes you think I can talk that bunch around? Mantelish and the Committee will be wanting a kilo of my flesh as it is.”

The Tranest TD smiled pleasantly. “And you’re hardly a diplomat, are you? No, that’s not precisely what I had in mind. My people have already been, ah… analyzing the situation. We’ve identified at least three of your colleagues whose doubts are connected to their anxiety over the contract-letting process. Now, I have taken the liberty of meeting privately with a couple of my opposite numbers, and we have come to an agreement regarding that. We are all prepared to withdraw our existing proposals, and submit a joint proposal for review to Orado Techsys. I believe that will solve the problem, if we can count on your support in the Council?”

Macantir frowned. It wasn’t contra-reg, but it was dicey. On the other hand, if they were willing to go through OT, they weren’t trying anything funny on the quality. It probably meant about a 3-5% hike in the ultimate cost, of which Tranest stood to net a very fair chunk. Of course, they stood to net a very fair chunk from the project regardless. And it had been stalled for far too long already. This incident would serve as a reminder to everyone just why it was so critical to keep the CMFN at the highest possible level of capabilities.

“Alright, Ving. Send me what you’ve got. I hope it’s good enough to cover my butt when the Finance Interns start keening.”

Ermetyne nodded. “Pleasure doing business with our distinguished military, as always, General. Oh, and will you be at the match tomorrow? Brilla was hoping to get her revenge.”

Macantir chuckled. “Maybe. Depends on how much debrief I can get out of the way today. Tell Brilla I’m looking forward to it.”

The connection cut, and was replaced by the Coordinating Miliarch, Giri teGanneth. “General, we have confirmed empty net. Stand down to A3?”

Macantir nodded. “Put all actives on A3, and as soon as we achieve 99.3 readiness on general, stand them down altogether. Let people get back to work.”

TeGanneth nodded, saluted. Macantir’s adjutant was looking at him enquiringly. “OK, let’s head for Ceyce. I have a lot of meetings to go to this afternoon.” He looked gloomy.

Baroness Hentzau walked with Palee Blackotter out of the hall and said quietly, "We actually regret the loss of Effrenata as a place to headquarter the council. GMC Military Arms is neutral now but has not recently been so; your lack of association with any known alliance was an excellent compromise. However, we do wish you well, and if you need assistance for anything, please let us know. I will arrange for a Concorde flight ASAP." she bowed her head politely.

Palee smiled at the Baroness. "Thank you very much, my Lady. Please believe that Lavenrunz has our most profound gratitude for your work in bringing about this step towards peaceful dispute resolution. The Council will have our full support, and Acting Chair Hyirdahl will be formally signifying the International Affairs Task Force's willingness to discuss how we can provide material assistance to the Council in establishing itself and proceeding with its work."

His dark skin flushed a trifle darker as he added, a trifle awkwardly, "And of course, my Lady, if you or any of your colleagues cared to visit Effrenata, I would count it a very great honor to be permitted to greet you and provide the hospitality of the Task Force."

It is hard to take his eyes from her as he gets into the car. "Bochemwa!" he mutters to himself, craning his neck to catch a last glance. "M'or drenyi ta halith me grathti..."

In moments of profound impact, he still lapses into his mothertongue.

OOC: *snigger*