NationStates Jolt Archive

Pole-to-Pole Martian Orbit

Martian orbital space was almost as crowded as Earth's, filled with satellites, fleet craft, and the omnipresent debris; if Mars hadn't been occupied for as long as Earth, it was certainly catching up fast in terms of orbital wrecks.

The little Tsarainese Geb-class surveysat passed over the Southern hemisphere yet again, sending back it's findings to High Stone via quantum-entanglement aeryaghrana.

Areas within the bounds of one nation or another were tinted red, offlimits; the mission controllers were looking for unclaimed land, where Tsaraine could establish itself. That meant either the cold new Martian seas of the North or the barren highlands of the South, and Tsarainese were poor sailors.

Between the Vascilian League in the South and the other nations in the Martian tropics were a series of large craters, oddly seeming in a straight line from orbit; the smallest, Maraldi, was still quite large enough for Tsarainese use, at 124 kilometers across. It was earmarked for possible development, and plans were laid...

The survelience centre in Cerbera Base was a small, dank room, almost pitch-black, and lit eerily by the light of a hundred monitors and computer screens. All of these were linked to the orbiting watchdog satallites and the ground-based network of general detection stations, boasting some of the most advanced technoligies available. Tonight was a night like any other. The evening shift pretty much stayed glued to the monitors, and every now and then the quartermaster would bring a tray full of food in for them. It was about 0120 local when the logister engine croacked out an alert. Now, a vocal alert from th centeral logister engine was generally greeted with a touch of panic, and a heightening of tensions. In the computer's databanks, the entire silhlouette registry of all known warships of Martian powers was stored, so the computer wouldn't alert them about warship movement unless it was overtly hostile or unknown. Conversely, due to the sheer magnatude of differeing civian craft, the acknowledged shipping lanes were generally ignored, althuoght the computer did keep track of what was coming and going in case it proved important. No, this was somehting unique. Something that hadn't been seen in orbit before. It took the computer about a second to detail the alert.

"Previously unknown or undetected stallilte-like object detected in high orbit, moving in rapid orbit. Checking energy signals with records."

It took another few seconds for the records to thourghly scanned and searched before an answer came up.

"Current data suggests unidentified object to be Tsarainese in origin. Threat level assessed as non. Data is being relayed to Command, along with a greeting ping to the object. Stand by to end alert."

After a few sighs of relief, the nightcrawlers went back to their work while awaiting a responce from the ping.

ooc: Is there an official map of Mars? Is there any Martian territory left unclaimed? Please let me know.

ooc: Is there an official map of Mars? Is there any Martian territory left unclaimed? Please let me know.
Political Map of Mars (http://www.pacifier.com/~cziller/mapofmars.html).

Thank you very much Treznor. It is a beautiful map, to be sure. I wasn't expecting it to be done so proffesionaly. I am truly impressed.

Thank you, you're very kind. I'll be sure to pass your compliments on to Sunset, whose website I linked to.

Division Nine Command Core, High Stone, Lagrange Point Three, Earth Orbit

Surface colonies, Tanyi ralKeyra thought wearily, Are a bother. The Arikhen Project had hardly gotten underway before problems began to crop up; this one, at least, had done so well in advance.

Basic statistical analysis revealed that Tsaraine's fleet of Horus-class freighters was inadequate to ferry the equipment needed to Mars, in sufficient time or indeed at all; most of them were fully occupied on the supply runs out to Far Stone and Kel Meralkharant, and shipping the processed ore back from Far Stone to Earth. Something new would be required.

That "something new" was the design currently revolving on her screens; little more than a reinforced cylinder coated with spun diamond, with a fusion generator, antimagnetic core, inertial plating, and aeryaghrana-linked controls. A remarkably simple and efficient drone freighter.

I'm suprised nobody thought of it before, actually.

According to the proposal attached to the model, the drone freighters would be escorted to Mars by several of the new Sekhmet-class cruisers, and controlled from there also; the Sekhmets, having inertial plating, could keep up with the 20-gee accelerations of the drones.

When at Mars, the drones would use their antimagnetics to descend safely to the surface, delivering their load of equipment to the workers on the ground; the hulls themselves could be utilised for buildings.

Fingers rattling across the keyboards, Tanyi appended an "approved" note to the proposal.

Various Spots In the Martian System

As other freighters did every week, the H-012 swung by the red planet on a slingshot orbit, robbing Mars of a small portion of it's energy to speed it on it's way to High Stone and Kel Meralkharant.

Today, however, the hangar blister on the hull slid open to disgorge an Anubis-class spaceplane, and the little stubby-winged craft sped down into the Martian gravity well.

---

"Allright! You morons back there better be buckled up good, 'cause we're entering atmosphere!"

Nerad ralKuegan gave the intercom a Cheshire cat's grin before returning it to it's clip, hearing the mixed groans and cheers of his cargo. On the forward screens Mars loomed large, it's thin airs parting around the spaceplane. External sensors said that that atmosphere was up to human-tolerable pressures, but Nerad wasn't about to risk it, and the survey team ensconced in his passenger bay were under orders not to.

Turbulence was high - the Southern hemisphere of Mars had no large oceans to moderate it's temperature swings - but nothing a good pilot couldn't handle, and Nerad brought the spaceplane down neatly in Maraldi crater.

It was strange, to see the horizon circumscribed by the crater walls; thirty kilometers away to the North, ninety to the South, in an unbroken line (save for one unnamed smaller crater straddling the Southern crater wall). Such a thing would be nigh impossible on Earth, where the thicker atmosphere had shielded the planet from similar strikes, and indeed Maraldi crater looked unEarthly; the terraforming in the North hadn't yet reached the Southern highlands.

Nerad got up, stomach lurching slightly - odd, he had no troubles in one-gee or zero-gee, but this point-three-nine-gee Mars gravity set his gut on edge - and pulled the airlock safety lock to "open".

"Door's unlocked, fellas," he told his passengers, "You can go right on out now."

"Confirmed," the survey team's PlatCom replied. "Move out!"

They were an odd bunch, the twenty-man survey team sent to investigate Maraldi more thoroughly; mostly Space Marines with crash courses in geology and suchlike, with enough actual experts mixed in to give the OK to whatever the grunts decided. All of them carried arms, as well as their heavy packs of supplies; after all, everyone knew that Mars was a lawless, chaotic world, wracked by endemic warfare*, and the possibility of encountering "bandits or other hostiles" had been declared to be "unknown".

Nerad and the survey team had two weeks on-planet before their return window was scheduled; enough time to take a good look around for the Arikhen Project brass back at High Stone, and decide upon construction sites. All in all, quite a nice little holiday.

OOC:
*This, of course, is a Tsarainese view of Mars. It may or may not be accurate.

Ground Command Design Core, The Eyrie, Tsaraine

The Space Command Design Corps regarded their groundside brethren with barely disguised loathing; they were, after all, the Corps of a different Division entirely, and one with, in their opinion, very little value in the real world.

For their part, the Ground Command Design Corps returned the animosity completely; who did these orbital propellerheads think they were, coming down to good solid Earth and badgering them for help? Typical, that the orbital boys would come running for help at the first sign of difficulty - the Ground Command did sensible things, like designing massive gauss-cannon artillery, not gallivanting about in space.

"Conditions on Mars are, er, somewhat different, from those on Earth," a Space Command Researcher was saying, accompanied by a slideshow of various graphs and charts. "Atmospheric pressures are low, as are temperatures - though the survey team reports that both are within human-survivable ranges - and the atmosphere is entirely unbreathable. The land - where we'll be operating, at least - is completely lifeless, and the lack of planetary Van Allen belts means that Mars is subject to massive solar radiation. Not to mention, of course, that the gravity is only thirty-nine percent of Earth standard.

"These are the environmental constraints we'll be operating under in the design of a ground vehicle for our outpost on Mars. They mean we'll need an enclosed cabin with an independent air supply and airlocks, as well as temperature control, and Derflon protection as if it were to be operating here.

"Now, here we have the schematics of the modern Mark VI Ravager APC, which already possesses many of the features we require. Working off this model, we should be able to develop a Mars vehicle in a relitavely short amount of time - certainly in time to be included in the drone freighter shipments.

"And, er, I've been instructed to tell you that, uh, the first person to complain about this arrangement will be transferred to the Recycling Corps. So, uh, let's not do that..."

Maraldi Crater, Southern Highlands, Mars

Eirkhanz bounced along uneasily in the 0.37G, flagpole held carefully under his arm. He was consoled by the fact that the pilot was doing worse; oddly, he didn't seem to have taken to Marsgrav at all. Strange, when those Division Nine boys were in zero-gee so often.

"Perhaps you should have stayed in the spaceplane," Eirkhanz suggested over the suit radio.

Behind the glass of his helmet, Nerad shook his head. "And disobey Commandant ralTaren's orders? You know what she's like! Besides, you need the help. Ha! She's finally getting some use out of the useless, it seems."

Sian ralTaren was renowned throughout the Survey Corps for her ability to flog a dead horse back to life, and the sheer venom of her tongue. Neither man was eager to irritate her more then they already had; ralTaren hated useless people, and was adept at seeking them out. Nerad, aside from being untrained in survey skills, was suffering terribly from the Martian gravity, and as for Eirkhanz, the Platoon xenobiologist, the Maraldi crater had proven so starkly bare of life (which was odd, given the flooded Argyre to the North) that he'd been entirely superflorous in his intended role.

RalTaren had decided that Eirkhanz was sufficiently skilled to stick a pole into the ground, and that Nerad was sufficiently mobile to assist him. So here they were, clambering over the fractured Martian rock to the central peak of the crater (more a low hill, really) where they'd erect the flag.

"So why is this place all bare?" Nerad asked. "Looks like someone let of a neutron warhead, actually."

Eirkhanz shrugged inside his environment suit. "For all I know, they might have. Background rads are no higher than normal for Mars - though that's still pretty high. Ekhat says pressure is as it should be, which is about a third of a bar, and temperatures are about normal too. I expected lichen at least. Just one of those things, I guess."

They came to a high point in the crater plain, and there was nowhere higher within the encircling cliffs. Clearly this was the "peak" of the crater.

"I guess this is it," Nerad said, fumbling with the guy wires wrapped around his waist. The wires terminated in heavy pegs, and were hammered into the ground in a tripod arrangement to support the flagpole, which Eirkhanz punched into the ground in the center.

The flagpole held two flags, the big blue Omniscience of Tsaraine above, and below it the flag made for Tsarainese Mars; the Omniscience vertical with a red stripe, beside the pole, and in the other two-thirds of the flag a red disc on black, representing Mars (personally Eirkhanz thought it looked rather too much like the Undanti flag, but then he wasn't in the Design Corps). They fluttered weakly in the thin Martian air.

There was a plaque too, which they stuck into the ground by the flagpole on it's own little spike. The message was simple and direct;

Upon this day the (OOC: Insert date here - Fluid time makes timekeeping messy), in the reign of the Domina Rene Seingult I, the Second Dominion of Tsaraine hereby lays soverign claim to this unclaimed land, the Crater of Maraldi, as a Tsarainese Territory. Let none contest this claim, or Dominion sovreignity over the Maraldi Territory.

There was a much longer, more legalistic, document drawn up in Deep Tsarai and signed by the Domina herself, but that of course had stayed in the Deep Tsarai archives, alongside the historic documents of the past.

"Well, I guess that's that," Eirkhanz commented. "Apparently they've got another team coming out on the same freighter we're going home on, to prepare the place for the drone freighters. Maybe the place will look nicer with proper buildings in it."

The watchful eyes of Pagag certainly didn't miss something landing in Maraldi unscheduled. But its crew certainly had some trouble deciding what to do about it.
Of course, someone suggested right off to ort' 'em to dust, and of course that suggestion was quickly thrown out.
But to send down a lander? It would attract too much attention.
Contact Lowell or Noachian bases? Could they be trusted?
Get the nearest construction site to send out an investigator? Nah, they'd not be able to get there within a convenient amount of time.
They would have to risk asking Lowell.

As soon as they recieved the news from Pagag, three Entopters lifted gracefully from the Lacus Lowell hangars and sped off to Maraldi like a group of giant quicksilver dragonflies high on kerosene.

#tag#

God bless,

The Republic of Syskeyia

Maraldi Crater, Maraldi Territory, Southern Highlands, Mars

One of the first things Arisaine arViradt did, upon arrival on Mars, was to establish proper military discipline upon the workers. The drone freighters would arrive soon, and everybody was working frantically to get everything ready for them; but at the same time, cutting corners would have unpleasant consequences later.

This was obviously unacceptable, and Arisaine had demonstrated on her first day of command that people taking shortcuts, or producing substandard work, would recieve their unpleasant consequences now. There were several new cadet officers around the camp after she'd begun that policy.

Really, they were lucky that there was nothing more onerous she could punish them with; as in Tsaraine, most of the heavy or dangerous work was performed by machines. There were machines to dig the foundations into which the drone freighters would settle, and machines to manufacture a concrete-analogue from the Martian rock, and machines to extrude and shape the plastic of the bubble-tents in which the people did their work.

Behind her there was the crunch of environment suit boots on Martian soil, and Arisaine whirled, hands dropping to the hilts of the klrsukali she did not go without.

"Senat, you idiot! How many times must I ram it through your thick skull that you do not approach your commanding officer from behind?"

Senat arIngult appeared not to notice her glare, or at least pretended not to. With someone as mind-numbingly stupid as her 2iC, it was hard to tell which was which even without helmet faceplates between them.

He lifted a pair of bottles, white with condensation, in one gloved hand. "I caught a couple of the meterology crew drinking on the job," he told her. Even through the faceplate his Cheshire cat's grin was plain. "Thought we might dispose of their temptation, hmm?"

Arisaine knocked the bottles from his hand, amber liquid splashing frozen across the red rock. "Officers do not drink on duty!" she snapped. "Undercommandant Aringult, you will remember that in future!"

Senat looked stricken, or at least she thought he did. "Sorry, sorry, sorry," he muttered, retreating backwards. Exactly like a kicked puppy. Like a dog, Senat was both stupid and loyal, but he was a valuable Undercommandant despite his many faults.

The met crew had been drinking on the job. Arisaine's hand tightened on her blade. She frowned upon drinking off duty, and had absolutely outlawed it on duty. Which didn't seem to have had the desired effect; perhaps she needed to get tougher on them. After all, there were a trio of Ea coming out with the drone freighters, and everything needed to be perfect for the eyes of the Domina's little homo superiors!

Maraldi Crater, Maraldi Territory, Southern Highlands, Mars

The Arikhenikh Communion (all three of them) had expected more primitive facilities than they found, and was pleasantly suprised by the quality of the tent town.

Lined up on neat rows on the South side of the crater, the translucent bubbles and tubes of the town shining brightly in the afternoon sun (the animal, illogical parts of their minds had expected it to be dimmer, though logically the Soletta made it look much the same as the Sun seen from Earth).

South of the tents, the six newly-delivered drone freighters stood over a hundred meters into the air, hubs of hectic antlike activity as the workers unloaded the equipment brought out on them.

Base Commandant arViradt is an angry woman, the Communion thought. Almost a despot. Though within the parameters of the law, to be sure. Motivations for such behaviour is unknown. We have looked at her file and found nothing amiss. This bears further investigation...

Further investigation could wait; the Ea were patient, after all, and the work was long.

(OOC: Actually, the sun looks pretty much the same despite the Guild solletta. You will notice a few extra 'suns', though, and a daytime that is a few hours longer than it has any right to be.)

The three Entopters slowed to a an air-rowing glide as they entered Maraldi. Their carbon and silicon ganglia picked out and interpreted the tenttown long before the human pilots could, but when they finally did, the human pilots quickly slowed to a buzzing hover.
"Well, crap. That's gonna be a bit difficult to remove."
"Copy, echo."
"Alright, radio base for new orders. Looks like we just got ourselves a diplomatic job."

The three enormous mechanical dragonflies slowly and steadily buzzed towards the small settlement, and began to come down as close to the middle as possible, the four semi-rigid wings alternately buzzing, twisting, and locking into glides for a smooth vertical descent.

Maraldi Territory Command Core, Maraldi Crater, Maraldi Territory, Southern Highlands, Mars

The Command Core was a blaze of sound and flashing lights.

"Reading multiple incomings, Commandant!" the sensor officer's fingers rattled across his keyboards, bringing up what data they could discover on the foreign aircraft. "No landing clearance request, no ID - database gives them a tenative origin of Eniqcir. Your orders, Senekhal?"

"Aircraft entering Tsarainese airspace without official clearance are in violation of the Illegal Ingress statutes and are to be considered hostile," Arisaine quoted. "Hostile aircraft in Tsarainese airspace are to be destroyed as soon as possible!"

While that was the letter of the law, the sensor officer seemed to have a better idea of what the diplomatic consequences might be than the BaseCom did.

So he was very glad when Ktiryar-Radukh ea Seingult, the member of the Arikhenikh Communion present, said "We countermand," and reached to cover the "military alert" button.

"What do you mean?" arViradt snapped angrily, glaring at the tall young Ea with his gently smiling face.

"The Arikhenikh Communion has calculated that such an action would cause unwanted diplomatic repercussions," Ktiryar-Radukh replied. "It must not proceed."

Arisaine glared, but the Ea was right, and technically the Communion outranked her. The Senekhal subsided with ill grace.

"Send a radio broadcast," arViradt said. "If that is permitted, Ea?"

Ktiryar nodded slightly, and the comms officer did as ordered.

Arisaine picked up the speaker of the radio unit, and spoke in a voice that was even more clipped and harsh than her Ktrazirha accent made it normally;

"Attention, foreign aircraft! You are in violation of soverign Tsarainese airspace. Depart immediately. This shall be your only warning."

Ktiryar hit the "override" button before the comms officer could broadcast, and took the speaker from Arisaine's hands.

"Foreign aircraft," he said, "Please be aware that you have entered the airspace of the Maraldi Territory of the Second Dominion of Tsaraine without proper authorisation. We request that you depart, or we shall be forced to regard you as in violation of the Illegal Ingress statutes of Tsarainese law. Thankyou."

"Broadcast that," he told the comms officer, who did so. "Senekhal, we must speak of this later."

"Foreign aircraft," he said, "Please be aware that you have entered the airspace of the Maraldi Territory of the Second Dominion of Tsaraine without proper authorisation. We request that you depart, or we shall be forced to regard you as in violation of the Illegal Ingress statutes of Tsarainese law. Thankyou."
"Violation of airspace? In our own territory? Who the heck do these people think they are?"
"Evidently, people who thought this land wasn't claimed."
"Oh, come on! That kind of thing hasn't happened for years!"
"Still, the alternative is worse, and we better assume that they're innocent for the benefit of the diplomatic process."
"Whatever. You respond. If I do it, they'll probably blow us out of the sky for the insult. Don't want to start a war here...."

Foreign base, please first be aware that you are occupying Kaseian Provincial territory. We'd like to avoid an unfortunate incident, so if you would be so kind as to come out and meet us, we can probably work out a way to avoid having to request that you depart.

Maraldi Territory Command Core, Maraldi Crater, Maraldi Territory, Southern Highlands, Mars

"We have a reply from the intruders, Senekhal, Ea khor."

Foreign base, please first be aware that you are occupying Kaseian Provincial territory. We'd like to avoid an unfortunate incident, so if you would be so kind as to come out and meet us, we can probably work out a way to avoid having to request that you depart.

Arisaine hissed in anger. "Communications officer! You shall inform these violators of our airspace that they will depart immediately, or we shall plaster the provinces of Kasei -of which Maraldi is not one - with bolides until they look like a new Hellas!"

The Communications officer looked to Ktiryar, a furtive flash of the head, and the Ea shook his head.

"Transmit this; "Diplomatic incidents should by all means be avoided. The landing strip is free of traffic; please tune in to the beacon frequency, so that the Aerospace Traffic Control may assist you in landing without incident."

"Kufaidh," Ktiryar contined, looking at the Senekhal's Rukine bodyguard, "The Senekhal should, I think, remain here."

>> From where comes this hostility in your charge, Kufaidh? It is not reported in the Senekhal's Psych evaluation.

<< I am ... unsure, Ea khor. It was not present when we departed High Stone.

"I am not accustomed," Arisaine snapped, "To having my orders overruled!"

"The good of the State, Senekhal," Ktiryar replied, "Is not currently in your orders."

Kufaidh took Arisaine's arm and spoke quietly for some length. Finally the Senekhal glared angrily at Ktiryar, and retreated in ill humor.

"Communications officer," Ktiryar murmured, "Naturally you did not observe that ... tse ka?"

"Ea khor, tse kto'ka," the officer replied with relief. Reporting that little fracas to the political officers would not have been enjoyable.

Ktiryar bestowed a benevolent smile, and departed for the suit room, summoning his own Rukine bodyguard as he went. After all, there was a risk of danger, when one stood on Mars. Arikhen was as volatile as Arisaine.

Copy, out.
The three Entopters made a snap-turn towards the strip, and gently glided in to touch down on six hydraulic legs. The doors opened on the sides of two of the Entopters bug-eyed bubble cockpits, and out stepped two pilots in thick khaki-green flight suits and airmasks.

Maraldi Territory Command Core, Maraldi Crater, Maraldi Territory, Southern Highlands, Mars

The landing strip had been cleared of craft, the blocky Anubis- and Osiris-class spaceplanes neatly lashed down against the everpresent winds of Mars.

Now, of course, there were three outlandish craft sitting on the strip (for all the world like gigantic insects), and their outlander pilots standing nearby.

Ktiryar-Radukh, flanked by his bodyguard, approached the foreigners. The Tsarainese environment suits were based upon those used in Tsaraine itself, fully enclosing the wearer; the Tsarainese were always mindful of background rads.

"Greetings!" Ktiryar called, voice loud in the still air. "Welcome to Maraldi!"

"Greetings as well. And welcome to Mars, I hope."
The speaker took a few steps forward, away from the Entopters, while his companion hung back.
"Name's Hathcar. And you would be?"

"Operations Commandant Ktiryar-Radukh ea Seingult, of the Arikhenikh Communion, Mr. Hathcar. Shall we enter somewhere warmer? The Martian ambient environment here is ill suited to humanity."

Ktiryar waved towards the nearest of the six towers - the former drone freighters, 125 meters high even with a sixth of their height buried in the ground. Once the freight they'd carried had been moved out, the freighters had been pressurised and converted into living space for the expanding base.

"That would seem to be a good idea. Lead on."
Hathcar waved two fingers at the second pilot, who reluctantly started walking along behind.

When the drone freighters had first dropped into their foundation sockets in the rock of Mars, they'd been essentially hollow cylinders, packed with hundreds of sturdy metal crates. Once emptied of cargo, though, the freighters had been pressurised, and floors and elevators installed within.

The ground floor of this tower was a garage of sorts, filled with dusty Ares-class Martian rovers. Ktiryar led the foreigners through the nearest airlock (two of the others had been linked by tubing to the tent complex), and up the elevator to the top floor.

As it was fifty floors above the ground, and offered the best view out of the six towers, floor-to-ceiling windows had been installed on the top floor, looking out over Maraldi and the highlands beyond.

The room Ktiryar took them to possessed such windows, but little else; a small table, a few chairs, a couple of Tsarainese flexscreens.

"So," the Ea said, sitting down across the table from the Eniqciri, "Let us talk."

Hathcar followed Ktiryar in taking a seat. "Yes, let's. To put it bluntly, you're on our land."
The second pilot sat.
"But I get the impression that you don't agree, and therein lies our problem."

Thank you, you're very kind. I'll be sure to pass your compliments on to Sunset, whose website I linked to.

OOC:

To be more technical, kudos should go to Kajal for doing such a nice job of updating the map, not to mention all the work he did making the globes and what not.

Anyhow, Tag!

OOC: Yes, 'tis quite a shiny map ... if only he'd put Maraldi up on there, it would be very shiny.

"Indeed," Ktiryar replied. "To put it equally bluntly ... you are now on our land. Preliminary analysis informed us that this region was unclaimed - Maraldi Crater was selected for colonisation in part because it was unclaimed!

"Thus we would be quite interested to know on what grounds Kasei claims Maraldi Crater - if the evidence to support your claim is so scant as to have gone unnoticed in our surveys, then surely you should not object our use of it."

(OOC: discreet tag)

"Indeed," Ktiryar replied. "To put it equally bluntly ... you are now on our land. Preliminary analysis informed us that this region was unclaimed - Maraldi Crater was selected for colonisation in part because it was unclaimed!

"Thus we would be quite interested to know on what grounds Kasei claims Maraldi Crater - if the evidence to support your claim is so scant as to have gone unnoticed in our surveys, then surely you should not object our use of it.""Analysis of what? I'd be quite surprised if there any unclaimed land left on Mars at all. We claim it based on the fact that it's in the middle of a very large region that has been under our control for, oh, somewhere between a decade and a century depending on your timestream. I'm not sure whether or not it's scheduled to have a pipeline run through it... if it is, the government might give you a bit more trouble, but they'll probably be willing to sell."

""We claim it because we claim it" is not a valid explanation, Mr. Hathcar. Tsaraine claims Maraldi crater because we happen to have invested invested quite a bit of resources in it - an area for which there is no good evidence to support your claim of ownership. Satellites in orbit found no sign of occupation - no sign of any living thing going anywhere near here - and Tsarainese legal advisors confirmed that it was, in fact, unclaimed.

"We find your claim spurious, and we most certainly do not intend to purchase an area we own already, from your government or any other."

OOC: Just to point this out... Under those terms someone could go park a very expensive trailer out in the middle of the American southwest and claim it as their own. The problem with this idea is that if the government or a corporation that leased the land wanted to lay a pipeline through there you would have to move - or be dislodged by an officer of the law. The territory is still legally owned by the United States despite being empty.

Even if you were a space alien and didn't know that it was American territory.

Note that I would love to see Tsaraine on Mars and I'm confident that this problem can be resolved with a little give and take on both sides.

"The Aumanii government would like to take this time to announce the expansion of its borders 200km into the unclaimed desert to the north of our nation. Population concerns and a lack of arable land have forced us to make this decision. As we are reasonable people, we are willing to compensate to Eniqciri handsomely for the land in the form of economic aid packages. Thank you all and have an excellent day."

~General Luthor Stromm, Aumanii Exterior ministry.

We have not been clear enough with the Eniqciri, the Arikhenikh Communion realised, and Ktiryar explained further.

"We should very much like to see the evidence supporting your claim - whatever it is, it appears to have eluded the workers who researched Maraldi's legal status. If it exists, then obviously someone has made a greivous mistake in a legal report somewhere. But we are afraid that it is really much too late for Kel Arikhant to depart, should you be proven correct."

"You don't seem to understand. You don't own it. Kasei originally claimed it because we do have use for it, and will be investing quite a bit in it, once resources are freed from the other development projects. The fact that this particular territory, out of all those under development, hasn't been reached yet is irrelevant. Even if we didn't have any use for it by now, it wouldn't make a bit of difference. We don't need a reason to claim it, because we don't have to re-claim it. It is already ours. Essentially, your argument is saying that anyone could build a house on an empty lot, and then declare it an independant nation because the government didn't help build the house. You wouldn't put up with that, would you? Now, because you seem to have landed here in ignorance, I don't think the Office of Land Claims will hold it against you, so you shouldn't have much trouble getting approval for this little colony, but there are procedures that must be followed. You claim that there is no good evidence of Kaseian ownership. What sort of evidence do you require? Archived land appropriations documents? Statements of recognition from foriegn powers? All of that can be provided, but not here. I'm just a pilot. I was sent out here to buzz a few squatters, not to have to deal with a whole foreign colonization effort. You'll have to set up a meeting through the Office of Land Claims in Flagstaff."

"The Aumanii government would like to take this time to announce the expansion of its borders 200km into the unclaimed desert to the north of our nation. Population concerns and a lack of arable land have forced us to make this decision. As we are reasonable people, we are willing to compensate to Eniqciri handsomely for the land in the form of economic aid packages. Thank you all and have an excellent day."
Semi-OOC: Go here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=138897). The seaclaims haven't shown up, so I'll just skip over them to take care of the dry land deals.

We should discover the identity of whoever failed to note this, the Communion thought.

"I see," Ktiryar said aloud. "However, there are flaws in your analogy - anyone building a house in such a manner, in full knowledge of it's ownership, would certainly be in violation of the law. If this hypothetical house was built without knowledge of the ownership of the land, in an area where the average population density is about three per hundred square kilometers, then that is entirely different.

"Through some error, we believed that Maraldi crater was unclaimed. That, while an error, is certainly not criminal.

"But yes, we would be most interested in all such documents relating to Maraldi. Clearly we shall have to meet your Office of Land Claims in Flagstaff, then."

OOC: So should I send someone in that other thread? I'm afraid I can't see whatever map has all these numbers on it.

"Oh, no, of course not. I didn't mean to imply that it was. Well, good. I'm glad we could come to an amicable end here. Um... we could fly someone back in the Entopters right now, if you want... but, ah, I suppose you have other people to talk to and things to arrange and whatnot."
OOC: So should I send someone in that other thread? I'm afraid I can't see whatever map has all these numbers on it.Aye.

"Yes, there are certain things to attend to before this is done, we're afraid," Ktiryar agreed. Senekhal ArViradt for one. "But rest assured - we shall definitely send someone to Flagstaff."

OOC: Off I go, then. The post in that thread will be later, in game-time, than this post.