NationStates Jolt Archive

(This is IC between me and Tanah Burung for background, read on but no one else would have IC knowledge about this.)

Ft. Nighthorse, the Badlands

As the Presidential Campaigns started their final leg towards Election Day, much of the military contingent at the fort had been working extra duty to prepare for any possible interruptions that might occur. The people in the Badlands were known not only for their short temper, but their tendancy to make their point using explosives.

It was in this environment that Staff Supply Sergeant Chuck Ramirez, fresh off of non-com school found himself assigned. And how he ended up in the middle of this. He was a loner, spending most of his off-time in the bars and clubs of Dead Man's Oasis. It was in one of those clubs that he first met her...

He didn't remember where they met, or how. The last few months had been a whirlwind for him. She was tall and exotic. He didn't remember how much money... or time... or money (did I say that already? ;) ) he'd spent on her. Soon she was getting information from him...

How many guns do you pass out to the soldiers?

If you could quit the Army tomorrow, what would you like to do?

How many guards are around the armory?

So tonight, like nights before this, he was waiting in the armory as the guards changed. He didn't do it too often, just enough to make it look like a transfer of weapons to the main depository. He drove the Humvee out, and a couple of days later he'd return, a little bit richer and a crate of unmarked, untraced rifles short.

Tonight was different, he drove out into the dunes and crags and reached the drop off point. He met the same man he'd met before. He took a palmful of diamonds this time instead of the regular sheaf of bills. He looked down at the jewels curiously, never seeing the second man slither up behind him and place the pistol against his head. The glint of the starlight off of the diamonds was the last thing he saw before the bullet slapped into the side of his head...

"God damnit Steve, think you coulda made this mess a little messier?" the first man asked as he picked up the diamonds.

"Sure," he replied as he wiped the pistol down and placed it in Ramirez's hand, along with a scrawled note in his free hand. "Let's get these and get the hell outta here," he added as he looked up, the wind was picking up again.

-----

Dead Mans Oasis, The Badlands

Michael Barron sat in the office of his estate as one of his lieutenants knocked and entered the office.

"Is it done?"

"Yes sir. We've finished on the last of them. They'll be ready for transport tomorrow. We'll drop them in Tharkold, where another party should be ready to pick up and transport to a destination in Ziobia and then back to Tharkold to meet with the final group. Then they will take them to their final destination."

"And our payment?"

The man held up a bag and shook it. The sweet sounds of conflict diamonds jingled in the bag. "Never easier."

"Spread it around, take it overseas to Johnnie's. He'll give you a nice price for them. Then you know what to do with it."

The man nodded and walked out of the room.

(hrmm...an ooc tag!)

(Cheers Lark. One more point is that in relation to current events in TB, this begins about a month in the past -- ie during Larkinian elections which are already over.)

Gunung Singa, Matebian Province, Tanah Burung

The ragtag band of prospectors ducked inside.

"Dust storm coming, i reckon." Mary Lynn Pinto pulled a hairnet over her head and hiked up her overalls. She grabbed a tool and began to scrape at the rockface. Around her, others did the same.

Outside, being covered in blowing sand, a mule-drawn wagon waited. Nothing betrayed the real purpose of this dig, or the fact that the miners were anything other than an authorized worker-owned co-operative going about their daily business of gathering rare moss samples in the caves of the Desert Wilderness Preserve.

Mary Lynn cried out. It didn't glitter, not while still unprocessed in the rock face. It looked just like a normal stone to the untrained eye. But there was no doubt.

"A girl's best friend," she purred. And added the diamond to the growing stack.

Tanah Burung Embassy, Golden Agate, Larkinia

Sumitro had the best education money couldn't buy. A graduate of the Army Free University, the austere man from Tiga Burung province had risen through the ranks to his current post as military attaché at the country's embassy in Larkinia, one of the diplomatic service's prestige posts. Where he chafed under the leadership of an ambassador who was a card-carrying pacifist. Sumitro was given little to do but maintain ties with the Larkinian military, against the unlikely event that the soft-bottomed diplomats back home ever felt moved to call on his expertise. Soft-minded fools who had half his training and a third of his intellect. Soft, soft, soft. There was no justice there.

And more and more, his contacts seemed equally frustrated with their own government, as President Katana continued to chip away at what had once been unchallenged military supremacy. Sumitro might not like what some of these officers stood for. But they shared a burning desire, thwarted by civilian officials.

Sumitro's desire burned brightest for a nation that truly fought for freedom of colonized peoples. For the destruction of colonialism, especially the colonialism that had killed his father and mother. And for a government back home that really fought, instead of mouthing self-righteous mealy-mouthed platitudes. There had been one man who would have set the country on that path and set the world afire. But now Markus Rumbiak was dead. Well, his spirit wouldn't be allowed to die.

What Sumitro was about to do was illegal in more tha one country. But there was a higher law that he had to answer to. He hefted the small bag of diamonds in his hand, and walked out to meet his contact, making extra sure he would not be followed.

The sleek black aerodyne was waiting for the general as he walked out.

"Right this way, sir," the driver said. "It'll be a bit of a drive, so we've made this as comfortable as possible."

((TB, an aerodyne is a VTOL vehicle, can be as small as a mid-range car or as large as a double duece, most of them are armored, and the ones that serve as Ambulances for Trauma Team, Inc. are armored and armed ;) ))

The Aerodyne skimmed along the road heading out of Golden Agate. A screen zipped to life as the vehicle crossed the Virian River and moved south, showing a middle aged, grizzled man.

"General Sumitro, my driver is delivering you to the pick up point for dinner. I am looking forward to meeting you. All will be told then."

The screen shut down.

(oops. Feels stupid about lack of tech knowledge. But it's at least story-appropriate, right? :wink: )

Sumitro climbed aboard the contraption, adjusting his wire-rimmed spectacles, and was surprised to hear himself addressed as "General." But he rather liked it. He settled back in his seat, thrilling to the way the seat seemed to caress him, and to the sense of power surging through it, the motion that made his body seem both cradled and on fire at once. Yes, he rather liked this form of transport.

"I look forward to it keenly, Sir," he said, stretching his arms out along the seat back. The screen clicked off, and he allowed himself a smile of exhileration.

The Larkinian countryside was rather beautiful, Sumitro thought as it rolled by. He really ought to spend more time here, seeing things outside the tight confines of the diplomatic and military circuit.

This mission, meanwhile, was shaping up to be a big success. Getting the diamonds had been easy: the environmental inspectors back home were inefficient, to say the least. And now to convert them into something far more useful.

Sumitro had to physically restrain himself from actually squirming in his seat in excitement.