NationStates Jolt Archive

Leader Haku stepped casually out of what once used to be the Hakuvian Royal Palace. Flanked by his bodyguards, Haku descended down the whitestone steps, regarding the marble columns which depicted the sprawling history of his reign. He smiled as his eye was caught by an almost-finished engraving of him repealing the Anti-Military Bill, and funding the Hakuvian navy proper. It was something he'd not done but a few hours ago and already the artisans were hard at work commemorating it to legend. Haku shook his head with a smile, and made his way down to the Rolls Royce.

"Good evening, Leader." Remarked Jennings, Haku's chauffeur. "I have already fuelled the automobile. I take it you would like to make your way to the conference as soon as possible?"

"Indeed Jennings old chap." Answered Haku. "The sooner we get to this conference, the better. This will be the first time any true diplomatic incidents have occured in the Iron League, apart from of course our near-war with that useless state of Gormanias, which I now gleefully say has come under revolution and annexed by the United Nations."

"Of course, Leader." Replied Jennings courteously. He opened the door, and Haku clambered into the car with a smile.

The Leader was looking forward to this evening. Now that he had a proper military as opposed to some haphazard unofficial fighting force, he seemed to have some diplomatic strength behind him. Also, the funds which he procured from the Gambling Industry and Hakuvia's massive tourist rates would soon be fed into the Navy, giving Grand Admiral Nemo his much-desired updated and upgraded fleet of submersibles. However, Haku needed to speak with the other Regional Leaders before anything could go ahead.

(That's right - a Debate in the Iron League. Naturally, all leaders are invited to participate. The debate takes place in the Hakuvian capital city of Braveton, just next to Parliament Hall. What will be on the agenda shall be established by you.)

(Good idea Haku, well here goes...)

Regent Edmund Vermillion, leader of the Imperium of Ruskkia, sat in the back of the Hakuvian government Rolls Royce watching the daily life of Braveton go past the window as the car sped towards the government heart of the city. In the black unmarked car behind, a couple of Ruskkie Interior Gaurd agents followed, keeping a close, careful eye on their and to the only person whom they were actually showed any loyalty too.

The driver spoke bluntly. "Where here your regency, right next door to Parliament Hall!"

"You have my tanks, I guess you'll be taking me to my hotel after this has finished for the day?"

"That I will sir."

"Good, just watch out for my two 'bodyguards'."

"Will do sir."

Edmund climbed out of the car and entered the great hall where the conference was being held.

Err, Haku. Are going to be writing something?

(I'm just waiting for a few other folks to join in.)

(Ahh what the heck. Might as well get things started.)

"Regent Vermillion." Said Haku, greeting the Russkian Leader. "I'm glad you were able to join this discussion. I warmly welcome the Imperium of Russkia into our discussions. I hope that there are many matters which can be quickly resolved."

Edmund nodded, and shook Haku's hand. "The Rolls Royce was quite a smooth ride Leader Haku...I didn't think the folk of Haku had Automobiles."

Haku laughed. "Officially, they are banned, but I do often lift the ban and allow imports during state occassions. After all, what is such an occassion if the people can not get interested? And after such incidents, we simply melt the cars down and convert them into agricultural tools. Benefits everyone."

"Of course." Said Vermillion. "I heard that you in Hakuvia are starting a Navy."

The Leader nodded. "Grand Admiral Nemo has been such a great supporter of mine, I thought it was high-time to repay him. If we could upgrade his Nautilus, I'm sure he will be more than willing to command the official Navy for me. Now come, shall we go inside?"

Primier Henry Anderson of the Industrial States of Artia, bearly lifted his eyes to see the passing buildings and people as the Artian government motor car sped towards the heart of Braveton.

Anderson lifted his eyes when the car reached the meeting hall where this so-called regional conference was being held. He cursed when his glaze fell upon a car parked outside. It was a simple Rolls Royce, its markings showing that it has of the Hakuvian government road fleet like the one he travelled in. What annoyed him was the flag just above the car's bonnet, a flag with the scumabg Ruskkie Imperial eagle. THAT FLAG!

He stormed inside where he found the Ruskkie Regent chatting away to the Hakuvian leader, the sight disgusted him. "I though you might be here!"

Ruskkie Interior Guard troopers levelled their blitz rifles whilst thier Hakuvian counterparts stood back unsure to what they show be doing. Lord Haku spoke. "I take you know each other..."

Anderson 'replied'. "KNOW EACH OTHER?! HIS SO-CALLED IMPERIUM OF RUSKKIA STOLE WHAT WAS ARTIAN COLONIAL LAND!"

Vermillion waved his RIG bodyguards to lower their weapons. "The Imperium of Ruskkia found Garrack first and so has FULL colonial rights!"

"Artia claimed Garrack first! You Ruskkies only tried to put your own claim on it when you found out what a useful place to attack the ISA from!"

"Easy gentlemen." Said Haku. "We're all wise men here, we can sort this out. We're going to have to wait for a few more member-states before we can go into any real diplomatic negotiation concerning the leadership of Garrack. For now, I suggest you both have a nice cup of tea and mull the matter over, before launching into all-out verbal warfare."

//OOC: (I am posting this on behalf my puppet nation Tarvalak, as I have not yet been able to activate that account for posting issues)

The massive zeppelin drew a large patch of shadow over the buildings below, covering the sun as a fast moving cloud. It was huge, and made from a material that seemed to shine as red cooper. The many propulsion helices pushed the elongated balloon forward, amidst gentle winds.
Inside of the small metallic cage that rested below the structure traveled the tarvakian delegation, leaded by the Royal Ambassador and Arcount of Thil-Kalkast, Thaumir Balakrun. They have been traveling for three days already, heading toward Braveton from the Forge Towers of Tarvalak.

The zeppelin came to a halt half an hour after reaching the city, above an opening of land not too far away from the Parliament Hall. The men who were awaiting for the ship (//OOC: Let us just say that the arrival was programmer and announced previously) took grasp of the thick cables that were sent from it, and managed to tie them to the puller cars. The machines began eating the cable, and bringing the massive balloon down, while it released gas by continuous discharges.

Once in the ground, five steammobiles, large, glimmering gray and covered in tubes and mechanical components, all arranged to look as fine as possible, came out of the cargo bay of the ship. The twenty dwarfs, all men and dressed in their respective official armors and cooper-thread capes, with their enormous beards and long hair, with tiny glasses resting atop their big red noses. The tiny men boarded the steammobiles, four in each, and departed to the Parliament Hall, looming above the buildings ahead.

"Guid greetings an' salutations, fellaw members ay tha Iron League" Said Thaumir in his dwarvenly powerful voice, followed by his extensive, and most likely useless, delegation "Kin' Ulther sends his most graceful salutes an aw. Whit pressin' issues gaither us haur the-day?

"Greetings to the Dwarves of Tarvalak." Said Haku. "Our main concern on the agenda, brought up by the Industrial States of Artia and carried by the Imperium of Russkia, is the matter of who rules the colony of Garrack. Both Artia and Russkia claim ownership over the disputed lands, but it is uneasy for us to reach a final point.

Second on the agenda is what to do with the remnants of the facsist Gormanian State. As you all undoubtedly know, the Gormanians threatened Hakuvian national security and also attacked our dearly-held way of life - that being socialism. I personally would like 33% of all Gormanian land as a vantage point for Hakuvian settlers and farmers. The rest of the state can be divided up amongst the rest of you.

Third is the proposal of a regional railway line. As of yet, there is no efficient railway running from nation to nation in a network, despite the fact that we all already have good railway lines of our own. Also, should we build such a railway line, we will also need to construct harbours. This way, we can carry goods overseas and increase trade revenue for all nations within the Iron League.

Fourth is the plan for a regionally-governed armed force. As we speak, I am already pouring funds into a Hakuvian Navy, and upgrading Steamtank design. If the dispute over Garrack can be easily solved, then I am sure that a regional army of the Iron League would not be out of the question. Also, the afforementioned railroad would also boost industrial flow to the creation of such an army.

I have no other items to bring to the discussion - not for the moment, leastways. The floor is yours, gentlemen."

Regent Edmund Vermillion spoke up. "I would like to raise a couple matters which I believe needs to be discussed.

The first is of the recent rise in Air Piracy in the region, I'm sure that some of the region's members are finding it somewhat of a problem. Specially the more industrial nations.

Course our reponse has been the formation of the Imperial Air Corps, the development of the Defender fighter plane and the creation of a 'Collective Stabilty Mandate' system. I will go into more detail on these later.

The second is a project which I would like to propose, a joint space programme, which I believe would be um...'interesting' to say the least.

Us Ruskkies have made some progress on this, following the discovery of a xeno (loose Ruskkie term for non-Huamns) space vessal in our territory in the Southern Wastes. Our boffins have as a result of extensive studies come up with a steam powered form of space travel;

The Æther Propeller drive!

The drive works on the principle of charging a mechanical screw type propeller with phenolic energy allowing the propeller to push against the ætheric medium. Course this creates a phenolic field which in turn creates an area of sub-ætheric instability for a variety of uses, such as; Propultion as is demostrated in ætheric drive systems, Steering and braking systems of æther vessels and sub-ætheric communications.

I believe it would be of great benefit to the region."

Leader Haku scratched his chin.

"Hakuvia already has a working space programme" Said the Leader "We're currently hard at work building orbital space platforms, along with a sattelite grid which will allow us to monitor and counter missile activity. However, we've not really broken any boundaries - this sub-ether drive may be of some use to us, seeing as it seems it could greatly increase the sort of distances our ships can traverse.

The People of Hakuvia will gladly submit their taxes to such an idea. If all goes well, it may not be long before we can start colonising other planets. However, as a condition of agreement, I believe the Official Hakuvian Military Science Department (from here-on reffered to as the OHMSD) should recieve the blueprints of this xeno craft from the Russkian goverment. Anything we come up with will be willingly handed over to Russkian scientists - two heads are better than one, eh?

And concerning air-piracy, the Hakuvian People aren't too concerned about it. Most of our commerce and trade goes about by either rail or sea - anything which has to be carried via zeppellin is considered too dangerous to bring in or too valuable to send out. Of course, state dignataries and foreign officials can travel by air, but they have to defend themselves.

Nonetheless, I will ask Nemo to begin implementing anti-air measures in the fleet of Nautiloy he is currently supervising. The Air Pirates will have bitten off more than they can chew if they think they can mess with Grand Admiral Nemo!"

The craft, we no longer believe to be truly xeno.

Below is a picture of what the craft may have looked like (see text below for info);

http://www.steam-trek.com/images/dauntless_logo.jpg

The problem is that the 'ship' is 'embedded' in the ground. It seems it may have been in some accident and 'entered' orbit and crash landed in the Southern Wastes. We believe this happen quite some time before the Imperium of Ruskkia came into existence as we know. it!

Though it is recorded in early Medevil Ruskkian records that 'a great fireball fell from the heavens and crashed into the barren wastes of the far south'. We guess it was this ship. Anyway the forward and underneath sections of the ship are still buried and are believed to be badly damaged. Plus Ruskkie Imperial Army soldiers are standing guard over the site, but by all means please visit.

Anyway our solution for the problem of the subcontinent of Garrack is simple. The subcontinent will be divided up into more or less equal areas between of the nations of the region. The capital, Port Garrack, will remain in Ruskkie hands.