NationStates Jolt Archive

Josef grumbled to himself as his pager screamed loudly at him; his hand flailing blindly in the dark, only managing to knock the fool thing to the floor. He reached out with his normal hand, trying desperately to grab the screeching device before falling out of bed with a yelp and joining his pager on the floor. At least I can find the bloody thing now... He grabbed the pager and his reading glasses to peer at the message glowing up at him in the dark.

"Oh, fuck..."

Alysa's Construct; Hack Neural Network

The room was an absolute mess, which was an odd sight in a doubleN construct. After all, cleaning took no more than a thought, however, Alysa was poring over everything and anything she could find. Reams of newspapers representing public forums were tossed all over the room, they hadn't helped her any: rumor and innuendo weren't what she was after. She was currently infront of a clunky terminal (again, no time wasted making it pretty) as she tried hacking her way into more secure areas of the network. It wasn't netting her much information, but she hoped she could dig deep enough to uncover something of interest.


Anderson Home; GMC

Rebecca and Lily frowned from the doorway, looking at their mother; their cat, Fuzzylogik, walking around Alysa's legs, meowring in distress. Becky walked over and picked up the fussing cat, petting her gently as she looked at her sister, What's Mom doing?

Something's going on in the Hack... she said something about a total media blackout.

So... she's...?

Hacking her way in, yeah.


Corporate Spire; Chiba City; The Hack

Josef paced around the room, a scowl on his face, "What the Hell is going on? Are you guys fucking nuts?"

One of the researchers in the room, Josef forgot her name, smirked, "Come off it, Specter. The Senate doesn't do shit, President Solis hasn't been seen in months, there's no tax... we run the country in everything but name."

Josef sighed, "No, we don't. There's laws in place. This whole thing is treason." He shook his head, "I can't believe you're doing this. And how the Hell did you get Anesca to lock everything down?"

"I told her to," said a new voice, a thin stream of smoke escaping his lips with his words.


Alysa's Construct; Hack Neural Network

"Alysa, hon... stop."

Alysa looked up from her terminal with a start, spying Anesca's avatar who was shoving aside a pile of 'newspapers'. "Anesca, please... what's going on?"

The young woman smiled weakly, a pained look on her face, "I was told not to tell anyone, I haven't even told my sisters... not even Shiori."

Alysa sighed, "Look... I know there's a lock out, but I also know that Josef's over there. I want to know what's going on. I mean, we're going nuts with worry over here. How do you think Shiala feels? The last time this happened we had Grafton's!"

Anesca winced at the mention of Grafton's, her older sister still felt bad about what had happened there, and felt mildly responsible for the war and the deaths of so many people, many of them innocent civilians. "Not fair, Aly. Look, I can't tell you what's going on, but there isn't going to be a civil war... it's... it's more a..." She frowned, trying to find the right words, "It's more a lateral shift... a reassignment of names."

"That's fantastically unhelpful."

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing more I can tell you. But, please, stop digging. I don't want to kick you out."

Alysa sighed in defeat, disconnecting without another word.


Gibson Tower; Tindalos Megalopolis; The Hack

"I wish I knew, Faye. I don't have a clue what's going on." Yuri sighed, pacing her room as she talked on the phone, "No, I haven't been able to get in touch with Elisa. If you think Tindalos is locked down, Chiba's worse, and the Spire's like a freaking fortress... ... ...no, all flights are grounded, even private ones... ... ...yeah, Megumi's holding up as well as can be expected. She was able to call her family... ... ...yeah, they're fine... ... ...thanks, hon. I'll let you know once I do." She smiled weakly at the phone, "Me too. Send our love to June too... ... ...yeah, bye."


Elisa's Office; Corporate Spire; Chiba City, The Hack

There wasn't much she could do right now. She wasn't locked in her office per se, but she's was reasonably confident that she wasn't going to be allowed to just walk out. After all, there were a couple surly looking guys outside the door. She was nervious, and feared that Sarah was probably worried sick, but her access to the outside world was severed: her network connection locked out and her phone disabled. If what she was able to glean from the minds of her 'guards' was accurate, she was in the unenviable postion of being a high-ranking official from a soon to be extinct government. People in her position usually didn't fare very well, and she was exceptionally nervious.

Her door opened and a man she'd never seen before in her life stepped in, "Follow me." It wasn't really a suggestion.

She was lead down the hall to a conference room filled with cigarette smoke. The cloud stung her eyes a little, but she recognized the brand and blinked as much in surprize as pain, "Victor?"

Victor nodded, "Elisa, please, have a seat. There is much to discuss, it seems."

She took a seat and looked around the room, the only other people there were Mikhael and Josef; her escort had already left. "Um... what's going on?"

Victor smiled thinly, taking a drag from his cigarette, "We are having a slight paradigm shift. As you are well aware, I have not been particularly public since becoming President. Furthermore, the Senate is powerless; the state collects no income tax; research and development dictates public policy; what little government exists is decidedly hands-off. To be brief, the state is unecessary.

"No, do not speak yet. The state is unnecessary here. It provides nothing of value to the public save military defence, and even that is largely provided by our associates in the Federation." He smiled again, "As are things like welfare, public services, healthcare, et cetera. Thus, there is no need for the state to continue." He grinned at Josef, "I had Anesca lock down communications and travel so that this could be discussed and completed without international involvement."

Elisa blinked, "You knew...?"

"Of course I did. Have you ever seen me caught off guard? No, you have not. I engineered this because I felt the time was proper. Too early, and it would have collapsed in on itself in true anarchy. Too late and the grumbling would have grown far too loud to control; again leading to true anarchy. This was the proper time for such a shift, which is why I am doing it now.

"Effectively, there will be very little that changes; another reason that I wished to initiate the shift. By making it a gift, I retain a certain degree of control over the change. As such, you will still perform the task of Foreign Affairs Director and Speaker for the President, but you will likely be called 'Speaker for the Oligarchy'. Mikhael will keep his job as well, probably with a pointless title change; I doubt the Sections will remain completely unchanged. Director Specter, on the other hand, will be seeing the biggest change.

"The Hack, you see, has been calling itself a 'technocratic oligarchy' for quite some time now, despite being a dictatorship masquerading as a republic. The games are ending tonight, as the nation truly becomes a technocracy. Research and Development is taking over, and Josef shall be its nominal head, not that such things are particularly important in such an organization. I assume we will be staying a part of the Non-Democratic Alliance," he chuckled softly, "after all, enlightened anarchies are not democracies either.

"Finally, yes, the Supreme Commander will still be our benefactor, and still have veto power over everything, just as before." He leveled a gaze at Josef, "We are still a protectorate, regardless of our form of government. We can no longer exist on our own, and we will never have the ability or motivation to engage GMC in military conflict. Remember that."

Josef nodded before glancing at Elisa, "So... ready to prepare a public statement?"

Anesca was never so gauche as to simply hijack the televisions and networks of the universe (regardless of her ability to do so), so she simply let it be known the time and date that the announcement would take place, allowing people to watch if they were so inclined.

---

Elisa Day stood, looking slightly nervious, behind a simple lecturn, with the flag of The Most Glorious Hack hanging behind her. She softly cleared her throat and started her address, "Citizens of the Hack, the Federation, and of other nations of the world, universe and beyond.

"As you may well be aware, the Hack has recently spent about the last week in a state of total isolation. Lines of communication in and out were largely disabled, media was undergoing a total blackout, and all flights in and out where cancelled. The reason for this is probably one of the oddest coups in memory.

"The Hack has had a history of shifting it's government as times required. The Socialist Union of Mhu Thulan crumbled in a bloody civil war, giving rise to the Incorporated States of the Most Glorious Hack. In time, the focus of the government shifted, and we became the Technocratic Oligarchy. Eventually, we changed again, adding 'semi-autonomous' to the beginning as we entered the Federation as a protectorate. And now, the government is shifting again, and while we will not be changing our name again, we are undergoing a massive shift.

"Effective immediately the Senate of the Hack is dissolved and will not be reformed. The Senators are thanked for their service, but no longer serve any purpose. They have been powerless for years, and there is no sense in continuing with pretenses. Also, effective immediately, President Victor Solis will be stepping down from his position. The office of President is hereby eliminated.

"As mentioned earlier, the Hack has long called itself a Technocratic Oligarchy, and now the method of governing will match our name. To that end, the Hack is now ruled by the Research and Development branch of the old government, with Dr. Josef Specter acting as the nominal head of that body.

"To our citizens, I assure you that life will continue as it always has. This coup is less a replacement of government and more a realignment. The R&D Department has dictated the direction the government took for many years now, and since we have never collected income taxes, the government never had much power regardless.

"To our allies in the Federation, the NDA, and the WBO, I assure you that we fully intend to maintain our obligations. The Oligarchy has no interest in severing any ties, and has no plans to do so. Contributions may be adjusted, but have no fear, we will still meet our obligations. Also, there are no plans to change our representatives or ambassadors.

"To our enemies... if we have any, nothing has changed. You still suck.

"Finally, I would like to calm any fears that may be out there, likely caused by the faulty reports by the UN. We are not in a state of true anarchy. One might term the current arrangement an 'enlightened anarchy', but there is still a government, it is just in the form of the Oligarchy. Also, our citizens are not living 'in a state of perpetual fear', nor has there been a 'complete breakdown of social order' and we are most certainly not being ruled by 'biker gangs'. We hope that the reopening of our borders, and the lifting of the media blackout will give the UN a chance to correct their descriptions, however we don't hold out much hope, as they often seem to play fast and loose with the facts.

"If there are any questions, they may be asked through standard diplomatic channels, and I will likely be the one to respond, as I will be retaining my position in regards to public affairs.

"Thank you and good-night."

She paused for a moment before turning and walking off the stage, the camera zooming in on the Hacker flag before fading to black as the transmition ends.

"Well, this is interesting. It is good to know that nothing has changed for the worse."

"As they said, Arkhora, nothing much has changed at all. Certain realities have been confirmed, and certain vestiges have been cast aside. Insofar as the Hacker state works, it continues to work."

"It seems to work well enough, Ksravi. Although, their Socialist Union - we could have worked well with that."

"Barring the invention of a time machine, I propose we leave "what if's" to the science-fiction writers, Arkhora. Yes, it works well enough - why wish for more? The age of revolution is past, after all."

OOC: Elaborate tag-beast!