NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Yep. I have returned. I know, groan all you want. :p It's more or less a story to explain the changes to Adejaani. For now, sit back and read.

This is a closed/story RP. ALL attempt at In Character interference will be ignored... For the moment. Thank you for your cooperation.

IC: "Reporting as orderd, Madam Leader." Admiral Jain Granger looked uncomfortable as she entered the room and saluted.

"Herm, stop that." The occupant, 'Madam Leader' stood up and saluted out of habit, then crossed the room and hugged Granger, who stood there stiffly. "Drink? Have a seat, Herm." Kaya Pacino poured herself a glass of whiskey and sat. "Oh, yeah. As your Leader, I am hereby ordering you to drop this titular crap. We've known each other long enough."

"Okay... Patch, are you insane?" Granger leaned forward in her own seat and bore her eyes into Pacino with an intensity not often seen. "You just waltz in and you take over the leadership! You then disband most of the government! Do you know what you've turned Adejaani into? A fascist state!"

"Nonsense, Hermione." Pacino countered with a smile. "You're just saying that because you're afraid of change."

"Change is good! But I just don't know what's gotten into you, Patch! I remember being Captain of the ANS Constitution and you, that young gifted pilot. Oh, Art Graham said you were the best. You clocked out after ten years in the service, a Lieutenant Colonel and retired with full military honors and a pension. You said yourself you were fighting for our way of life, better than the others you'd seen in the other nation-states. So what the hell happened?!" Granger asked heatedly.

"We weren't doing enough." Pacino said soberly and downed the rest of her glass. "I think it was John Paul Jones who said 'What good is a Navy if it won't sail into harm's way?' Or was it Alfred Thayer Mahan? One of them. Point is, we had all these fancy toys and everything at our disposal. And we never use them. We didn't have the backbone, the aggressiveness, to take a bigger piece of the pie."

"That's because we didn't want to!" Granger countered, willing herself to calm down a bit. "We let everyone else run around screaming and hurting each other. We were fine left alone, thank you very much. We only got involved not because we could, but we should. Because it was the right thing to do."

"Baloney. We were cowards. Come on, Jaina. We may not have the greatest military technology in the universe, but we're on the up. Our new projects are going to give us an edge. We're a sleeping lion. no, let me rephrase. A sleeping dragon. Fierce and indomitable. Nothing will stand in our way."

"You're mad." Granger blurted, sounding and looking horrified. "The people won't stand for it. You'll sully our name and cause us nothing but suffering."

"The people will listen to me. I am their Leader. Don't ever forget that, Jaina. And I am your Leader, too." Pacino said coldly, her dark eyes glinting slightly.

"That's true, but don't forget that we are bound to follow your orders... But I have the hearts and minds of the military." Granger said stiffly, not yielding.

"Jaina, we've known each other for years. Don't cross me. You won't live long enough to regret it. I believe we're done here. You're dismissed, Admiral." Pacino waved carelessly.

"Yes, Madam Leader." Granger stood at attention and saluted, almost knocking over Pacino's secretary on her way out.

Our new projects are going to give us an edge. We're a sleeping lion. no, let me rephrase. A sleeping dragon. Fierce and indomitable. Nothing will stand in our way."

OOC: How far are you willing to take that theory? ;-) welcome back.

You lied!!! Charlatan, fake, presumptuous... yeah... :rolleyes:

OOC: I've said it once and I'll say it again. There is a method to my madness! :p

And thanks, Immy, it was meant to highlight change. I have no desire to hit anyone. Much. http://home.iprimus.com.au/quincyw/dwangel.gif

IC: "Doctor Ryan, what a surprise." Admiral Jain Granger paused in the act of opening the front door of her trendy loft apartment. "I take it you're not here on a social matter. Come on in. Can I get you anything?"

"I can serve myself." Sure enough, Doctor Anne Ryan, the Minister of Intelligence crossed over to the small but well stocked mini fridge containing the alcohol and poured herself one. She was actually the longest serving member of Adejaani's government, withstanding numerous attempts at her life and changes of government. Although they rarely operated outside of the nation, they were evidently good on internal surveilance.

"You know my apartment better than I do." Granger observed. "Can we get to the point please?"

"Certainly. I want to know everything about our beloved Madam Leader."

Granger snorted into her drink and started into a coughing fit. When she recovered, she managed to get out her thoughts. "You know where my secret mini-bar is. So I doubt that you couldn't find out anything on Kaya 'Patch' Pacino."

"Oh, we did. We found out a lot. Almost everything. But words on a page are not a person. 'Bravery' and 'intelligent' and 'courage under fire' could apply to almost everyone. I want to know the person, not what the biography says. By the way, why's your nickname 'Hermione'?"

"Not a Harry Potter fan, obviously?" Granger chuckled. "I was Captain of the Constitution at the time. I was a Captain. The first space Captain, too, since our water Navy was well under way at the time. One day, Art Graham, who's the Commander of the Air Group (CAG) came up to me and said 'The darndest thing happened. That new pilot, Patch. She clobbered me in a simulated dogfight!'

"That was surprising. CAG was our first qualified space fighter pilot and he left his fingerprints over every single stage of every space fighter we ever operated. Most new pilots get basic training in the atmosphere, become a Naval Aviator, then come up into space and get their training for Space Ops to become a Space Naval Aviator. Most washed out due to the fact that few could focus since space is so large and has few reference points and most go back down to earth.

"But Patch was a natural. She was a pro in every sense of the word. CAG was the best and Patch bested him, though it eventually came to about even who had the better record. Eventually, Patch retired after ten years, as a Lieutenant Colonel. Because of her war record, she got a full military pension and all those benefits."

Ryan shook her head. "We know this already. You wrote most of it into her personnel file. How did a war hero change so much? And why?"

Granger bit her lip. "Well... I guess it was the Battle of Siesana. We'd battered the Sha'Ra fleets left, right, center and every which way from Sunday. By that time, of course, we'd founded Adejaani City One on the surface with a million settlers. We'd known Sha'Ra warriors on the surface, but we did nothing. She'd protested, somewhat rightly, that we needed to do more to protect our citizens.

"Why have a military if what they protect cannot be protected? Not even trying to help?"

Ryan leaned forward. "Then what happened?"

Granger sighed. "A few hundred Adejaani citizens were consumed, as well as a few thousand more from Sambizie, plus a lot of ground troops. Patch raged at the injustice of it. She believed in pre-emption to keep us safe. 'Us or them', basically. What?"

"Nothing." Ryan replied absently as she stared out the window. "Could she use our forces to attack an innocent nation that she believes might be plotting against us but isn't really?"

"Possible." Granger said after a full minute. "I don't know anymore. Those projects she talked about are frightening. They're not us, Anne. We don't fight that way. But she does have brilliance, I'll give her that. Our C-34 modifications are going to cause quite a stir if we ever use them."

"If. Thank you, Admiral. I've taken up enough of your time." Ryan stood and headed for the door.

"Doctor Ryan." Granger called out and made the other woman pause. "Just what will you do? About this whole thing?"

"It depends on what's at stake." Ryan replied carefully. "That may range from three billion lives to a very large pile of darkened glass and a lot of radioactive decay. Either way, I don't know how this is going to work out. Maybe we'll yet have a happy ending. Good evening, Admiral."

OOC: I think I'm gonan cry I'm so happy...welcome back buddy. I will return soon, but not many people are gonna care as much ;-)

OOC: Should note that this thread takes place before the Conference or Homeworld RPs.

IC:

"At least we know they work." Admiral Jain 'Hermione' Granger muttered as she looked at the rapidly dissipating mushroom cloud. "Tell me, Brigadier, just if we can travel halfway across the galaxy we live in, why are we still using nuclear weapons?"

Brigadier Jack Brightman (most people called him just by his rank anyway) shrugged. He was in his usual uniform, which typically was a woollen jumper with these little leather elbow pads, corresponding leather gloves and an instructor's baton tucked under his arm. His beret was also olive green and he looked decidedly smug. "I'm not really at liberty to say what Madam Leader has in store, Jain."

Granger glared angrily. He may have had the political connections, but she was senior to him. She was half tempted to bring him up for task... No matter. "Then why bother? Why don't we just convert upwards from a Modern tech nation to a Space tech nation? Instead we have to divide ourselves to do both. And we have to make nuclear weapons so they fear us back on earth. At least now we have this little backwater planet of Metebelis 3, we won't be disturbed."

"That's the whole point, Jain." Perhaps fortunately for him, he was staring into his field glasses and missed the glare. "We don't want to be disturbed. We're not making full sized nuclear 'planet busters' here, you know that. We're just making smaller devices, to destroy the enemy's tanks and infantry and ships."

"A policy which I've never liked." Granger countered. "We're the good ones, remember? We've never used them or coveted them. Or even liked them. Now we'll bring down the wrath of someone if we use them."

"And when are we ever likely to be invaded?" Brightman pointed out with his most sarcastic British dry wit. "Nobody cares about us. Nobody ever has."

"Maybe so." Granger conceded. "But sooner or later, you and Madam Leader's arrogance is going to piss someone off enough that they will cast a vendetta on us and your precious toys will have to be used. I'm headed back to my command ship."

"Got a minute?"

"Not really, no. But come in anyway." Admiral Zac Brosgarth was the nominal Chief of the Millitary and smiled broadly. "What brings you here?"

"Social visit, mainly." Admiral Jain Granger smiled and sat down. "By the way, you look terrible. You need a decent night's sleep." Granger chuckled. The two weren't friends. Sure, they had a lot of mutual friends, but their paths rarely crossed.

"It's not that, it's the food." Brosgarth patted his belly. "Ever since I stopped being an aviator I made up for all those years with bad food." He laughed and patted his belly. He wasn't exactly overweight, but his uniform did bulge in a few odd places...

"Fair enough. I'm just wondering what else is in store with the big reorganisation."

"That?" Brosgarth pulled out an old fashioned notepad. "Well I'd say we're headed for a war or at least prepared for it."

"Oh?" Granger raised an eyebrow. "I've heard rumors we're massively expanding our capacity, but I haven't heard anything beyond that."

"You wouldn't have. Our space forces aren't getting much except new equipment and upgrades. Which is your bailiwick anyway, not mine. See, look at this chart. We're upgrading to thirty Land Forces Divisions, with Armored/Mechanized Infantry/Cavalry being odd numbered and all the various Infantry Divisions being even numbered. That's a lot of ground forces.

"Then the Air Forces immediately jump onto the band wagon. You know how many Combat Wings we're going to end up with? No? Seventy. Not including about twenty Helicopter Wings and sixty Transport Wings. How about the Naval Forces? No? Twenty Fleets, though the Navy's still rummaging about trying to balance. They can't decide if we need twenty carriers or forty, plus other forces like helicopter and Marine assault or surface forces or submarines. And the various aircraft and helicopters flying off them!"

Granger furrowed her brow. "Why so much? We're almost tripling our force structure!"

"It's certainly going to wreck the economy, but we make a lot from our Aerospace selloffs and we've taken a pretty big chunk from the domestic economy and trade. Of course, the latter's a bit sticky since we've gone into a trade deficit for the first time in, well... Since our economy took off like a rocket back when we had less than a billion citizens."

"You'd have thought the C-34 was enough of a deterrent, Zac."

"It's not a deterrent if nobody knows it exists, Jain. Which reminds me, I managed to unlock some more funding. The production of your Excalibur class space heavy cruisers will top out at forty eight eventually. Now scram, there's a lot of reports to write and people to brief."