NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is a Klatchian Rp that corresponds to the Neo_Tyr and Klatchian Elf Threads. It primarily takes place in Port Olympus, the capital of the Klatchian Federation. Involvement by outsiders is strictly limited and by permission only
Presently, only Klatchian Nations, nations diplomatically involved in Neo_Tyr, or Ilek-Vaad have any reason to be involved in this thread.

IC:

In other news today, the Alconian Outer Ministry Announced that the second and third surface bombardment groups, as well as the 21st and 23rd Marine Artillery brigades were being transferred to Neo_Tyr. When asked if this had anything to do with the recent collapse of Kyrall, Press Secretary Umsfeild noted that it was a primarily deployment and training mission…
A massive screeching sound drounded out the sound of the radio and Captain James Surefire opened his eyes. The subway car was still somewhat empty at this hour in the morning. Only a few other travelers, most reading various newspapers.

Surefire stood up and waited for the subway car to stop. He checked his brown hair was properly combed and that his dark blue JDF uniform was properly covering his five foot four frame. He stopped for a moment and starred back at the green eyes peering back at him, I wonder what the kids in Fasta would think of me now?
The driver called out in a Deyllian drawl, Parliament Hill as the car doors opened.

Surefire stepped out onto the platform and looked down the long concrete tunnel. A few others were now out and walking on the platform. Government clerks and beuracrats off to work. James turned and followed to the escalator and up into the bright blue day.

He walked along Spring Circle and then to the gates of the Parliament district. After being identified, scanned and scowled at by a Parliament Police Guard, Surefire was allowed to board the tram up to the top of the hill.

The former Benjian sat down in the padded seat and looked out over the city as the cog tram raised itself the steep slope of Parliament Hill. The sun was just above Cenotaph Hill on the far side of the central city. It made the large stone Cenotaph stand out in stark releif to the old city below still in twilight. The JDF officer came back to the present as the tram reached the summit and came to a sudden stop throwing the passengers back into their seats.

A moment later he was crossing Parliament Square (http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/donatgw/CityState/lostny1.gif) as Parliament Tower began to strike eight. He stopped for a moment and watched a young woman in a shawl lay flowers at the base of the tower on the bloodstones. The nearby guards walking along the arcade of Parliament House pretended not to see her.

I wonder who she is…and how she is connected…. the idea of who the young woman was filled his head. Parliament had a tradition of gruesome executions for the most hated, vile enemies of the Klatch by dropping them from the bell floor of the tower eight stories to the granite pavers, known as the bloodstones, below.

Surefire snapped out of his speculations as the ding of the Key Club elevator announced he had reached the fourth floor. He looked down at the Ciro newspaper and the headline:

O'Booze And Crawford Survive Assassination
He walked down the elegant paneled hall to the General's suit and knocked. "General O'Booze, it is eight o'clock…" He called out as he slipped his I.D. badge into the scanner and walked through the door. "Ah, do you want to go downstairs for breakfast or should I call up room service…."

"What?" O'Booze had slept badly the night before, he had too much buzzing through his head, everything seemed to come back to the mess in Neo Tyr. He was sure his career would be decided in that God forsaken island chain.

He blinked blearily, "Ah, give me ten minutes I'll be down."

In ten minutes he was out, his thinning hair combed, and a fresh and marvelously uncreased field grey uniform bedecked the portly General, "So what's the plan for today?" he asked the JDF Captain, "At some stage I will need to speak to Dzerzhinsky, von Scheer and Cooper."

These were respectively, the head of Dyerlli Beybi's intelligence department - the Cheka, the Grossadmiral of the High Seas Fleet and a Generalmajor from a Grenadier Division in the Provincial Army who had been suddenly shot to importance when Kyrall collapsed, and it turned out that Cooper was the only other Klatchian in control of a city in Neo Tyr.

O'Booze was slightly suspicious of Surefire, although he made sure he didn't show it. Surefire was a Benjian, a race that had fluctuated between being Dyelli Beybi's staunchest allies and (just about) most hated enemies, often over a period of weeks. For a long period of time, both countries had shared the same head of State, Tzar Richard IV, but when he had died and his son Henry had tried to take over, Dyelli Beybi had revolted. Fasta Benj had stayed loyal. There had been a rather unpleasant war, in which the Benjian Army had been utterly defeated. Then Fasta Benj had fallen into anarchy, and Dyelli Beybi had annexed the East side of it's neighbouring state, the people in that slim crescent of land were culturally (if not ethnically) quite similar to the Dyellians, but those in the far West, well they were a different story.

And General O'Booze had a funny feeling Captain Surefire was from the West, which was why he wasn't in the East Benjian Army. He had quite possibly even been in the original Benjian army that had attacked Bath, where the Benjians had done all manner of unpleasant things to the civilian population, as well as using a tactical nuclear weapon against the defenders. O'Booze didn't ask, it was probably unwise.

On the other hand, Surefire probably wasn't a pure blooded Benjian, his hair was the wrong colour. Benjians all had black hair and brown eyes. They were a small, swarthy people, who many non-Klatchians mistook for Malays. O'Booze suspected Captain Surefire was part something else, possibly Alconian or Dyellian.

(OOC: Basing that ethnic description on FB's original one.)

(OOC: You remembered it...I never did)
IC:
O'Booze was right. And bringing it up would have been a sore spot. Surefire was the product of a steamy one night stand between a sailor in a foreign port (Fasta) and his mother. Who regularly was paid for comforting lonely sailors in Fasta. Which would explain how he had wound up in the JDF.

Surefire was standing in the Key Club lobby, which was fairly empty at this hour. The Parliament session had gone long, and todays session was scheduled to begin at noon rather than ten.

"Well sir, we can pick up breakfast here. Or at the Octogon Canteen. But I'd suggest we get our breakfast here sir. The Canteen isn't known for doing a very good breakfast at the moment...since the Neo Tyr war most of the High ranking staff have been working out of the Arx and they transfered all the good morning cooks over there."

Surefire pointed the general towards the large dining area off the lobby. It was fairly empty except for a few reporters and lobbyists. Of course neither approached the General and his aide. The rule was the members approached the strangers, not the other way around.

As a steward, and obviously also a Benjian, in a spotless white jacket directed them to a table and asked for their drink orders. As Surefire sat down he continued his train of thought. Well at the moment your schedule is free except for a 900 hour meeting with Marshall Clark, he's heading up the investigation into the attack last night. Beyond that breifing, and of course waiting for Parliament to finally take a vote rather than just standing around gossiping and debating who is going to win the next round in the World Cup, your schedule is quite free at the moment.

As the steward appeared with their drink orders and asked for their breakfast orders, Surefire paused to order a waffle plate. After the steward had departed for the kitchen again he continued. "I expect a good deal of demands from the press to interview you..."
He tossed the newspaper on the table, "about this. You'll note someone got a picture of one of the bastards...."
It was a picture of Lord Haart, standing there with a submachine gun in his hands and a touch of a pissed look in his eyes.
"I think it was the wedding photographer who got it. Of course if he was smart he saved a copy of the film or memory for the KM..."

The Klatchian Marshals were the most notorius group of individuals in Port Olympus History. Before the birth of the Federation's new constitution and the creation of Port Olympus as the Klatchian Captial. The city had been a city state nominally a vassel to the Vrakians. In reality the city had been ruled by its guilds. And the most powerful had been the Assasins Guild.

Of course the Assasins Guild had really been about keeping everyone else in the city either in line, or eliminated, to maintain defacto control by the cities Patriarch Families, who all happened to be members. The end came when they got annoyed that the Patrician was selected by the Privy Council now and not them. So, they decided to eliminate the weakest of the three, the princess from the United Duchies. It proved to be a massive mistake.

The Alconians had purchased several informants in the Guild staff. And the Landgravine had proven to be very Proactive that night. The next morning the Guild was surrounded by tanks, ordered to surrender, and then bombarded with 120mm fire. When the Guildmaster emerged from the smoking pile, he found himself before the Landgravine. Who recalled that tradition stated that whoever killed the Guildmaster was the New Guildmaster. The Guildmaster nodded, and was then beheaded on the spot. Out of the ruins of the Assasins Guild she had built the Klatchian Marshals to effectivly be the eyes, ears, man on the spot, and problem remover of the Privy Council throughout the Unclaimed Territories as well as situations that needed direct supervision within the States themselves.

O'Booze ordered bacon and eggs which he layed into with gusto, he'd had no dinner after all. "Mmmph." he replied to just about everything, more absorbed with the passage of his knife and fork.

The appearance of the newspaper though, startled him into looking at it, "Well since I'm stuck here I might as well be proactive in searching for this fellow, can you fax the front page of the paper to Dzerzhinsky and see what his databases bring up?"

He laughed, "If I end up on the Privy Council again, it might even be beneficial if the Cheka cooperated a little with the Marshalls."

Surefire nodded, "Yes sir, I'll fax a copy down there when we get into the office."

Surefire ate his waffles with susauge without much comment and drank his juice. The fact was there was a running bet in the locker room that the Deyllians would demand Checka involvement in the investigation.

Surefire finished off his breakfast and sat back in his chair sipping at an orange juice waiting for O'booze to finish.

"Well if you become a Consul again then I suspect you'll be taking a house in the city. Any idea where?" Surefire had been trying to date a young estate agent, and well being the estate agent of a Consul would induce her to look fondly on the officer who landed her the contract.

O'Booze finished his meal with a clatter of cuttlery, "Housing? Oh right, yes I guess that might be a good idea." In truth when O'Booze had been Consul last time he'd lived in Cyro and just stayed in a hotel when he was in Port Olympus.

In truth O'Booze wasn't a big fan of Dzerzhinsky and his machinations, you could never tell if the man was being straight with you or using you for one of his outrageous schemes, but at least he always had the best interests of the State at heart, and O'Booze respected that, as well as the man's intellect.

"What kind of moron allows themselves to get photographed trying to carry out an assassination?" It was a rhetorical question, "He's either incredibly stupid or knows something we don't."

O'Booze hadn't even considered that Haart might have been an unwilling accomplice in all this. He had no reason to suspect it, "Anyway, shall we get cracking? While my schedule may be free there's still a lot to do."

Surefine nodded and summoned the steward with the "check". A simple swipe of his I.D. card through the steward's PDA and all was done.

Surefire shrugged "Really it would be pure speculation on my part about why he let his image be taken. Maybe he is an idiot, maybe he wanted to be photographed. Maybe he really didn't think about it before hand...."

"I only ask about housing because there is a lul in the market right now...you might be able to pick up something in either in Guild City or on Cenotoph Hill for a reasonable price. Or maybe the Old Quarter, that's a lot like Cyro. Without the massive heat all the time...."

He led O'Booze out onto Nathar Palace Square and down the wide, tree lined Boulevard that led from Nathar Palace along the back of Parliament Hill to the Octogon at the far end. It wasn't a long walk by most standards, past Parliament and the New Presidential Palace (http://www.oldkewgardens.com/ss-2-homes/2-homes-0090-1-OL.jpg) and then the Privy House (http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/donatgw/CityState/89.jpg) (or the Dome as most people refered to it.)

As an Advisor, O'Booze's office had been in a relatively cramped little office on the ground floor with a window that looked out on a large bush. It had good access to the CRC but one had a mile of passages to access the main Council Chamber, or go back in and out of security. Either way was a hastle.

However, on this occasion Surefire didn't turn off at the outer lobby to go down a set of backstairs, but continued up the grand staircase saluting the standing KM sargents and JDF guards lining the staircase. At the top, one of the twenty foot bronze doors of the Council Chamber was swung open to admit them.

The Council Chamber (http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/donatgw/CityState/1930a.gif) was full of activity. The two gallries of offices above the main floor were obviously busy as people (mainly Klatchian Marshals and their clerks) moved along the railings. A few looked down at O'Booze for a moment and then kept moving.

Surefire turned and led O'Booze to his former set of offices off the main floor.
"Ah, the current occupant hasn't used this place in quite some time...so the Landgravine decided you should be here and easily available." He pointed to the Landgravines suit on the other side of the large space.

The office suit hadn't changed much. The same double desk system in the Outer, or aides office. The waiting sofa appeared new. The massive Klatchian Oak table in the Inner Office, which had a lovely view of the walled gardens out behind Marshal Hall. The current occupant had not even gotten new pictures up on the walls, and the pens in the desk looked like the ones O'Booze himself left there. However there were a few reminders that O'Booze was not the Inner Consul. The computer terminal would not accept his login (and appeared to have a screen saver showing Durakian soft porn scenes.) Also the door to the Inner Consul's study was locked, which also ment access to the Consul's refreshment tray and personal laveratory was also barred.

O'Booze had little time to get settled. A few minutes after he had entered the office, a somewhat portly gentleman wearing a broad brimmed black hat and a gray silk suit knocked on the door with the end of his cane. "General O'Booze? I am Marshal Commander Clark we had a nine hundread hour appointement."

OOC: Durakian soft porn...disturbing...

OOC:

Durakian soft porn scenes? Egad! I thought walrus porn was bad...

O'Booze decided it was probably best if he switched the computer off. Which he did, by unplugging it from the wall. O'Booze stood up when the knock came on the door, "Come in." he called out, "Ah Marshall. Do have a seat, I would offer you some refreshments, but it seems that that particular door is locked off at the moment."

He paused, "Surefire, fetch me a police battering ram, a welding torch and some magnesium ribbon. Just in case that doesn't work, also order in a bottle of scotch, a vintage port and a bottle of absinthe."

Nobody kept an O'Booze off the booze.

"Now where was I? Yes I believe this is something to do with the assassination attempt, am I correct?"

Marshal Clark nodded as he sat down. "I am afraid your aide is off to fax some image to your Cheka..." He looked at the locked door,
"And wouldn't it be easier to ask the Landgravine for the key?"

He shifted in his chair and began "Really I will just do a quick overview of what we do know what we beleive and what we do not know. One, we have identified Suspect Alpha, one Lord Haart...Prisoner of War from Neo_Tyr. Two, we know why he was there, the Landgravine had planned on interogating him on some details while she was working there this afternood"

He paused for a moment in thought, "Not an unknown thing for her to do, the bandstand pavillion is quite well built and a secure structure with a detachment of the JDF protective detail there at all times. Three, we know that due to her schedule was completely thrown off by dealing with a student protest of Neo_Tyr at the University, she did not interview him. At 2000 hours he was allowed to stretch his legs in a secured walled garden."

Clark appeared to be rattling of details quickly and efficently, "Four, Victim one, Corporal James Herriot, was alive at 1945 but dead by 2015, garotted by a length of copper wire. The corporal had a fairly unremarkable record in the permanent JDF, but had a nack for MP work. He was switched to the Protective Unit four months ago. He had been disiplined for smoking on duty, which was banned at his current post because it interfered with his night vision."

"Five, all suspects escaped from the scene by using an illegal access to the Northcut Aqueduct."

"Six, they left the Aqueduct somewhere before Access number four."

He paused to let this all sink in before continuing.
"We believe that there is at least one more suspect, Suspect Beta who's mission was to break out Lord Haart. He happened to be one of the high ranking officals in custody at the time. We believe that they planned a specific break-out and recovery for Lord Haart.
Also, Based on the gunners behavior and choice of weapons, we beleive that you or Major Crawford were a target of opportunity."

Again he paused to read the general's mood, "I base this on the fact that the weapon was not suppressed...the location chosen was exposed to enemy fire...and they did not have enough intel to know about the armor plate installed into the table. Which was not actually a secret and happened almost six months ago."

"We do not know who it was who conducted the operation. Or how they found out about the illegal access points. However, they may have spread some money out in the Shades to find out if they were not local. They may have also contracted out safehouses and escape routes at the same time. If so they are likely in trouble due to the fourty million Krondor reward being offered."

He seemed to relax a bit, "That about covers the current situation, except that because of our unique postion. We know they can't escape by land without going through a Deyllian or Vrakian checkpoint, who are now looking for Lord Haart. So currently we are focued on any grav, air, or water craft escape routes. Unfortunatly that is proving difficult with all of the shipping that comes up and down the rivers each day. We have primarily focused our attention on ships heading to lands abroad and those that have stopped in Port Olympus."

Clark did not want to draw attention to the fact that the local Deyllian border patrol was being subsizided by the City of Port Olympus and were effectively taking requests of the Klatchian Marshals rather than have requests routed through Cyro.

The so called 'border patrol' in that area of Dyelli Beybi was made up of Border Sheriffs a particularly unsavoury branch of the police force, whose primary role was to act as cannon fodder in the event of an invasion, giving the Army time to get ready and who nobody in the other branches, or the Military particularly liked. They also opperated on the Rogue Jiggady and East Benjian Borders and were mostly violent repeat offenders who had managed to negotiate time in the least popular branch of the police force instead of an extended sentence (it was hard to get actual recruits to the Branch due to the likelihood of getting a Gonad posting.)

The area also had a heavy line of fortresses and trenches running parrallel to the border, about 10 kilometres South, known as the Artois line. This was controlled by the 5th Republican Army (one of Dyelli Beybi's best) and 4 SS Battalions, the main fortress, named simply 'Fortress A', lay on the West bank of the Djel river, with the idea that if war ever came between Dyelli Beybi and Vrak, it could block of access to the River for any Vrakian warships. General Pickelheimer (an NSWP party member, who had worked with O'Booze in Al Anbar, and destroyed the Benjian helicopter fleet at Sheffield) commanded at Fortress A. The pair were on good terms. As usual in this kind of environment, the place was also crawling with Cheka. The Cheka of course knew full well the Border Sheriffs were taking money from Port Olympus, just like they knew they were taking bribes on every border, but they didn't particularly care either, they weren't a threat.

"They won't go down the Djel." O'Booze concluded, "We have enough resources on that river to search every boat, either at the Artois Line or downriver at Iona, and if we really want to we could have the 5th shut that border down. Further North, they could try going through the jungle into New Dyelli, but that place is crawling with homosexual monkeys."

"Of course, once they make landfall in Dyelli Beybi, they'll be able to move at will. Now if I was trying to evacuate a Neo Tyr insurgent, I'd go North from Port Olympus, cross the lakes to Monte Ozarka, then take the desert road South to Dyelli Beybi." That section of border was practically unguarded.

"I'd then head South to one of the minor ports in Epsom, Penrose, Durram or one of the other minor counties and hire a ship from there... or alternatively just evacuate from Monte Ozarka."

The Marshal nodded his head, "Well in the end they have to leave by boat to get anywhere. So I'll have the JDF focus their efforts on the ships travelling the Fasta. Any other points you wish to bring up sir?"

"Yes." O'Booze was a little uneasy about this whole situation, "I have been led to understand that the Vrakians recently arrested a Neo Tyr Lord who was co-operating with the Dyelli Beybian forces in that country."

"Now I'm not exactly certain why he's so important, but the Cheka has stressed to me they really need that guy back if our forces on the ground are going to be able to reestablish order in Neo Tyr."

O'Booze paused, he liked things in the open, he plowed on, "Now I know you guys don't trust Dyelli Beybi, and I know the Landgravine..." who you take direct orders from and probably will continue to do even were I President "... has her own political schemes going on. But I am fairly certain at this point the goals are the same - To put an end to all this pointless, and downright humiliating bloodshed. Klatch is being made out to be a band of warmongering fanatics, which God help us, I hope most of us aren't. Give the Cheka their man back, his name is Vassal or something, and they promise to get the whole situation sorted."

"Oh yes, and they say they got the Princess out before Kyrall collapsed, so she's alive and well and in Residence in Easterling." Which was rapidly becoming a Dyelli Beybian fortress.

Marshall Clark blinked for a second, "Ah sir might I inquire as to why you...perhaps the General would prefer to discuss this with the Director rather than me? I've had no assignments in Neo_Tyr, sir or even outside of Port Olympus in the past five months. If that is all you will excuse me..." Clark rose to make his exit.

Surefire could be seen re-entering his office with a stack of papers and standing at his desk.

O'Booze was fairly sure Clark would relay the information on. It was Felix's pet project, and as usual he'd left O'Booze in the dark about what exactly he was doing.

The portly General grunted when Surefire entered, "Where is that fax machine by the way? We need one in this office. See if you can get some equipment to break that door down."

He gave the stack of papers a suspicious glare, "What's all this? Have I done something wrong?"

Surefire looked at O'Booze through the office door. "First we are still under wartime security measures. Which means no faxes except at designated locations with twenty hour supervision, sir. And I am not getting you anything to break down that door sir. First, because I don't care to pay for it out of my paycheck, and second because there is just boxes of personal papers in there at the moment. Oh, and do you really want to try and take a piss on a Durakian toilet or whatever they call it? The janitors demanded hazard pay to clean the thing."

He stopped and held up the pile of papers, "Most of this is the accumulated mail from your mailbox. A few odds and ends of paperwork for me to deal with. Now do you want me to set up that phone call to Cyro for you now? Or go borrow an RPG to blast that door off its hinges while you dig up 3,000 Krondors or so to reimburse me for it? And why is your computer unpluged?"

"The Computer is unplugged because I want it to be." O'Booze snapped. The last thing he needed right now was a so called aide who thought he was in charge, "It's not like I can access it anyway."

"I think it would be a good idea if you went told the beaurocrats we need a fax machine here, and that you personally will see to it that it is guarded 24 hours a day. What rot, can't have a fax machine in my office."

This explanation clearly had not impressed O'Booze, "You will also get that door open. I don't care how you do it, just get it open. We will then sort through the documents on the other side to see if there is anything useful there or if it can all go through the shredder. Don't worry about the fee to replace it, I'll pay it. I trust wartime restrictions permit me to have a shredder?"

Surefire looked at O'Booze for a second, nodded and walked out of the office. He returned a few moments later. "I go a decided No on the Fax machine and the study will be open and cleared in twenty minutes. I took the liberty of setting up an appointment so that you can discuss the fax issue yourself in fifteen. Perhaps you will have more persuasion than I did with said beuracrat. Now, do you want me to arrange that call to Cyro before your next meeting? Or would you like something else Sir?"

"That's probably a good idea." O'Booze was smiling now, "Excellent, well done, I must say I'm vaguely curious as to what the former occupant was up to in here... if it had any relevance to Klatchian Security at all."

O'Booze wasn't a cruel hearted man, he wanted his staff to like him, he enjoyed having a good relationship with most of his Generals and aides back home, but he also knew that friendliness could be interpreted as weakness, and he could end up becoming disrespected, which was never good.

"And this afternoon you can show me that housing you've scouted out.... shall we get put through to Cyro? I dare say Dzerzhinsky will be waiting for this phone call with baited breath."

Surefire nodded and picked up the phone in his office.
"Yes I need a scrambled level four call to Cyro Benji House, Dzerzhinsky from General O'Booze....security code Alpha One seven Gamma Four...Yes...yes...no...thank you."

He placed the receiver back into it's cradle and walked up to O'Booze's desk.

A moment later the phone rang. Of course the thing had more buttons than a subconsole, an LCD display and two receivers, one black and one red. Surefire hit the button next to a blinking light on the display and handed O'Booze the reciever. "Dzerzhinsky on line one General."

O'Booze's conversation with the Head of the Cheka was brief, and private. He came out of his office a couple a few minutes later, "Felix is going to get a lock down on Neo Tyr, I reckon that's where this Haart fellow is going to show up next. Staying around in Klatch he'll be picked up sooner or later. He won't have propper papers for a start."

"Shall we find this fellow to have a talk to about the fax machine?" O'Booze wasn't happy. Dyelli Beybi was taking a huge step in world politics with it's views on Neo Tyr, and he was stuck in an office in Port Olympus being thrown the bones from the Landgravine's table. He knew he was fairly superfluous in the investigation into the assassination attempt, which apparently he was in charge of, but what in reality should just be left to the Klatchian Marshalls. Supposedly it was to maintain transparency, but it would have been just as easy to send a junior Cheka agent to observe.

Captain Surefire nodded and opened the door, letting O'Booze exit first and then crossing the council chamber to the other side. He knocked on the massive door which corresponded to O'Booze's office. They entered into an office that had most of the same furnishings as his, the only diffrence was a few extra book cases, a second computer on a small corner desk, and a small table under the window which had a sword placed upon it.

The Landgravine stood up as O'Booze entered. "Take a seat General...Now first on our agenda for this morning was a fax machine for your office. Obviously you understand the concept of leadership by example. So if I, or perhaps I should say we, forgo the privilage of having a fax machine in our offices then we don't have as much complaints about the policy from the staff."
She turned to look out her window down on the central part of the city. "The Olympians are the most tiresome, they are always looking for an advantage over someone else. They make the world's most bloody thirsty beuracrats in the known universe...now that they are only allowed to metaphorically stab each other in the back, they do that with gusto and relish."

She shook her head, "Perhaps now I've made the policy a bit more clear to you....Not that great an inconvience for us...I mean the faxes and copiers are off of the Council Chamber between your office suit and the Chairman's..."

O'Booze sighed, he hadn't expected to be meeting with the Landgravine, "It makes no sense, is Klatch suddenly so poor it can only afford one fax machine for this set of offices? Having only one seems to serve no logical purpose except to force the Captain to run up and down the coridoor. I've heard it's a security issue, but it would be traceable, and high security documets shouldn't be left lying around anyway, it would be just as easy to pick them up and walk off with them, in fact probably easier than to fax them."

O'Booze had a feeling he was probably wasting his time, but this was one of the most ridiculous acts of obstruction he'd encountered in any beaurocracy, and he'd be damned if he didn't at least make his views on the matter clear.

Victoria chuckled, "Traceable? General let's be honest that faxes are only tracable back to the building. Anything futher becomes a mess of trying to figure out if a fax was accessed by the known user or another user...and before you think I'm being paranoid. One month I had eight witch hunts going on here about 'faxes' being sent to people decidedly not in the loop. Hell one clerk started accusing supervisors and co-workers in an attempt to land a better postion. It was a bloody mess..."

The Landgravine shook her head. "I finally ripped out all of the fax machines because no matter what electronic security measures we took, only direct supervision seemed to stem the tide...."

She then paused again, "However you do bring up a valid point about faxes laying about and perhaps being pilfered. I hadn't really had to worry about that problem..."

Obviously, the Landgravine had for all intents and purposes been the entire Privy Council. With the Chairman and the Inner Consul missing in action for almost the past two years she had almost become a defacto dictator of the military. Of course she would have said that she was cheif cat wrangler.

Victoria paused in thought and looked at O'Booze..."What if we allowed people to have incomming faxes into their offices but outgoing faxes continue to be from a secured, guarded fax? Technically it should be sound, I mean what you need to receive an incomming fax is a receiver, memory, a descrambler and printer. It would prevent most malcontents from sending an outgoing fax without proper security clearence. And a pilfered incomming fax is going to be a good deal easier to track down than a mysterious outgoing fax..."

She bent her head to one side to see what O'Booze had to say on the matter.

(OOC: Really boaring and technical right people? Of course you should have seen the furor when someone started faxing documents to a Kinkos from a 'secure' nuclear testing facility. Nothing like having your meeting with your prof interupted by the FBI ;) )

(Er...D.B. sorry if this got boring...sort of do need to agree on a few points before I can respond to our visitor. Which were the next items on the agenda :/

(ooc: Sorry, thought I'd replied to this :P It's what comes from doing NS late at night.)

"That makes sense I guess." O'Booze still thought it was ridiculous. He knew Benjia House was dotted with fax machines, and that place was as secure as a Bull River Crocodile's testicles. But then again, people probably didn't go through the same kind of security vetting and brainwashing to get into these offices.

"It half solves my problem I suppose." he grugingly admitted, "I wasn't talking about pilfered incoming faxes though, I was talking about the physical outgoing ones. If you don't shred them afterwards."

O'Booze shrugged.

She nodded, "Well we don't use those old fasioned faxes that you let documents sit around waiting for a line to clear. They get scanned into RAM memory and then sent when the line clears."

"Now then, my agenda...First, last night at 1:30 in the morning the Inner Key offered is resignation. The problem is that no one has accepted it, either the Chairman or the President and Parliament decided not to yet press the President to do so." She leaned back,

"As far as I'm concerned your the Inner Consul again. But we'd best leave Acting on the front of it to keep some feathers unruffled. The only thing left on the previous Inner Consul's desk was the tri-annual review of ground forces. Which is now over a year late. I've got the review of JDF Naval Forces about half way done. I don't even want to think about the Air Defense Plan's status."

She paused and looked out the window again, then leveled her gaze at O'Booze. "The current situation is such that we are going to have to make decisions by concensus until the President decides on a new Chairman. As such we are both going to have to be willing to compromise, and willing to put the Klatch as a whole before our respective States."

We currently have three important items that must be delt with on the agenda. "First, Neo_Tyr...I'm inclined to let you oversee that with the agreed upon arangements of splitting the whole buisness into two parts. The central islands governed by the Military Advisor, we need to change that title, and the outer islands governed by a JDF Admiral. I'm going to put Pellew from Third District over there. He grew up on an island farm and he's stepped in a bit of dodo trying to set up an advestary it appears."

She stopped to see what he thought on this.

"Second Item, the new Excutor of Terancus(sp) just showed up on our front door step demanding to speak to Parliament. However Parliament gave itself a fourty eight hour recess after the sudden resignation to go home and confir. Although I expect I'll find a good deal of them drunk somewhere inside the city limits. I guess we could get the President to demand their immediate return but I'd like some more info on our esteemed guest. I propose we send my sister to welcome him here and then escort him up to Port Olympus. Based on some intresting coverage of a young lady thrown out of the country for trying to seduce him...she might get nowhere or somewhere."

O'Booze nodded, "Whatever you recommend with the Executor, however I have an alternative plan to Neo Tyr."

"We'll let them rule themselves." a smile tweaked at the corner of his mouth, "I think you could say Dyelli Beybi is in a very good position to steer any return to self rule. Obviously it is not in Klatch's best interests to keep a major long term garrison in the country, it is likely to incite further insurgency. In truth I am in favour of pulling out of Neo Tyr altogether, although I understand that may not be possible if Klatch is not going to look like it has run away like the proverbial whipped dog."

The Landgravine blinked for a moment,
"Last night Dyelli Beybi wanted to turn Neo_Tyr into another part of your United Republics. Fourteen hours later you want to send them on their merry way as an independent nation again?"

She placed an arm on the desk and leaned her head against her hand. Her other hand hit the large phone system. "Emily will you please come in here and fix General O'Booze and myself some drinks?"

One of the Landgravine's aides entered and stood waiting for drink orders. "Scotch neat please." Victoria stated in a dry voice. "Now if someone can tell me why you changed your postion one eighty within that time frame I'll be happy to listen. Or am I hearing the opinion of General O'Booze and not Felix. Because if Felix thought both of these ideas were good within less than twenty-four hours of each other. I'd say that we need to worry about making sure he maintains a steady dose of meds. Or have missed something within the last fourtheen hours that significant?"

"Actually" O'Booze explained, "in reality they are one and the same. Each Republic in Dyelli Beybi is fairly self autonomous, which is why in a 10 kilometre stretch of our border, some units will take pot shots at the Vrakians while others will salute them. We're just doing the same thing except leaving off the fancy title that says they're part of Dyelli Beybi."

That would have to be New Dyelli where they took shots at the Vrakians. The fact that Evilphychoticguy had been split in two between the Capitolist North and Communist South was still a sore point for many locals.

"There is a high range of mountains between autonomus and independent General. You jumped it quite quickly."

As she sipped on her scotch she studied O'Booze. "No doubt you have a plan on how to keep Neo Tyr from being turned into the slavery bazzar of Mildonia and keep the North Germanians, these Higistan people, and the Vrakians from just mass slaughtering them in joyous barbaric rapture. Or are you hoping that the Vrakians will go to war the Mildonians so they can commit mass slaughter rather than see their victims hurried off to slavery."

She paused, "Please explain how your plan is not going to cause a Klatchian Civil War?"

"That is a possibility." O'Booze shrugged, "But Felix assures me a slim one. He wants to incorporate Neo Tyr into Klatch as a self-governing territory, then everyone's happy, the Vrakians and the other imperialists can say they've conquered Neo Tyr and assimilated it, but at the same time their citizens come under the protection of the Klatchian constitution."

"What's more." O'Booze continued, "It will help to bolster the moderate voice in Parliament if they gain statehood, somthing which will aid our respective States immesurably."

Clearly O'Booze was lumping Dyelli Beybi and Alcona and Hubris together as 'the moderate voice', which was a description of Dyelli Beybi that would have been laughable 4 years ago.

Well IIS analysis was off. They want a puppet state.
The Alconians could sometimes be quite paranoid. Unfortunatly that very paranoia extended to Dyellian Political Culture. The Alconians had been around for the rise of the Tzars and the crush of the Communists. And the phrase 'Tzar of the Klatch' hadn't done much to improve their view of Dyellian politics.

The more recent rise of a so called 'moderate' Dyellian Government had made life easier for the United Duchies government. But the Crawfords and their watchdogs in the IIS were waiting for a sudden rise of a new Tzar. The old Tzarist Empire had at least been somewhat poorly orginized and distracted by keeping Fasta Benji inline and not invading them. Now, no such problem existed. The recent "Collins Incident" and the fact that she was still breathing only futher demonstrated that Dyelli Beybi was still just a step away from becoming a major problem again. And with Felix Dzerzhinsky and his Amazonian Checka in defacto control of the country, well several analysts focused on when mere Felix would become "Felix the First."

All of these factors ran through Victoria's head as she took a long sip of her scotch and tried to figure out the next chess move in keeping the Federation from becoming the Dyellian Empire.

She placed the glass on the desk and studied it for a moment. "Well then perhaps you are right, however we have a serious problem. The forces that led Neo Tyr to the brink of destruction still exist. The Great Houses of Neo Tyr are all bucking for being the next Royal House of Neo Tyr. Including the one who orginized the invasion mess." Her eyes narrowed.

"The present Princess of Neo Tyr has not been properly trained for ruling her nation. In fact I have the distinct feeling that it was this Lord Protector, who decided he wanted to be the defacto monarch and her nothing more than a nice f*** puppet." It would appear that the alchol was allowing her tank driver nature to push past her princess side.

"Nor can we sweep aside the monarchy of Neo Tyr and inforce a republic because that government would not have legitiamicy at all."

She paused to let this sink in. "So if we go with your plan, we have to force a reconviened Neo Tyrian Parliament to establish a real, true Regency council, a real Regent, and get the Princess a realistic education in state craft."

Her eyes grew a bit colder, "The question becomes is Deylli Beybi ready to help protect and defend a monarchy? Hell do you have any one even remotely capable of the task of Regent? And she can't go to a school in the Klatch, obviously...we will have to send her to somewhere neutral and a respectable monarchy"

"The answer is yes, and that is where Felix's plan gets more cunning."

Felix the First was a distinct possibility, it was of course a similar state of affairs that had led to the ascension of Otto Himmler, who had been the man in charge of ISE (the equivalent of the Cheka at the time). However, most Dyelli Beybian Politicians felt that Felix Dzerzhinsky had no goals of greater power. It was probably true, the man basically controlled foreign policy as it was, and if Parliament decided to go in a direction he didn't like (as they had at the start of the Neo Tyr crisis), he did his best to use the Cheka to muddy the water until Parliament came around to his way of thinking.

"Of course we cannot openly send a regent to Neo Tyr, we can't openly support a Monarchy, slavery and all that business." O'Booze was wondering just when exactly, he'd become the mouth-piece of the Cheka.

"We can though, say give redundancy..." that was Cheka talk for murder, something the Dyellians usually didn't do, "... to the existing regent and set up a local Neo Tyran regent who is closely affiliated to one of the girls from the Cheka."

Elizabeth realized that either that O'Booze wasn't telling her everything, or that the General was out of the loop. They can't be that ridiculus? Or do they really think they can get away with it...No, it is a trap for me most likely they know I will balk at them setting up a puppet Regent to the Checka. They expect me to put a member of the Royal Family in place...Oh, I will but not what you and Felix expect O'Booze...

She hid her thoughts behind another sip of scotch. "I think you should take extra care to make sure the redundancy looks like an accident, or collateral damage by the insurgency."

"But I doubt your puppet Regent will have any leigtimacy either. I doubt with the foreign press running about that you'll be able to maintain the charade for the next four years without the wheels comming off. No, perhaps if we have him just out of the lime light, on the Council rather than the regent would be more effective."

She paused again in thought, "We need to just outright appoint the Regent. Hell they won't like it at all. They will just assume he is our puppet. Unless we throw them a real curve ball, someone who hates the Federation as much as they do."

Her eyes took on a manic glee, "So how about it O'Booze? Shall we bowl a nasty little doosra right into the Neo Tyrian Corridor of Uncertainty?"

The Landgravine had learned enough baseball to cricket to translate a 'change up right through the corner of the strike zone' into something O'Booze was likely going to understand.

To someone who understood the mind of these pampered Neo Tyrian twits (after all stubborn island nobility she had grown up with) it was obvious. Throw something at them they couldn't grasp or understand at first, let the paradim shift without a clutch and then pick up the peices.

O'Booze looked confused for a moment, the Landgravine had chosen a fairly obscure cricket term, "What are you proposing Landgravine?"

O'Booze wasn't happy. Felix wouldn't be either. O'Booze was in fact being more or less honest with the Landgravine, although certainly the suspicion existed in Benjia House that one of the Klatchian States with a prominent nobility would try to marry their own into Neo Tyr to exert their own influence.

The whole situation though, was one where the Dyellians held all the cards. The core of Neo Tyr's nobility was more or less aligned with Dyelli Beybi (at least in the Cheka's opinion), it was really more of a peace offering by the Cheka that they'd allowed the Landgravine a glimpse of the workings of their peculiar little world.

O'Booze looked confused for a moment, the Landgravine had chosen a fairly obscure cricket term, "What are you proposing Landgravine?"

O'Booze wasn't happy. Felix wouldn't be either. O'Booze was in fact being more or less honest with the Landgravine, although certainly the suspicion existed in Benjia House that one of the Klatchian States with a prominent nobility would try to marry their own into Neo Tyr to exert their own influence.

The whole situation though, was one where the Dyellians held all the cards. The core of Neo Tyr's nobility was more or less aligned with Dyelli Beybi (at least in the Cheka's opinion), it was really more of a peace offering by the Cheka that they'd allowed the Landgravine a glimpse of the workings of their peculiar little world.

OOC: I am making an assumption here about what the Checka would do..

Elizabeth smiled "Quite simple actually, we make Lord Bothwell Regent. The Neo Tyrian nobility will be confused about why we put such a veniment anti-fedralist in power. They'll love him calling us the puppets of an oversized bag of blubber. Of course when he treats them like a bunch of wogs well they'll hate his guts and therefore more receptive to the wise counsul of your..er...alighned nobleman on the Regency Council."

O'Booze likely wouldn't know who Bothwell was*. Although Felix and the Checka likely knew what color is piss was every morning.

Peter Anthony Hanz Lennox Crawford Guleph was the other major claimnant to the Crown of Cawahaba and rival to Alexander III. In fact, he had the support of the Cawahabian army when the last King, Ureich I, died. The problem was that the Cawahabian Army was too out of date to stand up against the armored divisions of the Alconian Marines, and General (at the time) Guleph knew it. So he had not interfered when Alexander III had effectively taken control of the country.

However, Lord Bothwell hadn't agreed to serve his new Monarch. He had resigned his commission, retired to his family's estates, and increased his families sizable fortune in the following boom years, primarily in stock speculation.

Bothwell had become the focus of almost all Cawahabian Independenance movements (that refered to him as Prince Peter although he avoided using that title, less it be taken as a reason to remove his head). The man had been elected twice to the Grand Chamber. Where he had constantly made speaches against the Federation and the Crawfords. He tended to refer to the Alconian Royal Family as the 'Scottish Upstarts', or the 'Mercenary Monarchs' depending on the tone of his speech.

The Adel was a decided thorn in the Crawford's side. He appeared regularly on new programs arguing against some matter of policy in his polished oratory(He was often refered to as the Bombastic Opposition). The widower had been slightly involved in several of the better planned independence revolts in Cawahaba over the past twenty years or so, but was always just this side of the line of treason. As an Adel, he held his land freehold (like the rest of the Adel), but was vastly wealthier and more prominant. And also decidely more arrogant. This made him one of Internal Security Section's greatest headaches, and despised by the Alconian Peerage.

The Checka likely saw him as an opportunity to hamstring the Royal Family's Empire Building. Several of his servants were actually in pay to the Checka for regular information. His personal secretary, who was currently sharing his bed, was actually a member of the Checka, rather than being from Terran Sphere like she claimed.

What the Landgravine had offered to O'Booze would appear to some to be a nice scape goat. A Cawahabian Adel who any future problems could be dumped on easily, since the man treated anyone who wasn't Cawahabian like dirt. The obvious reason for this sacrifice was simple, the Crawfords wanted to get rid of him but didn't have enough evidence to hang him, and he was too prominent to just have vanish.

Based on the situation, one could say they were hoping that the insurgents would make Lord Bothwell as Regent redudant.


(OOC: Depending on how well breifed O'Booze is on Alconian titles, he should know that Bothwell is Adel, or a 'powerless' noble who is more than likely completely disposable as far as the Crawfords are concerned. And her comments indicate that Bothwell is supposed to be the target of all anti-Klatchian feeling in the Klatch. Bothwell has likely made a few Klachian headlines so the name should be familiar...)

OOC: That does sound like a Chekary sort of thing to do.

"Both-o-who?" O'Booze didn't recognise the name, "I'll have to relay my information onto other concerned parties in Dyelli Beybi, and see what they make of it."

O'Booze wasn't about to commit to anything without fulling understanding the situation. The longer he spent with the Landgravine, the more he began to feel that this wasn't about Klatch at all, it was still the old Alcona and Hubris facing off against Dyelli Beybi business, just with slightly more polite language, and with higher stakes than usual. O'Booze would need to speak to the Cheka once this meeting was over. Preferably from a safe house and not from his office line, which was probably monitored.

The Landgravine put down her glass. Her gaze could freeze molten rock.

"General O'Booze...You are, or soon will be, the Inner Consul of the Federated Klatchian Coast. You, not Felix not Otto Himmler, not Collins...You." She leaned forward. "You can ask their advice but it is up to us to set an overal policy of how the Klach is going to deal with Neo Tyr."

She sat back her eyes locked onto his,
"I doubt I need to tell the man who defended Bath that, but I thought you should be reminded that we both must balance our loyalties to our respective States with our duties intrusted to us by the Klatchian Parliament. The reason I say this is simple. You didn't recognize Lord Bothwell's name, fine...the Anti-Unionists or Anti-Federalists are somewhat obscure these days. I am sure there are a few in Dyelli Beybi who are fairly prominent state wide that I've never heard of. Hell there some prominant loaf in Port Olympus who is a respected anti-Unionist. The problem is he is a piss poor public speaker."

She shook her head. "What I want to know General is what you think of my alteration to the plan you presented. It suffered a major flaw in that it was attepting a hat trick, not the cricket kind, the magic kind. Making the Neo Tyrians go from hating our guts to at least tolerating us is an act of magic. The problem is that you didn't have something for the public to focus its attention on rather than your...er...freindly nobleman and his Checka helpers performing said trick. I don't care if we use Bothwell..." She snapped her fingers as she remembered, "or Higgins...or a bloody vegitarian vampire duck from Transilvania. All they have to do is hate us as much as the Neo Tyrians and be so...whatever...that the Neo Tyrians can't stand them either."

What had likely set that off was O'Booze almost appearing to say. I need to go ask Felix what I think If she had to litterally kick the war horse in the behind repeatedly until out of shame or self defense the man actually started acting like an independently elected offical and not someone who had Felix's long arm stuck up their a** like an overgrown puppet.

And perhaps that is the real reason the Landgravine didn't trust the Dyellians quite yet. Perhaps if the Dyellian Parlialiament had more of a backbone to stand up for what they wanted then just be pushed around by Felix she wouldn't wonder about his other long term goals. The Alconian Grand Minister and the Grand Chamber regularly got into bitter arugments.*

It didn't help that Dyelli Bebyi had been her greatest fustration over the past few years. Legal Naval Piracy, several expansionist actions, treating the western territory of Rouge Jiggady like a three krondor hooker you have tied up in the back...including detonating anti-matter weapon there(she couldn't prove that one...but that whole buisness reaked).

Actually, that incident didn't reak, it was the smell of burning gunpoweder. That little demonstration had damn well had thrown a molatov cocktail into the powder store that was the Klatch.
The Vrakians were acting a bit weird, and the Var....The Var hadn't said anything to anyone. Which was a bad sign about a supposed metorite hitting the earth. Of course Dyelli Beybi was just standing about whistling a tune while various other states debated if maybe expanding the Benji Territory all the way to the Gonad wouldn't be a bad idea.

The problem with Felix Dzerzhinsky, was that he was very good at becoming completely indispensible. If you had a problem you could lumber it on Felix, and he would, in a very friendly and reasonable manner, make it go away.

"Anti-unionist?" O'Booze harumphed, "Otto Himmler is an anti-unionist you know. All in favour of an independent Dyelli Beybian state, of course he was smart enough to realise his personal views on restoring National pride weren't always in the best interests of the State."

Otto Himmler was also about the only person who had been able to keep Dzerzhinsky 'in line', "I'm acting in the best traditions of the Privy Council."

That was a veiled accusation, perhaps, "But what Dyelli Beybi feels seems to be what is best at this point. What is best for Klatch is to get this whole Neo Tyr business tied up as quickly as possible. Imposing some random noble as regent could seriously backfire on us. Making them hate us, in my opinion, will make them decidedly less receptive to any peaceful overtures on our part."

"Sure the plan has comedy value, but seems to be setting the scene for a major diplomatic disaster, remember it is not only the Neo Tyrans we are dealing with. The whole world is watching us."

"Comic value? Are you thinking I am trying to do something comic, as though somehow I'm just some writer for a second rate sit com?"

She shook her head,"They hate us, and they are not going to even take your Checka's kind ministrations in the bedroom without an entire cellar of salt."

Elizabeth stood up for a moment and walked over to the window. "The problem here is that your trying to be the bleeding puppet masters. Pull their strings, make them dance..."
She raised her hand and moved it as though she were controling some string puppet on the floor.

"Has it even occured to you or Felix that these Neo Tyrians will be so sucpicious of our actions that they'll start too look for our true motives. Then they'll see the strings you have on your Neo Tyrian regent and make him redudant."

She patomined cutting the strings of the imaginary puppet. "However if we allow them to create a regency council where they select two members and we have our regent. They'll more likely focus on keeping said Regent boxed in, and less likely to look for the insidious plotting of your Checka."

She turned and leaned up against the window frame. "They will hate us and distrust us for a thousand years. They are islanders O'Booze. Are you saying that I don't know the nature of islanders O'Booze? What living on an island chain, isolated, independent of everything but the sea makes a person? They will not trust us at all at first. And you haven't won them over yet. You need a replacement for the North Germainains that you used so effectively to focus hate and distrust on them. Of course the Barbarians proceeded to commit mass murder, so we need a less blood thirsty replacement."

She paused for a moment, "I think Otto Himmler would be a wonderful idea, except that he's got too much noble blood on his hands. We them to hate the Regent, not think about him being a complete deviant to the proper social order. I should say their veiw of the proper social order."

Why the United Duchies were members of the Federation was a puzzle in of itself. After all they were not really all that freindly towards others in the Federation except to the Vrakians and the Var. The odd thing was that they were decidely isolationist and really didn't want to deal with the rest of the world much except through trade. Of course that was another dicotomy, they were prepared to trade with just about anyone, anywhere. Some said that was the Knootian part of their personality. Actually they were the State most like Neo Tyr, not just physically but also in how they delt with the world (up to a point).

Which made Elizabeth Crawford, heir to a dynasty that had ruled over said island nation and state since the 17th century and integrated two other island nations over the past twenty, a bit difficult to ignore in this area.

O'Booze chortled, "Hadn't you heard? Himmler is a free citizen, and is rolling in money to boot. Not even Felix could get him out of Dyelli Beybi these days. I don't think he'd even be vaguely interested in Governing Neo Tyr."

Himmler's exact whereabouts were unknown. He could be relied upon to dissapear at least. What was known was that he owned big shares in DBFC Automobile, so whenever the Government bought new tanks (which hey did every time a near conflict happened), quite a bit of that money trickled into his copious pockets.

"Maybe, maybe not. I don't like us becoming too openly involved in setting up a regime. If the Cheka's plans collapse it's very little skin off my nose, but if we, that is, you and I, suggest a dud Regent, firstly we'll look imperialistic, and secondly like a pair of inept blunderers."

"Let the spooks do what the spooks are best at, Neo Tyr is only important if the citizens start shooting at us. What happens to a couple of poxy Commisaars is scarcely any of our concern. Why did we go in there in the first place? To exact revenge. We've had it. We can claim the initial plan was to gain reparation payments, but due to the excessive damage, feel that Neo Tyr would be unable to pay it. Instead we make a few disarmament demands, and then retire back home, no face lost."

O'Booze seemed to be changing his tune, more times than a blind cephalopod which had picked up a set of bagpipes and decided to give it a blow. At least though he was sticking to his guns on the no Regent front, and his new found views on the Cheka seemed to have a ring of truth about them.

Elizabeth was a bit heartened by the apparent anti-Checka O'Booze was willing to spout. And the comment about Himmler didn't faze her much either. If Himmler wanted to swim in pools of cash from tank contracts that was really none of her concern.

"General, first of all why in the world do we care what the world thinks of us? Second, the reason we invaded Neo Tyr was to demonstrate that the Klatch would not stand by and allow provications and invasions without a response. Neo Tyr was a demonstration of what we could and would do to those who attempt to invade us. That task is over. However we inherited a second task with the first. To at least allow a more rational Neo Tyrian government to come to power. However, it now appears that the reason for the invasion was simple. To remove the Neo Tyrian Princess from power and create a new monarch and royal house in her place."

The Landgravine's voice turned as cold as an artic winter with a hundread mile per hour winds. "That bastard running the country would have dumped the whole responsiblity onto a sixteen year old girl. A girl I have no doubt he left ignorant of the outside world or even the power relationships of her own nation. If we want to stop Neo Tyrians from raising another army and exacting 'revenge' themselves, we must do something to instill in that young girls head an understanding of the outside world. Any plan by the Checka that does not guarantee our ability to see that done over the next five years will run into me in oppostion."

"Why do we even need to bother?" O'Booze protested, "No Neo Tyran in their right mind would contemplate invading Klatch again. It's simply a matter of numbers. They can't win. If Felix hadn't been so sure he could lure the Drakonians into invading us, von Scheer would have blown the Neo Tyran fleet out of the water before it even reached Port."

He shrugged, "Why don't you just send her to school in Macisikan or something? They're pretty centrist, and we won't be seen to be feathering our own nest."

He looked like he was going to comment on opposing the Cheka, then just shrugged again, "Do what you like to the Cheka. A lot of them think you have a grudge against them anyway."

"For us to send her to school in Mackistan, or anywhere means that we have assumed Regency powers General." She paused, "You can not seperate power and responsiblity General, they are two sides of the same coin."

She sat down again, and then gave the General a hard stare. "You realize what you just admitted Felix and the Checka were up to, allowing the invasion of a foreign state into the Klatch would not go over well in Parliament, nor with the Vrakians. I don't want a civil war General. And after that anti-matter bomb you blew up in the Gonad, you don't want one either."

She let that sink in for a moment. "You really should have just told the Var the truth and not tried to hide behind that idiotic metor lie." Elizabeth just shook her head.

"So shall we agree to just dump some scapegoat Regent on Neo Tyr, get the Princess a real education and then leave it for the Checka and the Tyrians to straiten out? Allowing us to close the book on this chapter of Klatchian History and begin to heal the wounds it has caused?"

The General had made a serious mistep admitting the Neo Tyrian invasion 'plan'. It was just the kind of thing the Checka would try, hell it was obvious. The problem was that the fury that the Vrakian King had towards Neo Tyr would be suddenly reborn and focused on the Deyllians. Testing a anti-matter weapon in another Klatchian State had all but assured the Var being annoyed. And the worst thing was the fact that the woman sitting at her desk could easily back calculate the amount of energy required for that amount of devistation, and the amount of anti-matter needed. And had an idea about the amount being produced jointly by Vrak and Deylli Beybi. Which was not a good situation when your robbing the Vrakians.

The General and Felix had 'all the cards' but someone else had just called 'Bridge'.

edit: OOC: You realize that Vrak and I knew your plan OOC but not IC until just now. I don't know if that was an intentional mistake on your part though....

(OOC: I thought it had probably been guessed at anyway. ICly the Dyellian Navy bummed around in Port while invaders landed. Either they were gross cowards [which they usually don't behave as on home soil] or someone had told them to do nothing. O'Booze is also guessing, nobody specifically told him what the Grossadmiral and Head of the Cheka were up to as it didn't involve his branch of the military.)

"What anti-matter weapon?" O'Booze looked genuinely surprised, "First I heard of it."

"Seems more likely to be the Var than us." he pointed out, "It's not like they have trouble getting the stuff, we have all of a few grams in the country."

There was very little evidence linking Dyelli Beybi to the bombing, and they knew it. Especially after recovering the only surviving Dyellian from the bombing, confidence was high that no evidence would stick.

"Agreed on Neo Tyr though. I can't say I like the idea of dumping some cretin in as their leader, but to be honest I don't care overly much. Neo Tyr is a nuisance, the faster it's swept under the carpet the better."

Elizabeth looked at General O'Booze. "If Felix wanted to throw the line of we don't know what happened then the Checka should not have started telling everyone it was a metor impact."

She shook her head, "I am afraid Felix was about two degree's too clever on this one. Attempting to convince everyone that it was a metor strike just drew all eyes to Deylli Beybi. The problem is that the Var know it wasn't them. Hell if they were going to drop one wouldn't they drop it on the Orcs and not the elves?"

"As for anti-matter production. That is a matter between D.B. and the Vrakians. Now then, we have a new policy on Neo Tyr, was there anything else on your agenda for the meeting General, besides wanting a review of our document security policies?"

She still wasn't clear on who or what the General considered his master, if anyone. But he had seemed a great deal more independent as this meeting had progressed.

"Oh, yes your study should be cleared of the personal effects of the last Inner Consul by this afternoon."

"If it's an astronomical event then it's none of my concern." O'Booze said with a shrug.

"Supposing though it was an 'anti-matter weapon', and the Var know it wasn't them, and the Dyellians know it wasn't them... then who do you believe when it's just one man's word against another? In the light of no other evidence, I'd be inclined to believe neither and to avoid spreading potentially false and damaging rumours."

"No." O'Booze concluded, "That is all, however I feel it would probably be best to wait until the election process is completed before moving the Inner Consul's effects out. After all, we don't want to offend our Klatchian neighbours."

"Yes General, although I should mention that I consider these conversations to be private. And from time to time we need to mention to various state governments private matters which should not be common knowledge. Those conversations are also private."

Elizabeth was obviously pointing out that she wasn't about to start talking about the anti-matter buisness in public. But in effect she was telling O'Booze to warn Felix about the whole mess. What the Deyllians wanted to do about calming down the Var and the Overlord was their buisness. But her message was clear, the Var were not happy about it.

"Well General, I expect you to assemble your staff as needed. However I've tried to keep myself down to having one senior aide, a steward, and two assistant aides. Obviously you have your senior aide. Send personel files on your other aides to the Marshall's Office. And welcome back."

The noble woman stood, gave a short bow and indicated that the meeting was over.

The General rose, offering a half-bow, "Thank you Landgravine. It has of course been a pleasure."

He was positively fuming when he left the office, he hadn't come here to just rubber stamp the Landgravine's ideas. She probably had no idea why Felix never consulted with higher Klatchian authority before pulling one of his little stunts. He'd really love it if he could get that aweful pair in the same room, then watch the sparks fly... then again, she'd probably try to kill the Cheka officer, Alconians were generally rather bloodthirsty (at least in O'Booze's opinion).

Putting all his problems aside, O'Booze instead decided to focus on finding Surefire. He was sure the Benjian had mentioned finding housing earlier.

Surefire was waiting in the Outer Office. "Ah how did the meeting go sir?" He asked as he stood up from his seat. Placing down the City Living Magazine.

"Absolutely spiffing." O'Booze lied, "Couldn't have gone better.... anyway you were going to show me some housing around Port Olympus?"

He didn't seem interested in discussing the meeting, although he certainly was interested in opening his wallet to a real estate agent.

Spitfire nodded. "Well sir, I know a reputable real estate agent. I thought you might give her a try. If your willing I'll call her and also get a car from the motor pool."

"I thought they were all reputable in Port Olympus." O'Booze remarked dryly, "Port Olympus where the trees and always green, where the cars never polute... where the river's made out of chocolate and the streets are paved with marshmallows."

He seemed to abruptly realise he was talking rubbish, "Where was I? I'll trust your opinion on this one. Take it away Captain."