NationStates Jolt Archive

NENYA, TUESDAY - Historically, when a state initiates an orbital strike, it tends to be against an enemy, an external foe. But Tuesday morning an Iluvauromeni Stellar Squadron moved into a new position, away from their usual holding pattern in cislunar space, and engaged in "an exercise designed to test the potency of new ordnance during the dispensation of a threat to security", the Commonality Space Force announced Tuesday, prior to the Supreme Commander's later statement.

The operation itself was not announced ahead of schedule, and law suits against the government have already been filed by citizens living within one hundred miles of the bombardment - which was initiated against an uninhabited island in the Bay of Turath. The law suits are currently worth around thirty million Relhames. The government has issued only one statement as yet, and government spokespersons have refused comment to the press, as the law allows for twenty-four hours following any incident that may have infringed or damaged national security. The statement issued following the general one given by the Commonality Space Force was given by Empress the Supreme Commander Rialla ux-Rihad II, who explained briefly that "a dire threat had been countered" and that "all would become clear under further explanation", but declined to comment on the suggestion that an insurrectionist cell - according to some in hiding since the War of Survival, which had been sparked by the Revolution in 01 d.e. - had been discovered and attacked with the utmost of lethal force. This, if true, would be illegal, and grounds for the termination of immunity from prosecution for the Supreme Commander; however, this is viewed by many to be a highly unlikely reason for such a drastic military intervention.

Already there are protests against the decision to delay a full explanation, and, indeed, against the law [allowing the delay] itself, which is already being heavily re-debated in the Imperial Houses of the Three Provinces.

A supranational gathering regarding the law had prior been announced for Thursday the 29th, and that meeting of the three Provincial (sometimes referred to as National) Imperial Houses is likely to be a fiery and intense debate. The debate will be aired live on the new, INN-affiliated and government-independent Political Information Network.

The island itself - known as Strepson Isle - is now no longer visible from space. Formerly, there had been a small mountain - Mt. Watchful - on the island, standing at two thousand feet above sea level. Neither the mountain nor the island appear to exist anymore, with infrared-enhanced satelite images only finding what appears to be hot water and superheated steam. An environmental survey by the Environmental Court Observation Telescope (ECOT), situated in cislunar space, is expected to be carried out at the earliest oppurtunity.

Further information on this extraordinary story will be provided as soon as it becomes available.

~ SOURCE: INN Solar web/MESHsite

NENYA, WEDNESDAY - The Empress rejected Wednesday claims that the destruction of the island of Strepson was an irresponsible act, choosing to press instead for a D-notice by Imperial House - which would disallow all reporting of the incident for the forseeable future.

Protests have already ignited in certain parts of the Commonality, with the move having been slammed as "dictatorial" by a slowly building voting coalition inside Imperial House, referring to itself as 'Democracy First'. The Anti-Partisan Investigation Committee has already issued a statement on the new voting coalition, saying that "[Democracy First] is a legally created voting coalition designed to respond to one single governmental matter, and not a political party."

~ SOURCE: INN Solar web/MESHsite (excerpt)


[OOC: If you're intrigued by this somewhat odd little thread, then please telegram me. I do need other participants; this will be a 'retroactive' piece of roleplay, you see, which will explain from a point thirty days ago up til' now...

Please don't clutter the thread with OOC stuff if you are interested/intrigued; IC stuff is good! but no OOC stuff, please. Telegrams are preferable. :)]

While they hauled the body out of the water, the man (who was not a man) standing at the prow of the sleek Iluvauromeni ship sighed heavily as he watched the sky.

Odd how the clouds form into patterns before your very eyes, but you can never quite remember how they got into that pattern.

The body was of little consequence; the boy - he had only been thirty-seven years of age, the poor thing - had recovered the Stone, albeit without surviving the experience. Humans were just not cut out for contact with it, apparently; this appeared to confirm the myths.

Long ago, the Royal Family had risen to overthrow the Wise Leader - roughly translated from the original title, which was now no longer rememebered or written in any text one might find in Iluvauromen (he had needed a trip to Tumnore to thoroughly research the matter) - who had lead the Nenyar for so many years after the mostly self-imposed exile from Tumnore. Yet the Royal Family had then turned and selected that same man; the same man who today was Consort to the Empress, and thus the High King of Ma-Nenya.

Yet legend had it that the man in question, one Semir-randil, who had already lead for hundreds of years following the exiling of his brother (who had, back in the present, fairly recently been 'executed' during a ferocious psionic duel with the surviving High King, ostensibly for High Treason, an act confirmed by the Criminal Court as legal) had arrived at the newly set-up Court in rags and tatters.

He had then claimed kinship to the King - a claim verified easily, as the King was, in fact, the son of Randur, brother to Semir-randil.

This caused an outcry, naturally enough; the son of a man in exile was not fit to rule as King. The new King was deposed; Semir-randil ascended in his place. Yet a curious thing...

The legend in question also made mention, numerous times, to a strange stone, that "with the glare of its eye might alter mood and thought, and meld others unto the will of the bearer; yet more often than not was it used to seek out dishonesty amongst those who entered the Court for judgement upon their crimes or the crimes of others".

Apparently, Semir-randil had carried the Stone at that point; it had been wielded by him for many years, the apparent authority in this text - which seemed to Axalari to be often little more than fanciful legends stitched together from earlier accounts - had stated quite clearly.

This particular 'book' had not proved useful to source the origin of the Stone, however. For that, one had to look a little further back; and to do that, one had to be Favoured in the Court of the Royal Kingdom of Tumnore.

That was not easy for a mere Alshahn; this was the name for Axalari's kind amongst the Tumnoreans. Amongst the Iluvuaromeni they were named the Tharash - an odd, reclusive sort who lived in mountains and looked somewhat like tigers.

Axalari sighed. Few knew that the Alshahn - he preferred that name, as it was prettier than 'Tharash', his own people's name for themselves - were, in some cases, telepathic. All were empaths, in the nature-orientated sense of the word; they were very much close to the world around them, at ease with the trees and plants and animals. Animals did not flee before them, even though the Alshahn were predators. This made hunting quite dull sometimes, but there were methods of making the prey flee - although it was not hunting of the sort carried out by Men.

Staring out at the water, Axalari wondered what fortunes might be brought to his kind by this ancient relic, forged by long-dead Tumnorean Masters of Art; a breed apparently long-vanished from the Earth, for there were no such relics of this order remaining today, except the great Barrier devices.

And then the first glint of the Stone caught his keen eye...