NationStates Jolt Archive

Leuitenant Grimswell stood over the control console. Monitors up and down the long stretch of computers displayed everything, from radiation levels to tempurature, to time until dinner.

His team had just come back from their lunch break and were beginning the first complete activation of the new core. Government and military officials from all over the nation came in hordes to watch the event, observing from a protected viewing room. Even officials from Starsinger were there, who helped USSI's Nuclear development. The Principality had some great minds, and he wouldn't be here today without them. In fact, he was from Starsinger himself. The whole team was.

"Team, prepare for rod removals. Lisa, begin Stage 1." One of the women in the control room turned to a panel of switches and dials. She flicked and turned a few, then looked to a TV. The whole team watched as a row of rods slowly lifted up from the core.

"Ok. Radiation levels are rising." Grimswell looked behind him. "Mohammad, how are we with heat?"

"Tempurature is under control so far. We are good to continue."

"Ok, Stage 2." Lisa once again flicked switches and turned dials, watching a 2nd row of rods lift from the core."

"Radiation levels still rising. The core appears to be stable." Grimswell wrote a few notes on a sheet of paper. He was beginning to sweat. The last time they tried activating the core, it nearly blew. That was a month ago. He was assured the core was truly prepared now, but that didn't take the fear out of the back of his head.

"Stage 3." He anxiously watched as the 3rd row slowly slid up and out of the core. One more to go.

"We are at 75%, and running safely. Proceed with final stage."

The final row was hoisted up. To Grimswell, they took forever to raise. He took his lab coat off as he felt himself sweating even more. Suddenly, the sound of alarms flashed through his head. He watched as steam shot from the reactor, as everyone paniced. He felt the taste of metal pouring into his mouth.

"Congratulations, Leuitenant!" Grimswell shook his head. No alarms, no steam, no taste of metal. "You've done a great job today."

"T-Thank you, General. It was an honor to work on this project, sir."

"Come here, son. I'd like to introduce you to someone." The aging General led Grimswell to the viewing room.

"Leuitenant Grimswell, this is General Hostaf. He is the Director of USSI's Nuclear development."

"Good to meet you, sir." Hostaf was a large man, and had a tight hand-shake.

"The pleasure is mine, Leuitenant. Without your nation's help, well, this would not have come true today. Now, I would to give you the opporotunity to be a permanent member of USSI's Nuclear Development Department."

"I-I would love to, sir." Grimswell smiled, trying to supress his full joy.

"Good. I'd like you to read this file then. Come to my office this Saturday and we'll talk over lunch."

"Thank you, sir."

Later that Night...

Grimswell got back to his apartment at about 12:00 am. He crept into the bedroom, where his girlfriend was already asleep, and gently set the file he had recieved on the night stand. Sitting on the bed, he took his shoes off, then picked the file up. He opened to the first page.

"Research and Development of Nuclear Arms"

"General Hostaf, I will say again. This is not something that can be rushed." Kent Amohajj looked the general in the eye. "A nuclear reactor is one thing. But a nuclear warhead is something else. If you try to hurry this along, people will die. You must understand that we have to take our time."

"I understand that, Mr. Amohajj, but I have orders to do this as quickly as possible. USSI will provide Starsinger with all the funding and supplies needed to get it done. I'm sure your technicians and engineers are smart enough to stay safe."

"Ok, General. We'll do it as quickly as possible, but this will still take quite a while." He got up from the desk and showed Hostaf the door. Before closing it, he looked out over the research facility. It stretched out for nearly 200 yards. One side was closed off, housing offices and cubicles. The other side was the production area. Multiple missile and bomb shells wereon stands, each a candidate for the delivery system. In a few weeks, the actual production of a small warhead would begin. For now, hundreds of computer tests and calculations were taking place.

The Xavionian spy crept along the perimetre of the USSI military base. There had been perculiar movements recently in the area and the government did not want to be totally blank about the enemy developements. As the spy reached the outer fence he dropped down and watched quietly as a patrol went past shining a torch in his direction. Continuing undiscovered he approached the fence noting that it was electric. Pulling out a pair of wire cutters he cursed the lack of military funding in Xavionia. Moving through the fence he tiptoed around the side of a building. He saw what looked like a operations center and silently approached it. He saw motion detectors and continued around to the side. There were more buildings at the center of the facility. He moved towards one of the side buildings and saw a sign on a door. He thought to himslef rapidly. Running silently back towards the fence he thought in shocked disbelief. This place is nuclear.

We are aloud to be sneaky and munipulitive arn't we?

[secret IC]
"... and that's why we'll need to develop a new rocket to get Hermes into orbit", finished the briefer.
"Damned hippies. I'll speak to Keith about that later on. What's next?" replied Chairman Hillary
"Recon satellites suggest that the nuclear power plant in the USSI came online. Our analysts say it'll produce far more power than ..."
"Wait, USSI? Who are they?", Hillary interupted.
"The United Socialist States of Ishraelma. Standard TPLC, Communists. Not to be trusted really. Anyway as I was saying, our analysts believe this power plant will produce more electricity than they need. They probably intend to acquire the Bomb, and then use it to blackmail foreign governments into becoming Communist, whether overtly or by giving it to passing bands of revolutionaries we don't know.
We'd like your permission to get some eyes on the ground, probably by offering to send some Safety Inspectors to offer advice on how not to have the thing blow up in their faces. If that doesn't work demand to send weapons inspectors, and if they still refuse then it's probably because they have something to hide."
"Approved, have Sid's people send an offer of assistance."
"Yes Sir".
[/secret IC]

---

Congratulations on harnessing the power of the atom, surely this momentous event will greatly enhance the lives of your populace with the vast amounts of electricity produced.
However, nuclear power is a two faced beast. It may seem like a blessing, but it can just as easily blow up in ones face. For this reason, we would like to offer to send a team of experts to your facility to offer the benefit of our experience in the field of nuclear power. Hopefully their expertise will help prevent any dangerous release of radiological substances, which would be a disaster not only for your nation, but for your neighbours as well.

Shildonian Office for Foreign Affairs

The USSI will gladly accept Shildonia's help in this most glorious time. Our reactor is open to inspection, for we truly want to be as safe as possible.

--------------------------

Meanwhile, 300 miles from the Nuclear Powerplant...

"Sir, production of the warhead is continuing as planned. We are ahead of schedule."

"Good. Testing of the Saerajj Delivery Missile will commence tomorrow. In 2 weeks, we will test the first warhead. And remember, don't take any unnessecary chances. We have come to far to make a mistake."

"Yes, sir. I will meet you tomorrow at the testing site." Grimswell turned off the video phone. He turned from his desk to look out his office window. It overlooked the warhead production facility, about 50 miles from the Missile production. The actual building was undergroud, but his office was above ground, disguised as part of a regular military base. The building rose about 5 stories above ground, and his office faced the missile testing area. This is where the Saerajj Missile would be brought to be tested. The warhead testing area was in a desert region of the nation, smack in the center of the country.

---------------------

"Private, come on in."

The young soldier came into the office. He had a worried look on his face.

"What can I do for you?"

"Uh, sir. We have a possible security issue. On a patrol route of mine, I found a hole in the fence. It looks like it was cut open."

Alarms filled the base.

"Come on, people! Get the missile on the truck. We should have been on the road 10 minutes ago!" Amohajj stood in the dark, giving orders to everyone. A large lift in the facility was hoisting up the Saerajj missile. An 18-wheeler was sitting in front of the missile, the trailer top and back open to allow the missile to be placed inside it.

Workers scrambled around, making sure the connections between the hoist and missile were secure. Others were directing the lift operator. The truck driver sat in the truck.

Kent heard his cell phone ring and took it from his overcoat pocket.

"Amohajj here."

"Kent. This is Grimswell. We are having a security issue here at the base. In a few minutes you will notice jets flying over your position and 4 attack helicopters meeting you. These will be your escorts. Even with the shutdown here, we will procede with the missile being transported here."

"Ok, Leuitenant. We should be on the road in a few minutes. I'll meet you at the base in 2 hours." He turned the cell phone off and dropped it back into his pocket. The night was growing cold.

Amohajj rode in the trailer with USSI soldiers that packed any space left empty by the missile. He could hear the rotor blades of helicopters cutting through the air, and the sounds of jets high above them. The trailer shook as it was pulled down the highway. This was at first going to be a covert operation, no obvious escort at all. A few black suburbans would follow, but not anything like this.

"So, is this missile supposed to be for a nuculer explosive?" A soldier turned to Amohajj.

"Uhhh, n-no. It is, just a long range missile prototype."

"Oh...ok..."

Infact, the whole project was supposed to be covert.

--------------------------------------

Back at the military base, everyone was busy. Soldiers ran all around, while others were in groups, slowly patroling the perimeter fence. SAM and AAA batteries were fully operational, and tanks were rolling out to meet the oncoming truck part way.

Private Falkon was stationed in a watchtower, manning a .50cal machine gun. It was on the top of the tower, and could be rotated 360 degrees, with a bullet proof canopy covering it.

General Xavier was sitting at his desk as a private ran in. 'What is it?' asked Xavier. 'It's the USSI weapons base, sir, our suspisions were correct, They're developing friggin' nukes!' said the private in one long breath. Xavier sat there speechless for a moment. 'Get Captain Ash' he commanded and the private saluted smartly and ran out. Slowly Xavier waled over to the desk and picked up a phone. 'Captain Jing, get the Special Operations team notified, you know what to do'

'This is Cobra one, can you hear me, over' said a special operations member running towards a low broken wall some three kilometres from the nuclear base. 'Hearing you loud and clear Cobra 1, over' came the reply from home base. Another of team member made the same movement towards the wall and then the whole team made for cover. Once behind the wall they checked weapons and spread out. One of the team pulled out a pair of binoculars and checked the surroundings. 'Can see them, bout 1.5 k's thatway' he said to the captain pointing to a trail of dust near the horizon. 'Lets move out guys!' the captain called and they slowly made their way foward as stealthly as they could through the desert.