NationStates Jolt Archive


Shadow Dancing

Fenwick
11-09-2004, 03:18
Kunlun Wasteland - 0150 Hours

Natari looked up from her desk and glared at the monitor bleeping in front of her. “Yes, what is it?”

“They’ve almost finished digging out the White Star in New Avalon.”

“Already? Damnit. That’s too fast. Tell our people to move out.”

“Yes, command. What should I tell them to say if they’re asked why they’re leaving?”

“I’m sure you can come up with something. Command out,” she deactivated the communications console, quite annoyed. The projections were not correct. Davion and Kershner had pushed for getting New Avalon rebuilt harder than they had anticipated. Well, we’ll just see about that, won’t we?

---

New Avalon – 2107 Hours, The previous day

“Hey boss, we’ve cleared out the debris around the left wing. The construction mechs should be able to pull her out of there.”

“Well, lets call it a night, we can start first thing in the morning.”

---

Leigh knocked on Foxy’s door. “Hey kiddo, we’re moving back to the island for a few days, so you can put off your plans for the trip to Oshati a little. I don’t want to be here in case something goes wrong with the excavation tomorrow.”

She opened the door and sighed. “But how am I supposed to pack everything for the whole summer if I’m not here to do it?”

“You’re creative. I’m sure you can come up with something.” He winked at her then left the doorway.

---

New Avalon – 0945

“Crews in place, we’re ready to cut through this part of the hull and make sure everything is stable enough for lifting. Otherwise we’ll have to take her out in even more pieces than she’s in.”

“Gotcha. Be careful in there guys.”

“You got it. We should be in and out in no time.”

---

Overlord II – 1030 Hours

“Alright, Overlord requesting departure clearance.”

“Clearance granted, Overlord. Have a safe flight.”

“We’ll do our best C&C. Overlord out.”

The ship rose a few meters off the ground and the landing struts retracted as the Overlord rotated towards the runway. Moments later the engines on the wingtips lit off and the blue-purple craft leapt forward, towards Krosa Island.

---

Kunlun Wasteland – 1100 Hours

Natari frowned at her display. “Can I go to the barracks yet?” She groaned and scratched her left shoulder irritably. “Edi was supposed to take over my shift a half an hour ago.”

“Well, it looks as if you get the pleasure of dealing with the New Avalon situation.”

“Gee, lucky me.” She looked down at her console. “When?”

“Give them an hour.”

---

New Avalon – 1158 Hours

“C’mon guys, what’s taking so long?”

“Sorry boss, it’s a little more messy in here than we thought. The White Stars run on fusion reactors right?”

“Yeah, it’s their source of power… But we’ve already removed the cores... Why?”

“Well, we seem to be getting unusually high radiation readings in here. Good thing we’re wearing suits, eh?”

The construction boss didn’t like this information. He didn’t like it one bit.

“Jameson, I’d like you two to come on out of there, I want to run some more external scans. Make sure it’s actually safe for you all to be in there any longer than that.”

“Alright boss. Just give us two minutes. It doesn’t seem like it’s coming from the right part of the… just a… what’s tha-“

“Jameson?”

---

New Avalon Reconstruction HQ – 1201 Hours 58mi outside New Avalon

Arden was watching a couple of crews unloading the supply trucks from the Weyland corporation when his attention, for whatever reason, was drawn towards the remains of the New Avalon skyline. Moments later the skyline blurred and vanished in a white hot flash of light. Arden threw his arms up over his face to shield his eyes from the light. “My God… already?”

---

Kunlun Wasteland – 1202 Hours

I’m sorry guys… Natari sighed as she released the button that had sent the signal to re-level New Avalon.

---

Overlord II – 1215 Hours Krosa Island Airfield

“Alright ladies,” Leigh yelled back to his passengers, grinning. “Shall we disembark?”

They were met at the bottom of the ramp by a man wearing a Fenwicki Tal Shiara uniform. When the Emperor and his family reached the bottom of the ramp he bowed.

“Sir, it seems we have a problem.”

Leigh frowned, concerned. “What is it?”

“I can’t say here. All I can say is we’re just glad you left when you did…”

---

1500 Hours

~ISN NEWS~


“We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this ISN special report. It appears that someone, although it is unknown at this time, has hit the reconstructed parts New Avalon… with a nuclear weapon. Estimated blast power was over 60 megatons. We now go live to Lyta Ryan, broadcasting from the New Avalon Reconstruction HQ, just outside the city. Lyta?”

“Thank you. As you can see, they’ve issued us radiation suits here at the NARHQ as the radioactive cloud is headed this way, we still have no idea who is responsible for this attack. There are no groups claiming responsibility for this unexplained use of massive force...”

---

War Room – 1510 Hours Krosa Island Air Force Base

“And we don’t have anything to go on?”

“Nothing Emperor. As ISN stated, no one has taken responsibility.”

“Could it have been the reactors on the White Star they were planning to excavate this morning?”

“No sir, I personally oversaw the removal of all the power cores.”

“While I’m thinking of it, how damaged is the factory in the northern portion of the city?”

“It sustained substantial damage, but it’s still standing.”

“Well that’s good at least.” Leigh sighed. “Why can’t people just leave us the hell alone?”

The Tal Shiara officer just shrugged.


---

~ISN NEWS SPECIAL REPORT~

We now go live to the press room of Emperor Leigh Davion-Katsuragi on Krosa Island

"Good afternoon. As you all now probably know, New Avalon was hit with at least one nuclear blast earlier this morning. It is still unknown at this time who did this or why. We are currently going over some information to determine the source of the blast. Hopefully this will shed some light on the situation. Thank you."

---

"What do you mean three?!" Leigh slammed the report down on the desk.

"That's what the report says, sir. They are detecting traces of three seperate, but almost simultaneous explosions."

"One was bad enough."

"Yes sir."

"And we still have no clue who did this or why?"

"No sir. We're having the orbital equipment checked for any signs of incoming missiles or anything in the past couple of days that moved in slowly or any other changes in the area. The palace has been completely vaporised. It was ground zero."

"Damnit. Where's Yuri?"

"Uh... you're wife or Emperor Kershner?"

Leigh looked at him a moment then hung his head. "I forgot. The Emperor."

"He was in Deseret, overseeing the construction of one of the factories there after his return from the Democratic Republic."

"Any word from him?"

"When he first heard of the blast, just to check on you. We told him you had just arrived here-"

"Luckily," Leigh interrupted.

"Yes. He said he would finish up his tour there then come back to Krosa Island. We've got cleanup crews scouring New Avalon, trying to treat the survivors that need it. The ones at the factory are surprisingly well off, considering most were sheltered from the blast by the reinforced building and then from the radiation by the suits they were required to wear while the reactor is still under construction and maintenance."

"That's a plus. And the Houdian workers?"

"All of them were at the factory. One has radiation poisioning, but is expected to recover. One died in the blast, a couple others were wounded. Other than that, they're all still ok."

"Have them all check in with the docs, you know how they are."

"Yes sir."

"I assume we lost everyone at the excavation site?"

"Unless they managed to stand up to three nuclear blasts, yes."

Leigh sighed. This was going to be a long day.
Fenwick
29-01-2005, 03:02
The Empress of Demoness, Elisa, sent a more or less personal message to Leigh via Yuri, which included a strong request that the latter withdraw to a more stable country, i.e. Demoness, but to the former, she stated:

"I am most grieved to hear of the destruction of your capital and again offer to help whatever assistance is needed in finding and treating any survivors, if there are any, and uncovering who is behind this. Please relate all questions to either your wife or through Ambassador Masaki."

---

"Hon, with the way things are going, I think we need to move the girls to Oshati a little sooner," Yuri said.

Michelle didn't quite understand what had happened, but she knew her parents and everyone else was worried, so she was worried too. She currently sat on Yuri's lap, where her mother was stroking her hair. SF was in another room, not quite sure how to take it.

Leigh threw himself onto the bed. "I'm...tired."

He rolled over and faced the ceiling. "Do you know if the nannites can deal with radiation poisoning? If they can would you ask Elisa if she can send a crew to assist the survivors?" He sighed. "Three of them. Three blasts. How could we miss three warheads?"

"I remember something about swallowing salt to get rid of radiation poisoning, but I don't think it's the sodium kind," Yuri replied. "I'm sure the nannites could replicate that sort of thing, but I don't know for certain. I'm not medically qualified." She sighed. "Can we not talk about this in front of Michelle?" She kissed the child's dark head.

Leigh sighed. "Yeah." He sat up and smiled at Michelle. "How're you enjoying your visit back?"

"I left Chi-Ta at home," Michelle complained, referring to her doll. "Mama won't let me go out and play either."

"I know, sweetie. We'll play later. Inside," her mother replied.

"It's not very nice outside right now, but you'll be able to go outside later... maybe tomorrow, alright?"

Leigh looked up to Yuri. "I'm going to go check on Foxy. See how she's doing."

He stood and kissed them both on the forhead then headed to Foxy's room.

Yuri smiled at him, and looked down at Michelle after he left. "I love you, you know that, sweetie?" she said to her daughter and kissed her again. Then she hugged her.

"Mama, that hurts!"

She laughed. "Sorry... What about this?" she asked as she started tickling her.

---

"<What?>" SF said through the door.

"Just wanted to see how you were. You doing alright?"

Come in," SF said. She was reading a book, which she put down. "Yeah, I think so... Just kinda stunned and stuff."

"Understandable." He leaned in the doorway, crossing his arms. "What do you think we should do?"

"Find out who set it off and kill them," SF replied simply enough.

"Fairly straight forward, but wouldn't you want to know why they did it first?"

SF shrugged. "I kinda assumed that'd happen before you killed them, so I guess we can add 'Why?' to the list. Why are you asking me?"

"Just curious, to see what you would do in my place. You're eligible to run to be Empress when I die, you know that right?"

SF frowned. "I never thought of that. I thought my dual citizenship might prevent that."

"Nope. As long as you're either part of the family of the former Emperor or Empress or a full citizen of the nation you have the option to run. But like I said, it's only an option, not a requirement."

She shrugged. "We'll see."

Leigh nodded. "Yeah, it might cause some interesting things to happen either here or in Demoness," he said, smirking.

"Depends on how long Yuri lives. I don't want to be Matriarch."

"Well, we'll deal with that when the time comes."

---

Five hours after the blasts, a message arrived form the Houdian Empire.

It was simple, and direct to the point, Where are our workers?

After it was learned that some of them were in the hospital, and others were killed, another message arrived.

Someone is coming soon, and you better have an explanation ready for them.

And that someone did arrive, an XT arriving on the shores of Krosa Island.

Gaspar Wolfgosti, the advisor to the king, stepped out along with Vincent Jarvis, the councilman of Intelligence, and Yuri Kershner was waiting for them.

"Welcome gentlemen. This way please."

---

They were escorted to the War Room, which was full of aides and soldiers moving around, marking maps and going over satellite images of the blast site, both before and after the explosion. They seemed to come in during the midst of a heated debate on the subject.

"Alright, so we don't show anything going into the area other than the construction crews and there isn't anything here that isn't accounted for or unknown. They would have had to moved the weapons in."

"Or it was a missile."

"Three of them that didn't show up on radar and all impacted within milliseconds of eachother? I think not somehow."

"It's possible!"

"However, very unlikely."

The aide threw up his hands. "What about a reactor overload?"

"They would have noticed that, and I don't think that one reactor on a mech going to critical mass would cause two others at the site to explode without the other three doing the same."

"So we still don't know what's going on here?" Yuri finally asked, after listening to the two argue back and forth.

The two turned swiftly and saluted. "Emperor. Didn't hear you come in."

"I noticed. These are the Representatives from Houde. They have some questions. Give them answers."

He turned and walked out of the room.

The aides looked at eachother and frowned.

---

Fleet Command

An Admiral and a Captain stood discussing an upcoming mission.

"We're ordering the White Knight and the Paladin out to investigate that energy spike that the Atlas detected."

"But the Archangel was already out there and detected nothing."

"We went over the Atlas' sensor readings and we'd like a follow up, that's all."

The Captain frowned. "Alright, but it's a waste of time."

---

Kunlun Wasteland

"Fleet command is dispatching the White Knight and the Paladin to investigate the spike the Atlas picked up near Ganymede."

"Unfortunate. Thank you. I will warn Ganymede Control."

---

Open Space near Ganymede

Two blue jump points tore into realspace, disgorging the two White Star vessels a moment later.

{White Knight to Paladin, you ready for the sweep?}

{Damn straight Mackey.}

{Lets get this done.}

The two ships banked off in opposite directions, each covering a different area of space, one above Ganymede, the other below.

Moments later two red and black vessels jumped into realspace behind the scout ships. The Paladin wheeled around and faced the new arrivals.

{This is the LDF Paladin. You have entered Earth space. Identify yourself.}

The Captain of the Paladin turned to his communications officer. "Any response?"

The comms officer shook his head.

"Have the White Knight form up."

"Aye sir."

A few moments later the comms officer spoke again. "Sir, I'm not getting anything from the White Knight. Nothing but static."

"Jamming?"

"Could be."

"Scan for the ship, find her, move in with her."

"Aye sir. Scanning... I can't... We're being painted with a targeting system!"

"Evasive action! Helm, open a jump point! Get us the hell away from this jamming, get a report back to fleet-"

"They're firing!"

---

Kunlun Wasteland

The console in front of Natari bleeped.

"Yes?"

"The Ganymede facility is no longer in danger."

"The White Stars?"

"Destroyed. A problem with their jump engines. The point closed on them as they entered." The shadowed face on the other end smirked. "Interesting how that works..."