NationStates Jolt Archive

(Since little news escapes Dra-pol without it being a major international incident, and since there are few chances for minor interactions with other states, given Dra-pol's introspective character, I felt the need for a general Dra-pol thread, where things can happen... be they of note to the interested sections of the international community but not worth their own thread for the two or three posts they'd get (there's not much that other nations can do in response to anything Dra-pol does, short of starting another gigantic war, eh?), or merely little bits and pieces I feel like posting for the sake of developing the nation or a future story. A lot of it won't be visible to the international community as such, but what the hell ever. And some of it certainly will be. This ought to have been much more concise, saved for a time when I was not so over tired. Back shortly with the first article.)

Ch’ongjin, The Choson People’s Republic

The Drapoel night was, compared to many, a busy one. Whole swathes of society did shut down, and large tracts of land slumbered under strictly enforced curfews, but pockets of activity honeycombed the Republic’s dark hours. Thousands of workers bore tonnes of earth on their backs, moving through old tunnels that displaced from new ones, and spreading it across the ground near subterranean facilities known to have been pin-pointed by the enemies. Programmes such as this were intended to deceive the enemies, should they be watching closely enough, as the Drapoel behaved as if their old facilities were being expanded. The dispersal of earth over a wide area made it hard to spot the deception, let alone the truth. Elsewhere, tens and even hundreds of metres down, buried factories worked on without relent, and in adjacent schools, educators lectured shift workers. Other peasants and scientists even cultivated nauseatingly vast mushroom farming concerns. Out at sea around the republic there sailed small fishing flotillas, and off Ch’ongjin submariners practised lining-up torpedo spreads and refuelling at sea with an improvised tanker submarine.

On the beach, a local detachment of the United Workers’ Militia sat quietly, old men’s eyes and ears straining through the night for signs of faux-danger, which they’d been activated to meet. 7.7mm bolt-action rifles and 8mm sub-machineguns were cradled like the valuable items they were.
“You’re dead, comrade, sit down.” Said a young female voice in hushed tones as the Red Bamboo commando helped the sixty year old Militiaman down on to the cold sand and moved the combat knife away from his throat. A few little shapes slipped silently by in the darkness as Mago Force Three’s half dozen comrades moved in shore, already miles behind the other eleven Mago teams after their mini-sub encountered mechanical problems. In the event, team Three was well positioned to intercept a UWM unit dispatched in response to, “ambushes on the central road”.

Still, a few months further training, yet.

*Near Pohang*

"GET YOUR BUTTS IN GEAR!" The burly Hudecian sargeant bellowed at the new Korean recruits as they went through the obstacle course for the third time that morning. He turned to face the Korean colonel that was to oversee this newly formed regiment. "They'll be ready in a week to begin their true combat training, this stuff is just the warmups."

The colonel nodded silently and returned to his duties at the barracks. The Hudecian sargeants were doing their jobs well, but what the South Korean army needed most were experienced officers. Of whom there were few.

Under an unremarkable Drapoel peak, comrade Taka Oamarii-Il over-saw another astronomical waste of resources, and one to which he would have objected had he courage to match his genius. In fact, the tempering of his courage was perhaps just another facet of his wide-ranging talent.

Ah well. He thought. I’m sure they’ll use this cavern for something else, afterwards.

Up through the great man-made cave ran another huge tube, another talon. To the side, at right angles, a second pipe attended by student engineers. A number of gigantic trolleys began presently to skirt the curved edges of the cavern, twisting the giant L-tube about with them, stopping with the vertical portion tilted a few degrees to the southeast, its highest extent indicating a shaft of natural light from above.

As the countdown began, the room was cleared of irreplaceables like Taka. Before long an initial detonation had forced a piston down the horizontal length, compressing gasses until they erupted into the vertical, hurling the payload skyward.

Above, the PAAF patrolled against the intrusion of enemy spy planes, for it would be no good thing if the event were connected to what moments later would hopefully occur in Osaka.

There, in Japan, Banat operatives idled about the city, one sitting amongst homeless ex-businessmen, another at a bar with her friends, the radio on, and still another tinkering with the microphone boom he was paid to operate for a local news agency. Soon he would be on scene with the crew as they reported on a mysterious explosion down town. The network would wait a while before attempting to relay data back to Da’Khiem.

The Central Directorature, Da’Khiem
The clattering of doors recently closed rung about the huge, Spartan office after the Banat officer had departed. The comrade Director visually scanned the documentation left to him.

“Disposition of forces” It read. Ah, yes, the re-deployments were well in hand.

Northwest Defence District
Between the Korea Bay coast and the city of Hyeson
4th Rocket Support Brigade: 40xFROG-7B, 600xMLRS
6th Strategic Missile Field Regiment: 50xHwasong-6/Scud-C
5th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
11th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
5th Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
7th Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
5th Armoured Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 425xMedium Tanks, 25xMT-3MBTs, 210xLight Amphibious Tanks, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
5th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
12th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
13th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
24th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
25th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
32nd Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
4th Fighter Group: 12xS-10, 36xS-7, 36xS-6, 24xS-5
5th Air Strike Group: 24xK-1, 12xK-2

Northeast Defence District
From Hyeson to the East Sea coast at Ch’ongjin
5th Rocket Support Brigade: 40xFROG-7B, 600xMLRS
5th Strategic Missile Field Regiment: 50xHwasong-6/Scud-C
6th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
6th Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
6th Armoured Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 425xMedium Tanks, 25xMT-3MBTs, 175xLight Amphibious Tanks, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
6th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
11th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
14th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
23rd Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
6th Fighter Group: 24xS-7, 36xS-6, 12xS-5
4th Air Strike Group: 12xK-1, 24xK-2

Hamhung Defence District
Skirting the Westgaard Line
1st Rocket Support Brigade: 40xFROG-7B, 600xMRLS
3rd Strategic Missile Field Regiment: 50xHwasong-6/Scud-C
1st Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
10th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
3rd Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
4th Armoured Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 425xMedium Tanks, 25xMT-3MBTs, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
4th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
10th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
15th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
22nd Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
26th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
31st Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
33rd Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
3rd Fighter Group: 48xS-7, 36xS-6, 24xS-5
2nd Air Strike Group: 24xK-1, 24xK-2

Central Defence District
Concentrating on Da’Khiem, Pyongyang et cetera
21st Rocket Support Battalion: 10xFROG-7B, 150xMLRS
22nd Rocket Support Battalion: 10xFROG-7B, 150xMLRS
4th Strategic Missile Field Regiment: 50xHwasong-6/Scud-C
7th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
2nd Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
3rd Armoured Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 425xMedium Tanks, 25xMT-3MBTs, 175xLight Amphibious Tanks, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
1st Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
9th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
16th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
21st Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
27th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
30th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
34th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
1st Fighter Group: 12xS-11, 12xS-10, 48xS-7, 48xS-6

38th Defence District
Based on and around the former DMZ and the HARTS off its northern extent
3rd Rocket Support Brigade: 40xFROG-7B, 600xMLRS
2nd Strategic Missile Field Regiment: 50xHwasong-6/Scud-C
4th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
9th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
13th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
4th Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
2nd Armoured Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 425xMedium Tanks, 25xMT-3MBTs, 210xLight Amphibious Tanks, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
8th Armoured Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 425xMedium Tanks, 210xLight Amphibious Tanks, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
2nd Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100zQW-2 MANPADS
8th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
17th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
20th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
5th Fighter Group: 36xS-7, 48xS-6, 12zS-5
3rd Air Strike Group: 12xK-1, 12xK-2

Southern Defence District
South of the 38th District, facing the ROK
2nd Rocket Support Brigade: 40xFROG-7B, 600xMLRS
23rd Rocket Support Battalion: 10xFROG-7B, 150xMLRS
24th Rocket Support Battalion: 10xFROG-7B, 150xMLRS
1st Strategic Missile Field Regiment: 50xHwasong-6/Scud-C
2nd Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
3rd Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
8th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
12th Field Artillery Brigade: 650xSPGs, 345xTowed Guns, 600xMedium/Heavy Mortars
1st Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
8th Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
9th Mechanised Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 400xType-192 APC, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
1st Armoured Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 425xMedium Tanks, 25xMT-3MBTs, 210xLight Amphibious Tanks, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
7th Armoured Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 425xMedium Tanks, 210xLight Amphibious Tanks, 4xDRAR-19 Mobile SAM, 100xQW-2 MANPADS, 100xD-ZSU-47-2 SPAAAGs
3rd Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
7th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
18th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
19th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
28th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
29th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
35th Infantry Brigade: 100xMedium/Heavy Mortars, 100xQW-2 MANPADS
2nd Fighter Group: 12xS-11, 12xS-10, 120xS-7, 36xS-6
7th Fighter Group: 240xS-5
1st Air Strike Group: 36xK-1, 48xK-2
1st Air Support Regiment:

(Though several hundred helicopters and piston-engine fixed-wing aircraft are involved in the defence of the Choson People’s Republic, they are not included in the re-deployment programme’s primary branch concerns. This is largely because they operate in such a piecemeal fashion that they can not be easily grouped and tend to flit from station to station on a regular basis.
It should also be noted that the report failed to detail several thousand pieces of heavy weaponry and scores of vehicles. The Red Bamboo and other Banat branches often operate as part of regular formations, and their equipment has as such been assigned to UPA units. But this is not always the case, and Red Bamboo commandos especially (several thousand of them) operate completely apart from the structures of the regular army. They are often responsible for the omission from records of the mentioned helicopters and transport planes as well as the thousands of missing mortars and MANPADS. Commando forces are frequently assembled for single missions, gathering weapons and equipment from a reserve pool so as not to break-up standing UPA formations as would result from withdrawing most Red Bamboo troops.)

OOC: Oh no! Dra-pol's planning to invade China and eat us all!

"Quickly! Out out out!" yells an LRRA Sub-Lieutenant at the ROKA troops jumping out of the clamshell doors of the big Mi-8.

About thirty Mi-8 helicopters hover over the rice paddy, some in ROK insignia, others in LRRA insignia. Gazelle scout helicopters and Ka-52 attack helicopters perform simulated attacks on the tanks of the 2nd assault division.

Several helicopters peel off and begin to emit an orange smoke, hit by AAA or SAMs, and some Mi-8s are downed as well.

T-SEP IFVs and modified PT-91 and other T-72 family tanks fire across the paddy at the landing helicopters and their deposited troops.

"Get the missile crews set up!" yells the Sub-Lieutnant as he runs between the platoons of ROKA infantrymen. The attack helicopters allow the heliborne troops to threaten the 2nd assault's positions, and come in contact with the 2nd's infantry detachments. The whine of miles gear can be heard as the ROKA troops try to rush the hill occupied by the 2nd assault division. Before long, the marshalls determine that the attacking force is too badly depleted and call an end to the excersize.

The engagement between the ROKA infantry and LRRA armored troops is quite typical of the area around Pusan and the southern ROK. While the LRRA still largely outclasses the ROKA in terms of conventional warfare capability, the ROKA's counter-insurgency tactics are years ahead of LRRA practice.

Meanwhile, somewhere on the Siberian plain...

"Clear downrange!"
"Downrange clear. Targets are in position, distance of twenty-two kilometers."
"Roger that."

A siren blares from a Tatra 8x8 command truck, and what looks like a version of the BM-21 GRAD swivels its launcher downrange. The truck is covered with various sensors, and the cab is unoccupied.

"Clear for firing."

A man wearing the uniform of an LRRA lieutenant begins flipping switches on a control panel connected with the vehicle's cab by a long cable. Before long, rockets begin to leap out from the launching tubes.

"On target in five...four...three...two...one...impact."

The rockets land on the group of T-55s, exploding one after another. An Mi-2UD helicopter flies to the targets and deposits a group of armory engineers.

"We'd say, oh, about an eighty percent hit rate at a fifty-degree deflection."
"Good performance. Alright, let's get packed up here."

The LRRA's newest weapon, the TM-13 long-range ATGM, was ready for production.

bump

Hey, that last post of mine should worry you, Dra-pol.

(Ah, not so much, since Da'Khiem probably doesn't know anything about it, and since it don't forsee many instances of twenty-odd kilometres of open-ground lying before its tanks in a combat situation, and because Da'Khiem sees LRR military involvement in Korea as decreasing, and because it does not believe that any new field weapons could prevent the UPA's over-running of what remains of the South. Oh, and because our own recent martial activities have been on a different scale, and include the re-deployment of ballistic missiles and the explosion by 'covert' shelling of a small piece of Japan on the one hand, and the training of Mago Force on the other. ATGMs be darned :) )

OOC: .. alright that Drapol arrogance is really beginning to annoy me. I dunno if its supposed to be IC arrogance only but it seems to be spreading to your OOC comments as well.

Please do not act as if the war is over before it even begins. That is just plain and simply patronizing. Now maybe I'm just pissed cuz today is not going well... but your comments have been annoying me for quite some time.

(Hurrah! My thread is degenerating into another theatre of abstract and unprovoked bitching! What the fuck? My comments? What the hell? I've not had a good day myself, spending most of it with a coffin, but I don't see how you can think I'm being patronising when I'm talking about Da'Khiem's doctrines and beliefs... have you been paying any attention to what Dra-pol is?)

OOC
a note to everyone, since i've more or less left korea and has been disregarded, since my major role for a while was to shuttle Korean refugees to camps in my nation.

The camps are overflowing, since there were a substantial amount of displaced people. Riots are rampant, and some camps have even rebelled, since supplies are limited, and the re-location agencies are moving slowly (still as fast as possible for a bureaucracy).

would it not make an itneresting RP to have spies in one of the camps (from Dra-pol) who might wish to subvert the camp and turn it into a rebellion or something? Now that would be a fascinating twist of events....

Off the coast of Dra-pol
Aboard attack submarine Heisho, Jung Eun-ho commanding

"Captain, sonar reads five Dra-poel submarines nearby," Sonar Officer Nakagawa Yumiko reported. "Profile is a dead match for one of those tin sharks the Dra-poel use."

Eun-ho nodded, and checked the radar screen. Her crew was one of the few all-female crews in Red Group, where traditional attitudes about women serving aboard submarines still persisted. Cases of sexual harassment were few and far in between, due mostly to harsh penalties, a code of honor, and the fact that almost any woman who passed Islandian warrior training would be more than able to maim a man twice her size. Still, though women had been accepted into the Marines, the Air Force, and Naval surface and aviation, submariners refused to let many women onto their boats. Although women were now allowed onto all-female submarines in Blue, Green, and Gray Groups, Red Group refused to allow any women on, until now. Heisho was to be the test. If they failed, women would be forever banned from joining the ranks of Red Group.

Eun-ho smiled. The Rules of Engagement had dictated that she disrupt, in any way she could short of starting a war, the Dra-poel exercises.

"Submarines have detected us," Sonar called.

"Engines, switch to caterpillars," Eun-ho ordered. "Weapons, prepare countermeasures and link an EMP to my console for detonation. Range to submarines?"

"Three thousand meters," sonar replied.

"Prepare decoy," Sung ordered. "Navigation, find us a way out of here in a hurry, and call me back when you're done."

"What now?" weapons asked.

"Stay put," Eun-ho ordered. "Weapons, fire up the sonic array also, in case they throw anything at us."

With the onset of the winter months in the sea of Okhotsk, LRRN activity slows down as the winter ice begins to form.

The seas around Sakhalin, where ice does not hinder sea operations even during the height of winter, start getting rougher. Fortunately for the LRRN, the Son House class patrol ships have excellent seakeeping and can operate in storms.

Dra-pol naval excersizes do not cause too much worry, considering LRRN craft almost totally outclass Dra-pol ships, and a hefty force of Son Houses plus Howlin' Wolf corvettes can be called down from Sakhalinsk. There's usually a few frigates around as well, plus airforce anti-shipping squadrons and submarines.

OCC: But Dra-pol, my new ATGMs have a potential range in excess of 30 kilometers!!!

While this might not worry the UPA (although it really should, especially in the flatter areas along the east coast), it's, like, the best thing since canned foods for the LRRA, since now we can ward off massive armored formations on the steppes from a safe distance! Aren't you excited?!?!?

IC:

"Requesting rocket support, six kilometers northwest of our current position...say square F9H, over."
"Roger that, over."

Lieutenant Vladimir Ivanovich peeks out of the hatch of his T-72 family main battle tank, and turns his focus towards several other T-72 family tanks moving across a flat patch several kilometers away.

"Alright...get a lock on that first one."

The gunner gets a laser lock on the lead tank with their ATGM aiming system. Apparently, it is detected by the tank's warning system, and the column speeds up. Then, clouds of purple smoke begin eminating from a good deal of the fifty-odd 'enemy' tanks, hit by a simulated barrage from an R-112SF2 battery.

The LRRA armored forces need to stay on their toes if they are to pose a threat to Dra-pol's armored hordes.

A good deal of new LRR armored vehicles had been shipped to Korea, like the T-SEP IFV (although no T-SEP APCs), modified BMP-1s and -2s, modified to serve as tank destroyers and recon vehicles, and the newest tanks and rocket artillery systems.

Back in LRR proper, the numerous regular army units do what they always do: sit around. There's always the occasional manouver to relieve the boredom, however, and with the introduction of new weapons, there's crews to train.

With the recent replacement of the Wiesel with the BWP-1MP, CVR(T) crews are trained in how to operate with their larger, but much more powerful vehicles. With two Hellfire II missiles or a 20mm cannon/dual Spike-ER armement, the BWP-1MP offers a major improvement over the Wiesel, and its modular characteristics allow a variety of weapons systems to be dropped in, like the new TM-13 very long range ATGMs.

The infantry divisions also recieve the newest versions of the T-SEP and W-SEP, their primary vehicles, and retool. The LRRAF continues much as it always has, with its large collection of aircraft, the Super Gripen dominant among them. This twin-engined Gripen variant offers many advantages over the original, and remains very light and manouverable.

Back in Korea, better counter-insurgency units are also being trained. LRRMFs special forces units work to get a sizeable ROKA special operations unit up and running, and quickly, to replace the heavy losses sustained in the war for reunification, and to counter the Red Bamboo and Banat.

OOC: Don't get me started on this Drapol.... just please be careful in how you refer to 'inevitability' and stuff... I know Dakhiem is arrogant beyond belief.. but that shouldn't extend to how you see things.

IC:

-Ulsan-

The second shipment of armoured vehicles in a week had finally arrived in harbour ready to be driven off, refueled and taken to their respective units. The APCs were all made in Hudecia, but it was hoped that with the proper investment, South Korea could be making these vehicles within the year.

Training of the new units was going as slow as ever, but with increased LRR support there was a new sense of excitement buzzing about the camps.

In Pohang, the Hudecian-made aviation factory was beginning to churn out its first F-18s and F-22s. Although you could count the number of planes produced this month on a single hand it was an important motivating factor in the air force.

Thanks to LRR taking over much of the land-based equipment needs, the Hudecia military aid was being poured into the air force and navy. There was even talk of the H-2 (my new terminology for the Avro Arrow Mk2) being built for the Korean Air Force.

In Ulsan, the first Ulsan-class frigate was just coming out of the shipyards. It had been in production for a long time and was finally ready to be christened. Naturally, it was christened the 'Hope'.

OOC: .. alright that Drapol arrogance is really beginning to annoy me. I dunno if its supposed to be IC arrogance only but it seems to be spreading to your OOC comments as well.

OOC: I agree. There's a difference between confidence (e.g. Gen. Liu) and arrogance (e.g. Hotan).

OOC:This is thread is based on the Geography one, right?

On the nearby border, millitary has become a way of life. On the brighter side, Xiaguo has been given annual amounts of milliary craft and machinery by Sino. However, due to the self strengthening campaigne, Xiaguo has finally begun assembling their own Type 98's, The self developed Huaxia and Dongyi Frigates/Destroyers. A whole lot more is being done into reforming the millitary. With the overwhelming amounts of millitary equiptment, the young are keen to join the army.

However, peace has remained in the Dra-Pol Xiaguo border. The government has also hoped to keep it that way, but Xiaguo will always carry around a bamboo stick, in case of trouble.

(Dra-pol has made no noises to indicate an invasion of China, Mr.Sino, but in light of rampant Sinoese jingoism and the apparent closeness between that nation and our principle northern neighbour, the border is quite heavily protected... plus, LRR's up that way, and they've fought the Republic in the past. D'Khiem is hardly likely to rule-out some sort of co-operation to allow forces to attack over-land from Russia. And if Sino wants to continue utterly misunderstanding and underestimating its chosen rival in Korea, that's no skin off my nose, eh.
Anyway, in the past it was absolutely certain that Dra-pol would win any Korean war without breaking a sweat... but that's a primary reason for me starting this whole realism thing. I'm clearly the last one you should be thinking of in this light, Hudecia.
I don't want this thread to get any more off track... it is mostly supposed to be about the little things that Dra-pol is doing, so that people can keep track at least OOC, and sometimes IC.)

OOC: *sigh* agreed Drapol.. and kudos to you for starting the whole realism thingy too. I'll post South Korean military stats as soon as I get the chance to compile them.

IC:

South Korean trainees began arriving at the Pohang Military Airfield for their first flight lessons. At the base are 10 F-18s, 5 F-22s and 2 H-2s. The base is also equipped with a flight simulator system to cut down on the stresses required for the planes.

Hudecian officers would be aiding Korean officers in the training course but for the most part were allowing the Koreans to take full control of their own training program.

Such was the status of Hudecian involvement in South Korean affairs, a polite detachment, but ever present, ready to jump back into control if need be.

Preparations for the first nation-wide elections would be held within the month. Naturally, Drapol was excluded from the elections for 'security' reasons'.

Drapol, in case u forgot, my submarine is provoking ur submarine.

The Chinese-Korean border defense units, The Gao Li Border Police numbers have been increased after intellegence from other countries have suggested trouble near the refugee and border camps.

Here are the specifics for Combined Forces Group-Republic Of Korea:

~450 PT-91B tanks
~1,000 T-SEP APCs
~350 T-SEP IFVs
~3,500 various logistical vehicles (Bv-206Ts, MLV-2s, other stuff, etc.)
~500 BWP-1MP scout vehicles

~25 Buddy Guy missile boats
~3 Sovremenny destroyers
~8 De Zeven Provincien frigates

~100 Su-25 II attack jets
~150 MiG-21-2000 multirole fighters

And for the entire army:

9,000 PT-91B main battle tanks
150 ST-21 main battle tanks (out of 400 planned)
3,000 T-62E Engineer's chassis vehicles

9,000 T-SEP-A APCs/carriers
7,000 T-SEP-B Engineer's multipurpose vehicles
5,000 T-SEP-C IFVs
2,700 BWP-1MP scouting vehicles

2,000 W-SEP wheeled armored vehicles

400 Pzh-2000 155mm SPH
600 2S5 152mm SPH
800 2S1 122mm SPH

3,000 MT-12 Anti-tank guns
3,000 D-30 100mm field guns
1,500 2A45 125mm anti-tank guns

100 Smerch-B 300mm long-range MRLs
650 Uragan-B 160mm MRLs (TM-13 capable)
1,500 GRADLAR 160mm MRLs (TM-13 capable)
4,000 R-112SF2 112mm MRLs

350 SA-11 MOD SAMs
600 RBS-23 SAMs
~5,000 SA-9 shoulder-launched SAMs

(ABM and long-range SAMs not included)

12,000 assorted AAA and SPAAGs, models include:

ZSU-23-4B
ZPU-23
ZPU-4
ZPU-2

1,000 Mi-8PMV helicopters
740 Gazelle II scout helicopters
400 Ka-52 attack helicopters

250,000 or so logistical vehicles, which include TGB-20A, TGB-20AL, Tatra 8x8, Bv-206T series, MLV-2.

At least 8,000 ambulence vehicles of various models.

Air Force

150 Fifth-Generation aircraft (ZaS-42s and copies)
505 FRA. 4 fighter/bomber aircraft (a delta-wing/canard aircraft, twin-engined, perhaps similar to the JAS-39, but with two engines)
400 MiG-21-2000 tactical fighter/bombers

290 L-159 tactical fighter/bombers
300 Tornado II attack/interdiction aircraft
400 Jaguar II attack/interdiction aircraft

30 Nimrod MOD patrol aircraft
45 PA. 6 patrol aircraft
12 Il-80 AWACS aircraft
10 assorded Il-79-series special mission aircraft

100 Il-76 tankers
150 An-70 transports
200 An-2 transports
150 An-72 transports

400 Shorts Tucano Trainers
550 L-39 trainers

150 Sea King SAR helicopters

Approximately 1,000 airframes in reserve or used for spare parts

Navy

25 U-212 AIP attack submarines

14 Sovremenny class destroyers
15 Novik MOD class frigates
30 Gepard MOD corvettes
20 Spanish Castle Magic corvettes/icebreakers/minesweepers

110 Son House class patrol vessels
20 Buddy Guy minesweepers/coastal patrol ships

1 Ivan Rogov assault ship
6 Ropucha assault ships
10 Zubr assault hovercrafts
60 minor assault hovercrafts

4 Submarine rescue ships
5 Oceangoing heavy tugs
2 Tender ships
50-60 tugs

Seoul, the Choson People’s Republic of Dra-pol

It was Monday morning and Yi Cho-Min was not aboard the designated bus that usually would by now be taking her to the Seoul University of the People’s Republic (formerly Seoul National University). Nor were a great deal of her friends and classmates. They had in fact refused to board the vehicle and were now –in growing numbers- marching down one of the city’s few operational main roads.

Most highways had, since the liberation and the disallowing of private transport, been abandoned or given-over to military use, either for conventional transit or in some cases as runways for the People’s Army Air Force. Those universities in Seoul that had remained open were of course re-organised along proper Drapoel lines. They now looked in many ways a lot more like schools attended by younger children, though the subject matter was of course more complicated and a measure of pioneering research was still conducted, all be it under a greater degree of regimentation.

Aboard the bus, Kang Soon-Gi sat quietly for a time, trying and failing to appear relatively unphased by his unexpected solitude. Well, perhaps it ought not to have been so unexpected, he’d been subject to some of the same rabble-rousing as his peers on the 107 university-bus, it was just that he hadn’t believed it more than idle talk. Assuming that wisdom would prevail, he’d shrugged it off, proving to any future investigation by the Central Directorature that southerners were indeed soft in their wits and in their work ethic, and that they simply didn’t make good operatives for the Banat.

Back in the street, Yi’s procession had grown to scores in strength and had begun to raise banners and fairly meek chants. The students were apparently voicing their disapproval of impending elections to the Seoul Special Regional Directorature People’s Liaison Committee. By this ballot, Seoul’s remaining five million or so residents were expected to elect eight persons to sit in attendance of the Seoul Special Regional Directorature on the Han island of Yeouido, formerly home to the National Assembly.

Yi Cho-Min and her comrades clearly felt that this new system was somehow improper, and the young ringleader was shouting about how participation in these elections would only validate the Kurosite regime, and would never change who sat in the Central Directorature.

As yet, the protest or whatever it was remained just minutes old, and unnoticed by most of the city's busy occupants.

-Busan-

The provisional authority in Busan was watching the situation in Seoul unfold with a bit of dread and fear as they suspected the result would not be bloodless. Still, members of the government prayed that Drapol would not overreact to the small group of protestors.

-Pohang-

Hudecian Military Distribution Report (incomplete)

Total military force: 50 000

Ulleung do- 3rd Marine Division II Corps - 5 000

OOC: Sorry.. got to run to class will finish this later...

OOC- Is East Islandia recognised by the "Modern World?"
IC- Quinntonina agents in Souel who have been trying to organise some student resistance at the various centers of learning in and around Soeul are watching with great interest and reporting back to their superioris in Quinntonian Dra-pol Military High Command. It is very exciting, and they are making sure to pass out disposable and Polaroid cameras of very easy-to use types to the students and passersby all the while setting up hidden video camera positions along the route that the students seem to be taking.
Soong-Pop-Kim, agent for Quinntonina Dra-pol, turns and says to his partner, there is going to be blood in the streets today, may the Lord Adonai help us all!"
WWJD
Amen.

OOC- Is East Islandia recognised by the "Modern World?"
.

Most of the time

maybe not now.

Quinntonia - USA, 300 million
Quinntonian Dra-pol - Hamhung- 6 million
Hudecia - Canada-30 million
Spyr - Lyong Pen-60 million
LRR-Russia - 143 million(CIA Factbbok)
Marimaia - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Eastern Myanmar- 95 million
Union of Burma-rest of Myanmar, under Marimaian 'protection'-42 million
Dra-pol-N. Korea - 34 million
North Yaman - 15 million
Sangun-Vietnam - 82 million
Beth Gellert - 300 million (southern Indian Ocean, across from Madagascar, or perhaps Madagascar?)
Xiaguo - 700 million (Northern China, Mongolia, Xinjiang)
Sino - 600 million (Southern China)
Chuang-Han - 98 million
Taiwan - 28 million
S. Korea-Hudecia and LRR.
Bonstock-Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia -250 million
O & I- Japan- 127 million
Wulaishen-Phillipines-86 million

This is the codified list of populations and teritories of all the nations currently recognised by the Modern World.

Are you saying that I missed you, or that you are looking to join? If I missed you I am extremely sorry, I just put the list together over the last week.

its alrite. I suppose i would like to be a part of the modern world.

Um.. put me down for an imaginary location somewhere in the west pacific, near tahiti and those islands. My nation is largely imaginary (in terms of location and territory, not culture) and somewhat ambiguous, even to me. I suppose having me join the modern world is a good thing, so now i can tell where i am.

heh. thanx.

Back in LRR, the regular army, navy, and airforce units get ready for the winter manouvers, generally regarded as the favorite time of year for manouvers.

Vehicles, ships, and aircraft are fitted with modified MILES gear for use during the excersizes, which will see the debut of the TM-13, mounted on an 8x8, 6x6 or BWP-2MB chassis, and probably some other things too.

The TM-13 isn't a terribly accurate weapon, considering the unpredictability of the rocket charges, but is very useful because of the fact that so many are fired per savlo, and the simplicity of the guidance heads means that they come cheap. They can be designed to track IR signatures, but radar-seeking models are the most popular, which are supposed to pick up millimetric-wave radars used by *coughcoughcoughgt6coughcoughcough* and other tanks.

Other ATGMs, like the Spike series, remain in widespread use, and there are plans to extend the range of the missile out to 10-12 km, in which case it would replace the Hellfire II.

During the winter excersizes, there have been instances of battles evolving into massive snowball fights after all simulated ammunition had run out and 'dead' troops started to get bored.

Back on Korea, LRRAF aircrews look out with envy on the F-22s operated by the ROKAF. While the LRRAF definately has more good planes, most of its planes are modified Gripens or MiG-21s. Stealth's for squares, or so the saying goes.

The unusually named Akiyoro Huro-Kim was counted by many of his drinking partners as the luckiest man on earth. He would frequently be enticed into telling his story, and though he would always be reluctant at first, the fact was that the little Drapoel man couldn’t keep up with his Siberian co-boozers, and he’d always be ground-down before the night was out.
His story would usually start during the Crusader Wars, when he and a comrade he’d only ever known as Cho-Il were embedded Banat operatives in Hamhung during the initial stages of Quinntonian occupation. He’d sometimes talk a little about how he worked on the infiltration tunnels and how the one next to his suffered a partial collapse and was found-out by the Christians’ security forces, and how he heard that its quartet of occupants had fought to the death despite being stuck in a hole. That was his first bit of good fortune, in as much as that his tunnel was never found-out. He would tell of months spent in a basement, seeing not more than three people for great stretches of time. Then the various People’s Army shellings of the occupied city through which he’d sometimes sheltered and other times received orders to take to the streets and fight, only to vanish again when the tide turned. Thousands who hid were killed, but men (and women) like Akiyoro were in the thick of the bombardment, taking on security forces and emergency services as friendly shells fell about them.
And that wasn’t the end of it, of course! He was one of the few Republican agents ever to be extracted from the fortified city, and he would tell enchanted listeners of various subsequent covert operations for the Banat. He survived all of those, too. And then the bit they half-knew, the bit where he and a couple of his comrades defected across the 38th parallel, the others falling to mines, pursuing Drapoel border guards, and wary defenders on the southern side. Akiyoro was apparently blessed somehow to have continued to survive where others fell in so many dramatic events (OOC: most of which are actual RP events, for those who may not recall (since they were months ago!)). He’d tried to warn the ROK of what was coming, but who would believe that the CPRD had tunnels enough to move quarter of a million men by train to locations south of Seoul without being detected? Again Akiyoro was lucky not to suffer the fate of a Drapoel spy!
And then the attack came, hundreds of thousands perished, and Huro-Kim again escaped, this time to the south coast and its evacuation centres... and before the nuclear exchanges destroyed the port he used!
He now lived in LRR, and had done so for many months without being caught-out by the Banat who he insisted had twice tried to assassinate him as a traitor.

Yeah, that story got him a few free drinks. A few more than he might have liked, to be honest, but it wasn’t the sort of thing about which one was apt to complain.

Still, he enjoyed minor celebrity, having appeared on South Korean television, warning a local news station near the border that it was on the target list of General Hozaro’s 100th Assault Division’s field artillery brigades. With proper research one could learn that Akiyoro is, of all the people in shot, the only one still alive. Any surviving copies of the tape were probably in Drapoel hands after the ruined station’s over-running by the 35th Infantry Brigade, 100th Assault Division.

“And now you’re assistant to a travelling guitar-string salesman? Why aren’t you working for the government?”
“Yeah, you must know more than anyone about what’s going on in Dra-pol.”
“Nobody’s asked.” Akiyoro would say, lately finishing by asking for the remote, because he wanted to see if there was any coverage of the winter manoeuvres.


(Yes, I'm running a truck-load of story-lines at once... what of it?)

One of the bargoers, a tall mongol wearing glasses with thick plastic rims, flips on the television.

On the screen, the regional news shows long lines of vehicles getting ready on the steppes. Most are easily identifiable, common LRR types. In the background, a train rolls past one of the trans-siberian railway's many offspring routes.

An army Sub-Lieutenant takes the camera crew around, showing them the different vehicles.

...And this is the reconnisance troupe. They've got these vehicles here...BWP-1MPs. They are a lot smaller than the SEP-line vehicles, but use most of the same technology. They've got a crew of six and a very long range. This here's the IR camera mast. It can go up six meters...

There is still a good week before the opening skirmishes, but test-firings of the TM-13 have been reported on. Then, the news goes to international affairs, discussing the various human rights hotspots which have LRR's attention, and advertising petitions, a good deal dealing with Tibet. Video clips showing LRR engineers and medical staff at work all over the world are accompanied by short descriptions of the task. The situation in Burma gets quite a bit of reporting as well, since it is currently the only place where LRR troops are involved in actual fighting.

What upsets the bargoers the most is footage from the city of Mergui, destroyed by Bonstock, which is currently being rebuilt by LRRA engineers.

...In a blind fury, the forces deployed by Bonstock to Myanmar rased the city of Mergui to the ground, killing an unknown number of thousands and plundering its treasures. Army medical and engineer teams arrived on the scene just yesterday, to find fires still smouldering, and wounded civilians everywhere. Marimaian forces are also on the scene here. Public anger is high at this atrocity, but it is directed at Bonstock and not the other nations currently involved in Myanmar...this is Abdul Kayyam reporting for RBC world news...

Outside the bar, snowflakes begin to fall on the grasslands, which stretch as far as the eye can see between the Urals and the Yenisey river. The small town couldn't be much futher out of Banat reach. Located on the Ob river, it is usually accessed by flatboat, although there is a train station not far southeast.

The clock, from a Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine, which were not used by the LRRN but who's shipyards scrapped a few, passes ten thirty at night, and the band gets into Rollin' And Tumblin', a Muddy Waters classic.

"So," says the Mongolian, who works as a track repairman on the railway, "how did you manage to survive the assassination attempts?"

Hudecian Korean Command – 53 000

-2nd Army-
II Corps
III Corps
IV Corps (half of it – other half in Okinawa)

Ulleung Do
II Corps III Marine Division

Jeju Do
III Corps III Marine Division
III Corps V Engineering Division

Korean Archipelago
IV Corps III Marine Division

Pohang
II Corps I Mechanized Infantry Division

Jyeongju
II Corps II Artillery Division

Ulsan
II Corps IV Armoured Division
II Corps V Engineering Division
II Corps VI Medical Division

Gumi
IV Corps I Mechanized Infantry Division

Gwangju
IV Corps II Artillery Division
IV Corps IV Armoured Division
IV Corps VI Medical Division

Daejeon
III Corps IV Armoured Division
III Corps II Artillery Division
III Corps VI Medical Division

Gunsan
III Corps I Mechanized Infantry Division

(OOC: For the sake of my sanity, for now I will not post light weapons stats.)

Statistics:
Mechanized Infantry Division – 4 000
200 HMMWV Jeeps
100 M818 Trucks
100 M151 FAVs
50 M113 APCs
100 Bradley M2A3 IFV

Artillery Division – 4 000
200 M923 5 ton trucks
100 M198 Towed Howitzers
75 XM777 LW155 Howitzers
25 M109A6 Paladins
50 M48 Chaparral SAM
50 ADATS Bradley
50 Skyshield-35s
50 227mm MLRS

III Marine Division – 4000
40 UH-60s
50 AAVP7A1 Assault Amphibian Vehicle Personnel

IV Armoured Division – 4000
200 M1A2 Abrams MBT
100 TUA M113A3
50 M60A3 MBT
50 Bradley M2A3 IFV

V Engineering Division – 3000
100 M911/M747 Heavy Equipment Transporter System (HETS)
100 ENG / ARV LAV III
100 M548A3 Cargo Carrier
50 M9 Armoured Combat Earth Mover

VI Medical Division - 1000
50 M-113 Armored Medical Evacuation Vehicle AMEV

(OOC: Naval and air force stats to come)

Quinntonia - USA, 300 million
Quinntonian Dra-pol - Hamhung- 6 million
Hudecia - Canada-30 million
Spyr - Lyong Pen-60 million
LRR-Russia - 143 million(CIA Factbbok)
Marimaia - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Eastern Myanmar- 95 million
Union of Burma-rest of Myanmar, under Marimaian 'protection'-42 million
Dra-pol-N. Korea - 34 million
North Yaman - 15 million
Sangun-Vietnam - 82 million
Beth Gellert - 300 million (southern Indian Ocean, across from Madagascar, or perhaps Madagascar?)
Xiaguo - 700 million (Northern China, Mongolia, Xinjiang)
Sino - 600 million (Southern China)
Chuang-Han - 98 million
Taiwan - 28 million
S. Korea-Hudecia and LRR.
Bonstock-Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia -250 million
O & I- Japan- 127 million
Wulaishen-Phillipines-86 million


I would prefer, EI if you chose an existing land mass and population as having an ambigious landmass is one of the problems we are trying to get out of with all this.
WWJD
Amen.

Then i take the south pacific (tahiti, marquesas islands, etc).

-Busan-

With elections right around the corner, major political parties began to form and campaign in the southern part of the peninsula. Of course, a few maveriks would try to cross the border and campaign in Drapol... but they weren't heard back from so much.

Parties: (OOC: Some are real, some are not)
United Liberal Democrats
Millenium Democratic Party
Democratic Unification Party
New Alliance Democrats

OOC: I figured that since there are four main nations that could influence this election, we'll split the vote up into four equal parts. Drapol gets 25%, LRR gets 25%, QUintonnia gets 25% and I get 25%.

We each get to decide how to divide our percentage among the 4 parties. I'll post stats about the parties later. I'd like some feedback on this.

It goes without saying that LRR will support the most left-leaning party involved in the elections, something that falls into the 'pink zone.'

Meanwhile, ROKAF pilots fly in several simulated dogfights against LRRAF MiG-21-2000s.

A squadron of ROKAF F-16s flies against a squadron of LRRAF MiG-21-2000s over the Jeju strait. The little MiGs, flown by more experienced but less aggressive LRR pilots, pick up the Falcons on their radar coming up from their home base, and 'fire' simulated Adder AAMs (downgraded Blackadder) from their maximum range.

In other news, the LRRN has decided to lease the ROKN ten Grisha class corvettes to prop up coastal defense while the Korean shipyards get back up to speed.

The Grishas, all in pretty good condition, are recently retired from the LRRN, which replaced them with Gepard-class ships. The other 15 Grishas not recycled are being held in reserve at St. Petersburg.

But beyond the Grishas, not much LRR military equipment has been sent to the ROK. Most aid is in the form of training and on-the-ground defense.

It is being debated wether to give the ROK the production liscence for the single-engined model of the FRA. 4, what might be called a twin-engined copy of the Gripen or a ripoff of the Eurofighter.

United Liberal Democrats (LRR)

-Left leaning party
-Strong social activism

Millenium Democratic Party (Hudecia)

-right leaning party
-focuses more on economical issues

New Alliance Party (Quintonnia)

-religious party
-extremely conservative social values
-strong military values

Democratic Unification Party (Drapol)

-left leaning party
-supports conditional reunification with Drapol if elected
-strong dislike for foreign presence.

OOC: Now if you said that I pretty much made a party for each of us, then you'd be pretty much right. If the party supporting Drapol wins (heaven forbid) then Drapol would have to RP the S. Korean government. If the party supporting Quintonnia wins, then they would take over RPing the government and so on.

We'll have the elections every so often so the government may shift different ways.

We'll have the elections every so often so the government may shift different ways.

(Unless the DUP wins, of course ;) )

Seoul

Yi Cho-Min’s rally had progresses some hundreds of metres along major bus routes in the city and gathered a couple of hundred participants, most of them fellow students made aware of the event some time in advance. Here and there a few locals and commuters tagged along, but most either stood by in curiosity or confusion, or, for fear of trouble, hurried along with their heads down.

The mob was gradually moving from a bundle of nerves to a party of chants and singing as students called-out in support of lecturers who’d lost their jobs after being indicated by Banat agents, some of whom had worked at Seoul University for years before the reunification. They also shouted in protest at the removal of former elected politicians and the fact that –though some of the eight posts at the Seoul Special Regional Directorature People’s Liason Committee were open to nomination of any local public figures- there was no longer space made to return all pre-war officials to public office.

Some local police were beginning to turn-out, mostly South Koreans allowed to work-on after being identified as co-operative, but they were as yet few and concerned mainly with confiscating cameras, unsure what to make of the growing procession.

When the university opened its doors to a storm of inactivity as all but the most dedicated or terrified students and Banat informants stayed away, alarm bells were finally sounded on the grand workshop floor that calls itself the Choson People’s Republic. The cogs were finally turning with calls put in to Directoratures Local, Regional, and Central, but in the meantime Yi and her comrades marched on, now six hundred strong.

In what might be called a breakthrough decision, the parliamentary assemblies in Moscow, Omsk, and Sakhalinsk (representing their respective thirds of the country in 'central' government) have decided to give the ROK production liscences for the FRA. 4A-1 multirole air-defense fighter.

The parliamentary assemblies in Chechnya and the Caucasian autonomous republics (sort of like Canada to LRR) are expected to follow suit, and allow Tarantul and Nanuchka missile boats to be transferred to the ROK, pending the delivery from the LRR state arsenals of Son House class vessels.

Meanwhile, LRR government reaction to events in Seoul is one of excitement, and hope that such events might hint at social change in Dra-pol.

OOC: I agree. There's a difference between confidence (e.g. Gen. Liu) and arrogance (e.g. Hotan).

Dra-pol arrogance?!? Try Sinoese racism...

If I were to RP with you guys with my Asian side of the nation could I pick Manchuria as my landmass?

OOC: Hogsweat, I think Xiaguo occupies Manchuria.

IC:

-Busan-

Reaction among the provisional government was swift and encouraging. The government immediately extended its gratitude to the LRR government and people for supporting the Korean people so steadfastly in times of trouble and times of peace.

-Pohang-

With many F-22s and F-18s still on the line, talk of creating an expanded production capacity for the LRR fighters was at the top of the day's concerns for management and line workers alike.

For the S. Korean air force, the news was as exciting as it gets. With Hudecian H-2s being more or less donated to the air force, F-22s being produced, and now production rights to the 4A-1 fighter given the air force needed more training capacity. Which was a small worry to the air force as the supply of recruits was almost limitless.

-Ulsan-

A second Okpo class destroyer was nearing completion as the first one began its sea trials at long last.

Hudecian made Ulsan class frigates currently made up the entirety of the Korean navy, but with LRR vessels beginning to arrive and Korean made warships being produced, the Korean navy began an active recruiting drive in countries like East Islandia and Xiaguo where many Koreans had fled to.

Yep, Xiaguo Occupies Manchuria What You can have is Mongolia, India+Shri Lanka, ANY country from Middle East, the Americas, except for Canada and the USA. Any country from Europe. ANy country from Africa.

I recomend you India, or Mongolia.


A Law has been passed to restrict Korean refugees from attending foreign Millitary service including S. Korea. The Law was included into the amendment that allows immigrants to work freely in the coutry and oversees.

A similiar law was passed to allow immigrants and refugees to be recruited into any service of the Constitutional Republic of China.

A Special Amendment was added, Anyone without citizenship may join the army and remain in active service for 3 years and they can obtain full citizenship. However, it is an optional choice, even after the service. Many Koreans have obtained full citizenship rights. SOme of them are still innthe army looking forward into serving their original homeland.

However, many Koreans have been joing the Chinese Army to be shipped oversees to S. Korea to serve the patrol and defense duties there in cooperation with Hudecia. Xiannese troops number 16,000 in S. Korea.

The ships donated from the Volgostan republics leave Rostov aboard large container ships, bound for the port of Pusan. While the LRR government obviously supports the current status quo with regards to territorial rights, support for a softer approach towards Dra-pol and a more socially progressive government in the south indicate a wish to, at some point, re-unite the peninsula under a single banner, but it is the opinion of the LRR government that ceeding the entire thing to Dra-pol in its current state would be a bad idea.

The Constitutional Republic of XIaguo has signed a bill to contribute 10 billion Yuans to the South Korean Government.

Humanitarian Aid and supplies has also been started once again.

OOC: Alright, LRR, Quinntonia, Drapol.. I think I've given you guys enough time to scheme and plot about the vote... so lets hear how you are going to divy up your percentages. As for me, I've nothing to hide so here goes...

United Liberal Democrats: 8%
Millenium Democratic Party: 12%
New Alliance Party: 4%
Democratic Unification Party: 1%

Also, please be aware that you can pour all 25% of your support behind a single party, you do not have to separate it up between all 4 parties.

I've been reading this everyday, just never tagged it. So, here's my explained Tag...

Islandian fighter units, including the famous Musa Brigade, are sent to Korea from Japan. They are to wargame with the ROK and allied air forces.

Craft include the J37, J10, and J41 fighters.

Da'Khiem has described the escalation of foreign military involvement in Korea, happening in conjunction with the opening of peaceful diplomatic talks in Hamhung, as, "disappointing" and the arrival of new forces and weapons as, "provocational". In response, the Central Directorature has taken the unusual step of pre-emptively announcing its intention to carry-out winter exercises this year. Not only is the fact of announcement unprecedented, but that it means two major training operations in the space of twelve months is also unusual, traditionally not occuring because of fuel shortages, other financial constraints, and that over 70% of forces were tied unfailingly to the 38th parallel.

Quite what conditions are different this year is perhaps a matter for debate.

In the meanwhile, any aircraft flying close to the Drapoel border will find themselves routinely tracked by communist air defence radar and may detect fighters scrambled opposite them.

The LRR winter excersizes seem to be getting underway, with units taking position and such. The T-SEP series of APCs, the backbone of the army, is present in a wide range of variants, some carrying the new TM-13 system, others carrying the Spike-EER missiles, replacements for the Hellfire II. The Volgostan republics also begin their military excersizes, and formations of their wide range of wheeled vehicles, well-suited to the farmlands and steppe, warm up in the increasingly frigid air.

The shipment of second-class naval vessels to the ROK, which is as much to keep them from crowding the harbor at Rostov as anything, and the liscencing of the FRA. 4A-1, are seen as simply intermediary measures taken to prop up the ROK's defensive position until the problem of Korean unification can be better-solved. After all, Dra-pol would have to open up someday.

(Note how not even the MiG-21-2000 is liscenced out. The FRA. 4A-1 is a cheap, single-engined version of the FRA. 4. Not in a million years would the government approve the liscencing, or even sale, of anything close to the best version of any LRR military hardware to anyone except our closest of close allies.)

While the events happening in Dra-pol are monitored closely, they are not regarded with much alarm. After all, the LRRMFs are still bigger, and it takes less of the GDP to maintain them. A train trip along the trans-siberian railway to Vladivostok, after some political begging with the Lyong nations, would bring at least a few divisions into play on the northern border, veunerable from what I gather.

Meanwhile, the government decides to throw its total support behind the United Liberal Democrats. With such a government, LRR ideas could be interjected relatively easily, and perhaps the "Imagine" (named after the John Lennon song of the same name) style of governing people would catch on in Korea.

OOC: With LRR and Hudecia reporting the results to the South Korean elections are as follows

United Liberal Democrats: 34%
Millenium Democratic Party: 13%
New Alliance Party: 5%
Democratic Unification Party: 23%

Now I just need Quinntonia and Drapol to respond...

(Well, of course Dra-pol would be inclined to fully support the DUP, but I'm not sure that more than a few South Koreans (and Drapoel agents living there) would actually vote for them. Ah well, I suppose it doesn't matter... even if I do put my 25% behind them, they're still 7% behind the leaders. Heh, go on then, stick 22% on the DUP and 1% on each of the others :) )

Xiannese annual shiptments of weapons have seized. The last shiptment, today, contained 20 Type 28's, and some crates containing multiple disclosed.

Humanitarian aid however, has been taken more seriosly then sending the ROK weapons, however, Xiannese troops will remain in the ROK for an unexpected time.

FYI:
Xiannese Ground Forces= Real Life Numbers
12% in ROK
18% in Nepal
10% in Xinjiang
4% in Mongolia, and the rest in centered near at the Eastern Coast Line, and larger cities.

24% of the Naval forces are currently in the South China Seas to assist the Hudecian forces.

Well, I am going to have to drop the full force of my conviction behind the New Alliance Party, which is probably largely funded by my nation anyways.
United Liberal Democrats: 34%
Millenium Democratic Party: 13%
New Alliance Party: 30%
Democratic Unification Party: 23%
Please check my math, but I think mine is the final vote, giving the win to the United Liberal Democrats, with the New Alliance in Opposition. Is this a parliamentary style of government? If so, we have a minority government here.
If so, I would be more than happy to discuss a Coalition Government.
WWJD
Amen.

OOC: Righto~ minority government... woo hoo.. .I lovea good minority. Oh and Drapol, the DUP doesn't necessarily support joining Drapol right away, merely holding an election to determine the wishes of the people (but really, its probably mostly controlled by Drapol sympathizers). Plus the DUP is socially liberal like the ULD.

IC:

Busan was abuz with the results of the national elections, the first since the war ended.

The governing Millenium Democratic Party was ousted from power with a dismal 13% showing. It was viewed by many as a rebuff to the sometimes harsh tactics of the party that supported stronger economic policies, but the results show that the Korean people are more interested in social issues now more than ever.

The Unification party, despite winning a fair percentage of the vote could face severe criticism for the comments its party leaders made about reunification during the election.

Interestingly, the people of South Korea are almost evenly split on most social issues, with 30% voting for the New Alliance, a right wing religious party, and 34% voting for the United Liberals a socially progressive party.

Nevertheless, the results were seen as a strong rebuff to Drapol as simply the fact that these elections occured goes against the Drapoel idea that foreigners control the country.

In other news, the presence of foreign troops on the peninsula will be the first item on the agenda for the new government. Hudecia, Xiaguo and LRR all have troops stationed there, Hudecia's governing body has even promised to withdraw should the national government ask it to.

OOC- Who is Rping the wining party?
WWJD
Amen.

OOC: LLR Is RPing the winning party.

IC: With the LRR-backed party in office, the government can rest more easily. LRR governmental and social ideas can be slowly injected into the ROK government, and hopefully secure a peaceful and prosperous ROK...either that or a loyal sattelite state.

OCC: I can't make Korean names. Could somebody make one up for me as the leader of the ULDs?

IC: While the now-ruling party is still shaking off hangovers from the previous night's celebrations, it has been a stated policy of the ULDs to gradually withdraw foreign troops, replacing them with trained and equipped ROK troops. With a major ally not far away, if any defense was needed it would come quickly.

Another goal of the party is to try to effect social change in Dra-pol, by initiating a more lenient approach towards the despotic neighbor to the north.

OOC- So, is the government a Parlaimentary system? If so, LRR, you have a minority governemtn, meaning you are going to have to from a coalition government or face a vote of no confidence. And that would mean a new election.
WWJD
Amen.

Eh...how does one form a coalition government?

OOC: Where I come from, the home of Parliamentary democracy, our ruling party got 42% of the popular vote at the last general election, and nobody thought it odd or requiring of coalition. I don't know how a decimated ROK would re-organise its political structure, of course.
And LRR, if in doubt, just call him or her Lee, Kim, Park, or Choi, and let everyone get confused... I'm sure they do it on purpose. You may note that all the bigshots in the CPRD have only one name, now, and it's not Park. It is again fashionable in the (/'my') north to carry a traditional Korean name and to forget the generational name and the family name. Too Chinese!
This isn't helping, is it? Well, last I knew there was no official rule on the Romanisation of Korean spelling in names, anyway, so we can explain away some errors by blaming our individual characters for spelling their names stupidly, anyway :)
Er, in my narrow understanding, there's the family name first, such as the mentioned ones which are massively common and about half of Koreans have one of those four family names, then there's the generational name and the individual's name.
Ah, I had a character called Kang Soon-Gi. Kang being a slightly less common family name (which can probably be spelled about fifty different ways when Romanised, such as Lee can be Yi? and Ri? I think), Soon being a generational name that he shares with any brothers and male cousins he may have, and Gi being his own name. I don't think the rules are even that clear for girls, who may not be so obliged to have a generational name, and if they do will probably have one with a... softer meaning, like, to do with flowers or serenity or something. Unless they're Drapoel.
Sadly I don't have a big list of Korean names to mix and match, or I'd share. Shouldn't be hard to find if you plan to make more than one or two characters, though.
I'm rambling because I ache and don't want to think about it, leave me alone :)

I will TG you with a brief rundown of a parliamentary system.
WWJD
Amen.

OOC: Nobody can say minority government like peaceful Canada! Unfortunately you don't have a balance of power with a seperatist province...although that would be interesting, if a ROK province wanted to join Drapol...

With a 42% share of the seats, one would be able to rule, becuase you still have enough to pass bills as long as no one else has near that much.
I think LLR has 34% of the seats, and 30% going to the opposition, with a thrid party not far behind. That is a tenuous grip on power at best. And I can still remember when here in Canada, we had a no confidence vote that the government lost, and had an election only 7 months after the government was first sworn in.
Also, the governemnt that brought in Canada's Health Care Act was a coalition, between the Liberals and the NDP.
WWJD
Amen.

Back in LRR proper the winter excersizes are interrupted as units from the Central and Pacific Military Districts are diverted for the war with Bonstock. Several divisions and regiments from LRR's numerous sattelite states also ship east, to join the forces defending against Bonstockian invasion.

It seems as though LRR had achieved the impossible with regards to much of eastern europe. Most of LRR's sattelite states were near mirror images of their anchor, socialist-type democracies with astronomical levels of tolerance and diversity.

OCC: I think of the following areas as my sattelite states, any objections are fine:

Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Khazakstan
Volgostan Republics (Semi-autonomous area south of the Volga and Don rivers)
Finland (on good terms, but does not contribute militarily)

Sattelite states are generally equipped with similar or slightly less-advanced examples of LRR military technology. For example, the MiG-21-2000 upgrade is popular among the sattelite states without the need to buy significant numbers of newer aircraft. The FRA. 3F, a now-retired version of the F-4, forms the bulk of the airforces of most of the sattelite states, for example.

Back in LRR proper the winter excersizes are interrupted as units from the Central and Pacific Military Districts are diverted for the war with Bonstock. Several divisions and regiments from LRR's numerous sattelite states also ship east, to join the forces defending against Bonstockian invasion.

It seems as though LRR had achieved the impossible with regards to much of eastern europe. Most of LRR's sattelite states were near mirror images of their anchor, socialist-type democracies with astronomical levels of tolerance and diversity.

OCC: I think of the following areas as my sattelite states, any objections are fine:

Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Khazakstan
Volgostan Republics (Semi-autonomous area south of the Volga and Don rivers)
Finland (on good terms, but does not contribute militarily)

Sattelite states are generally equipped with similar or slightly less-advanced examples of LRR military technology. For example, the MiG-21-2000 upgrade is popular among the sattelite states without the need to buy significant numbers of newer aircraft. The FRA. 3F, a now-retired version of the F-4, forms the bulk of the airforces of most of the sattelite states, for example.


Do these nations contribute to you in terms of military power and population, if so, that would give you a fairlylarge boost in power that none of the rest has access to. Well, I guess I could annex Mexico. LOL!
WWJD
Amen.

OCC: Eh, forget the whole idea. I prefer the concept of a semi-autonomous Caucasus region better anyway.

I'll just say the border with Europe is 'friendly' so I don't have to worry abouty being attacked from it.

Well, if we are going with RL, those nations are effectively dependant on Russia and have fairly good relations anyways.
WWJD
Amen.

OCC: So I guess that explains why I don't have a crap economy like real russia.

IC:

Meanwhile, back on Jeju-do, security is tightened all around military bases. MG posts are set up all around airfields and ports, and ships are all put on alert for saboteurs. While LRR counter-insurgency tactics still lag behind those of other countries to the point where LRR simply lets it be until they have tanks, hopefully these somewhat straightforeward measures would protect installations from Dra-pol agents.

Seoul University of the People’s Republic

The first rays of morning sun broke over a most unusual scene in the CPRD’s largest city. Yi Cho-Min was roused from slumber by one of her comrades apparently highly agitated by something he’d seen by first light.

Yi and six hundred or so of her peers had spent the night after their march huddled together in a communal square within the university grounds at which the procession halted. Speeches lasted deep into the evening as students gave voice to their concerns over changes to the curriculum, the mysterious removal of various members of the faculty, and the value of looming local elections. Yi Cho-Min had encouraged her peers not to vote on the future composition of the Seoul Special Regional Directorature People’s Liaison Committee, and had spoken instead in support of multi-party democracy in the old style.

Now, as her eyes followed, through the light of dawn, the direction of her friend’s indication they fell upon the now familiar shape of a Type-192 armoured personnel-carrier, its 7.7 or 14.5mm machinegun –Yi wasn’t sure which- poised like the reared-head of a snake. As the sunlight grew it became easier to make out the strengthening ranks of the Unified People’s Army arranged around the involved part of the big university.

The protestors, mainly students from the former Seoul National University with some others having spontaneously joined the march of the day before, began to wake in large numbers and to wonder at the future of their situation. Some began to consider that perhaps they hadn’t really thought this through...


(OOC: Is there interest enough for this to become its own thread? I would copy and paste such events as have occurred thus far, and then Modern World RPers would be free to take control of individual South Koreans, including those at the protest (though not the intrepid Miss Yi, of course) as well as whatever responsibilities they would ordinarily have.)

OOC:Is it okay if I join? I am not to sure where my nation in RL would go(since my nation is a large island in the dead middle of the pacific) But I believe my nations current place is functional in both NS and RL. On another note if I am accepted will someone tell me whats happened?(I am to lazy to read all the way back)

OOC: Been following this thread & most of this little communities actions for a while now both out of interest & because I have a vague memory of signing some trade deal with Quinntonian Dra-pol, perhaps I'm mistaken. Anyway I'd like to see that university story expanded. My apologies for the intrusion of course.

The mnay Quinntonian agents that had spent the better part of the night documenting the entire march with every camera, videa, photographic and digital that they had, now began to send messengers with dossiers full of pictures of the "Student Revolt of Korea," to news agencies all over the world, and digital pictures sent by remote sattelite, as well as video sattelite phone interviews with undercover "reporters" are being aired in Quinntonia and Quinntonian Dra-pol almost live.
The Quinntonian agents are also very busy trying to set up underground developers for the students who took one of the hundreds of polaroid and disposable cameras that were being handed out last night.
Reporters at the diplomatic conference in QDP ask Dra-poel diplomats about their reaction.
WWJD
Amen.

At long last, the LRR-backed United Liberal Democratic party has announced its coalition government with the New Alliance Party, supported by Quinntonia.

Ministries are as follows:

Ministry of Tourism and Sports -ULD
Ministry of Social Development and Human Security-ULD
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives -NAP
Ministry of Transport -ULD
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment -NAP
Ministry of Information and Communication Technology-ULD

Meteorologcal Department -ULD
National Statistical Office -ULD
Post and Telegraph Department -ULD

Ministry of Energy -NAP
Ministry of Commerce -NAP
Ministry of Interior -ULD
Ministry of Justice -NAP
Ministry of Labor -ULD
Ministry of Culture -ULD
Ministry of Science and Technology -NAP
Ministry of Education -ULD
Ministry of Public Health-ULD
Ministry of Industry -NAP
Spiritual Affairs- NAP
Minister of Foriegn Affairs- ULD
Minister of Defense- NAP
Foreign Minister -ULD
Minister of Education -ULD
Minister of Public Works-ULD

Prime Minister-ULD
Deputy Prime Minister-NAP

In other news, the LRRA armories, working closely with the Alvis corporation of England, have made several upgrades to the APC-D, or T-SEP-A (R) series of combat armored vehicles.

While the vehicle is obviously very heavily influenced by the soviet MT-LB, internally it is much closer to a European armored vehicle. The most important quality of the APC-D is its hybrid drive system, which uses both an electric motor for cross-country driving, but also a diesel engine for combat power. This non-reliance on gasoline allows the APC-D a very high degree of autonomy compared with other contemporary armored combat vehicles. This hybrid design also allows a high degree of environmental friendliness (after all, they aren't only used for combat, in fact most are multipurpose vehicles) for scientific tasks where air contamination would corrupt data, or where the noise of a gasoline vehicle would be undesirable.

The APC-D is built mostly out of composites. This allows them to be built quickly and cheaply from a mold, and also causes the vehicle to be very robust. Running on composite bandtracks, the APC-D can drive for very long periods of time over rocky and adverse terrain without the threat of track breakage, as would be present with traditional steel tracks.

The APC-D employs a modular design where different modules can be dropped into the basic carrier variant quickly with the aid of a basic light crane.

Specs:

Crew: 2+12 or 3+10 depending on variant
Armament:
-APC: 1x 12.7mm NVD MG, 1x Spike-ER launcher, 1x 7.62mm MG, 8x Smoke Grenade Dischargers
-Engineer's Fire Support Vehicle: 1x 100mm MT-12, 1x Spike-EER launcher, 1x 12.7mm MG, 12x Smoke Grenade Dischargers, infantry-carried SAMs
-Anti-Tank: 4x Spike-EER launcher or 1x TM-13 launcher, 2x Spike-LR launcher, 1x 7.62mm MG, 10x Smoke Grenade Dischargers
-Engineering: 1x 7.62mm MG, 8x Smoke Grenade Dischargers, 1x Spike-EER or ER launcher
Armor: Classified (good v.s. 40mm and RPGs)

Rev. Kim Young Jo, Deputy Prime Minister of ROK and leader of the New Alliance Party, graciously accepts his appointment and looks forward to working with the Prime Minister in the new session of Parliament.
WWJD
Amen.

Rev. Kim Young Jo, Deputy Prime Minister of ROK and leader of the New Alliance Party, graciously accepts his appointment and looks forward to working with the Prime Minister in the new session of Parliament.
WWJD
Amen.

The ULD prime minister also expresses his entheusiasm towards the new parliamentary session, and also looks foreward to meeting with his cabinet in full for the first time.

I guess that would make the Dra-pol-supported Democratic Unification Party the Official Opposition. A seperatist opposition party?
Shades of Canada going on there.
WWJD
Amen.

I guess that would make the Dra-pol-supported Democratic Unification Party the Official Opposition. A seperatist opposition party?
Shades of Canada going on there.
WWJD
Amen.

Hmmm...this creates an interesting situation. The New Alliance Party is not the more conservative party, right?

This puts the far left and far right in the same boat.

Hmmm...this creates an interesting situation. The New Alliance Party is not the more conservative party, right?

This puts the far left and far right in the same boat.
The New Alliance Party is a conservative Christian faith-based party along the style of Quinntonias political parties.
Don't fall for the Liberal logical fallacy.............the liberal political view says that everyones views should be heard and are equal...............except the conservative ones. LOL!

I think it will be an interesting situation as well, but I'm sure we can work together.
WWJD
Amen.

The Seoul student protest was dragging on, and remained a truly confusing issue to many in the Republican government. It wasn’t as if the CPRD would normally move to crush such demonstrations and was now afraid to expose itself, no, the event was simply unprecedented, and nobody really knew what was happening.

“What... are they doing?” Asked Banat commandant comrade Cheiy. “They’re camping on the university grounds, singing and giving speeches.”
“Why?”
“They want...”
“...Comrade, I did not ask what they want.”

And so went the usual briefings on the matter.

It could be a while before the crisis was resolved.

Bigger than the student protest itself though was the wider Drapoel reaction. Not the direct response, that remained an unrealised issue, but what the confusion and slightly frightening lack of control meant to Da’Khiem. Comrade Director Secretary Hotan began eventually to echo statements made by many of his junior comrades, speaking of the increasingly outward-looking and international orientation of the CPRD, something that was regarded as generally un-Drapoel. Just months ago, Hotan had been speaking of plans to continue the opening and further the commercial aspect of Kosong, but the issue had faded somewhat.

It was not clear whether anyone else saw it, but Hotan’s brand of Kurosite Thinking –conflicting with prior Suloist Thought- considered several avenues to growth and development. The industrialisation of Dra-pol was one, and something that had been generally a success and was continuing now. Reunification by force was another, and had made much more rapid progress than the shameful Suloist wait-and-see approach. And then there was opening of the Republic and engagement in international commerce. The more Dra-pol saw of the outside, the more pointless infighting and shameless exploitation it saw. The more the outside saw of Dra-pol, the less secure the Central Directorature felt and the more exposed the Drapoel people seemed. In the world of nations, Dra-pol was a country boy crying, “I didn’t come to the city, the city came to me and I want out, desperately!”

Kosong, Haeju and Seoul, the most accessible parts of Dra-pol –that is to say, the only parts where there existed even a slight possibility of a foreigner not being shot on sight- there was another round of expulsions. Nothing extraordinary in Dra-pol and what few international bodies maintained a presence would be well used to staff finding that their temporary visas had expired without warning, but this time it became impossible to acquire new rights of access. How long it would take for anyone to notice was not clear, as it was also common for applications to be turned-down without explanation and much perseverance was required at the best of times.

Over a few days following the arrival of the student protestors at the Seoul University, traffic in to and out of the CPRD slowly declined from little to less, entry being denied to just about everybody not concerned with North Yamani oil or Beddgelen armaments.

Then the clocks turned back one tick further.

Wonsan People’s Navy Base on the Drapoel East Sea (Sea of Japan)

Klaxons howled in the background as a shrill officer dispensed orders to intensely focused recruits preparing to put to sea almost within sight of occupied Hungnam. A Tiburon Class patrol craft had encountered a hostile vessel in violation of republican territory quite some miles off shore between Wonsan and Quinntonian Dra-pol. Torpedo boats were ordered to scramble in assistance of the Tiburon’s efforts to detain the ship and board it, and two of the little 49knot-capable Kae Class boats were soon deployed.

At sea, the 38metre Tiburon Class vessel, armed with a 75mm gun, dual 47mm anti-aircraft mount, 14.5mm machineguns, 289mm rockets (which may or may not be carried), and 485mm torpedo and crewed by around forty hands had positioned itself between the target vessel and the Quinntonian shore. Thus far it had done nothing but manoeuvre aggressively around the apparently slow foreign boat and demand that it stand-to for boarding by the Unified People’s Navy.

(OOC: Of course, the UPN has been ordered to capture a vessel belonging to a hostile nation, and has as such selected a slow (ideally less than 20knot-capable) and poorly armed or defenceless-looking ship either in Drapoel waters or in international waters very close to them as it moved towards or away from Quinntonian Dra-pol. Ideally it would appear to be a government –especially military- vessel, but it may not have proved possible to find one slow and weak enough that was anything other than civilian. Basically, any of the nations currently involved with A Modern World and potentially considered hostile to the CPRD may step forward to play this vessel, and can decide exactly what it is. Of course it has to be something that fits the target profile I mentioned, and would ideally be a small military supply or survey ship, but doesn’t absolutely have to be. When responding, please remember that it is one small boat probably at least ten to twenty miles from shore near or in Drapoel waters (that can be debated or decided later and doesn’t have to really have violated CPRD waters in reality), and that Dra-pol is Dra-pol, with the appropriate arsenal and temperament. I suppose that a nation outside the group may claim the ship, so long as they are blessed with reasonable RP abilities, are familiar enough with the circumstances, are of a nation that is likely to be considered counter-revolutionary enough to get on Da'Khiem's bad side, blah blah. I just thought that I'd add that possibility for the sake of creating a precedent of some openess to new blood for the RP group.)

Lieutenant Anton Bernstein kicks the bridge of his old Nanuchka patrol boat. It was headed to be scrapped on Lyong, but no, the engines just had to crap out, and dangerously close to Dra-pol to boot.

"Is that radio working yet?"
"No, sir. Close to it, though."

Lieutenant Bernstein looks out of the bridge, and, to his horror, watches two plumes of spray moving towards his temporary command from the west.

"The repair of that radio may become a matter of life and death."
"Practically the whole inverter seems to be blown, sir. Until I can find one that works, the radio's no-go."

A pile of inverters lies on the bridge floor, ripped out of other electronic components of the ship. Annoyingly, none seem to work. The young technician works feverishly as Lieutenant Bernstein watches the Dra-pol FACs approach.

Aboard attack submarine Heisho, Jung Eun-ho commanding
Sea of Japan

The klaxons blared and the submarine sprang to life as crew members, dressed in dark blue jumpsuits and wearing cloth soled shoes, scrambled to their stations.

On the bridge, Jung Eun-ho watched as the contact came up on screen.

"LRR patrol boat, Naruchka, and Dra-poel fast attack craft," the sensor station officer replied, watching her screen.

"Have they detected us?" Jung asked.

"I doubt it," sonar replied. "Their attention is focused on the LRR craft... we could probably sneak in one or two shots."

"Weapons, prepare EMP and prepare two sodium torpedoes!" Jung ordered. "Get the 100 kg warheads on instead of the 200!"

"Understood," weapons replied. There was only to be one shot at this, and if they missed, the LRR craft could easily be destroyed.

"Weapons, link explosive control to my station," Jung ordered. "Sonar, match contacts and confirm bearings."

"Bearings confirmed!" sonar reported.

"Torpedo room reports ready!" weapons shouted.

"Match bearings and shoot! Narrow spread!" Jung ordered. She flipped open her console and tapped in the activation code for the EMP.

The EMP detonated, sending a massive tidal wave of electronic energy through the nearby waters and possibly scrambling any nearby electronics systems, save that of its origin point, Jung's submarine. The torpedoes sped on, unaffected (their backup systems quickly kicked in) and sped towards the Dra-poel ship.....

(No, see, I'm going to ignore that, because it seems that I can't make a post without an Islandian submarine happening to be right on top of whatever's happening, employing some still largely mysterious EMP, and generally doing its damndest to re-start war in Korea. If I don't ignore it, and don't break character, our response to this would be to blast the LRR ship out of the water and then, being thoroughly sick of waters off Korea swarming with apparently thousands of rampantly hostile submarines, saturating the area with every nuclear depth bomb left in the inventory. And as Quinntonia would likely be blamed, we'd also kill everyone in Hamhung and Hungnam and re-take the cities, too.
"When responding, please remember that it is one small boat probably at least ten to twenty miles from shore near or in Drapoel waters and that Dra-pol is Dra-pol, with the appropriate arsenal and temperament"
Sorry, I'll be back to follow-on from LRR's post either later tonight or tomorrow.)

OOC- Please don't start the WWIII that close to my nation.
WWJD
Amen.

OOC: I'd really like to known EI, if you're actually going through with this EMP surprise attack. You see, there are quite a few Spyran and North Yamani flights in and around the Sea of Japan, which(as I have stated before) is a lot smaller. The range of this blast may be enough to hit LJDC units, which would be rather unfortunate for the pilots...

(shrugs)

if Drapol ignores it, I suppose I wont attack him. But still, the Islandian submarine force is easily the largest part of the Navy, next to the amphibious and naval air forces, and comprises almost two hundred submarines, most of them attack. All of the northern force's submarines are in and around the Sea of Japan, so its not unlikely that something would happen.

But if you dont want me there, its ok. Just say it nicely (unlike your tone in the previous post) and I'm gone.

OOC:I'm not trying to be mean EI, I'm really just wondering. Hostile forces attacking allies in the neighbouring Sea of Japan is just something the Spearguard Command would take very seriously. Also, you have declared attacks before in the region that you have later retracted...

It seems to be a moot point anyway. Though it is interesting to note OOC the plethera of EI Submarines in the area.

While there has been no official word from The Commonwealth, a number of comrades attending Senate meetings have expressed varying degrees of disappointment as the CPRD closes itself off further. While a few speakers have raised concerns over continued arms deals and other trade potentially related to war industries, others have implied that, as one of increasingly few avenues through which any contact may be made with the Drapoel, it would be actually a negative step to withdraw even this, and would likely only increase the Republic's isolation.

The issue is especially significant as armed mechant ships destined for Korea are loaded with MT-3 "Hotan" main battle tanks already withdrawn from Beddgelen service with MT-4 "Hathi" tanks entering full-rate production at Hyderabad and elsewhere.

Portmeirion remains as yet ignorant of any stand-off in the Sea of Japan (which really needs re-naming, because it's more of a Korea/Lyong thing, now, isn' it? East Sea works for the Koreans, but doesn't make much sense to anybody else :) ).

OOC:I'm not trying to be mean EI, I'm really just wondering. Hostile forces attacking allies in the neighbouring Sea of Japan is just something the Spearguard Command would take very seriously. Also, you have declared attacks before in the region that you have later retracted...

It seems to be a moot point anyway. Though it is interesting to note OOC the plethera of EI Submarines in the area.

this is only attack that i've retracted so far... the others were ignored by Dra-pol.

And i'm not shouting at you... i'm just railing at Dra-pol's tone, which seems to suggest that my submarines are omnipresent (which they are not, but there are also a lot more around than other navies) and that the EMP is some sort of God-weapon.

The EMP is not a God-weapon. It's juss something that fries your electric systems, and only then for several seconds (only long enough for ships to escape or attacks to be launched).

OCC: 200 attack subs? Thats a heck of a lot for australia. I have about 150 small missile boats, mabye 70 corvettes of the Howlin' Wolf (Modified Grisha) class, and that's based on the world's once-largest navy.

Eh...dunno. I guess its fine.

IC:

In the ROK, the LRRA armored divisions continue to train the ROKA in LRR armored warfare tactics. However, the amount of actual LRRA tanks in the country decreases daily. While it is certainly debatable as to weather the LRRA T-72 modifications are better than K1A1s, the LRRA has valuable and unique anti-tank capabilities that go far outside of those of the ROKA, in fact surpass much of Asia. This is, of course, to offset inferior tanks and older equipment in general, but in the Korean war LRRA ATGMs allowed many fronts to survive, taking out tanks before they could touch positions.

(OOC: Have Marimaian personnel lost their temporary visas, or are they still allowed in Dra-pol?)

OOC commentyary ( for EI): For submarine operations in the Sea of Japan in A Modern World, remember that its less than half of its former size, and average depth is more shallow than RL. The sea itself on the Lyong side is patrolled heavily by ships and ASW aircraft from Spyr, plus a few from North Yaman, and LRR forces are still present from the war against Bonstock and ongoing protection of South Korea. Oshima and Izu likely also has shipping in the southern portions of the sea.

Given all those factors, submarine activity isnt neccessarily limited (its not as if we'll start trying to shoot up EI subs), but its difficult to maintain secrecy.Plus, a frightening plethora of networks of alliances (Spyr + NY + Dra-pol through the SSRC, Spyr + NY through the Lyong Treaty, including intelligence sharing, Spyr + EI + Hudecia in the Azn Alliance, Spyr + LRR in a mutual defence agreement, EI + LRR + Hudecia + Quinntonia supporting South Korea against Dra-pol, and Spyr + NY + O&I preparing mutual defence talks) make any action in the Sea of Japan a highly political event affecting the security and interests of numerous parties (even having a large submarine force there would be a bone of contention with most, if not all, the powers bordering the Sea. If EI wants to strike at Dra-pol, it must first ensure the cooperation, or at least acceptance, of a large and politically diverse body of nations, or rist triggering a massive escalation into a war that might consume all of Asia.

Conversely, the same political restrictions apply to every other power in the area, including Dra-pol... which is probably why there has been a process of opening up the country, rather than full mobilization for reunification of the Korean peninsula.

----------

IC: To help encourage the continued opening of Dra-pol to the world, and spread a more diverse body of knowledge and comradeship, the PRS requests permission from Dakheim to expand its Inernational Scholarship program to include the CPRD. The program simply pays expenses for qualified students to attend university programs in Spyr, as a way of building understanding between cultures.

I have to step in on this one as well, C'mon, 200 subs to begin with is a little much for twenty million people. And having all of them in that small part of the ocean without anyone else noticing, least of all the four or five nations that are bordering that rae, all of whom have massive naval interests. I mean, I represent the an highly militarised United States and would have a plethora of naval units in and around the Sea of Japan, and if we saw 200 subs coming, I would have to assume it was an invasion, but not by you, because you have a tax base that is supporting one attack submarine for every 100,000 people.
WWJD
Amen.

Quinntonia: I don't think he said he had two hundred around the Sea of Japan...though I do agree that one submarine for 100, 000 people is a little far. Just look at Canada, we've only got...what? Three rusty British subs that seem prone to catching fire.

IC: The Yamani coastline, recently annexed in the ongoing Helekaru operation, is continuing to secure itself against any possible marine invasion. Spearguard forces are also planning on crossing the Kar, with the permission of the LJDC, due to the crisis that stopped the Tordian annexation of southern Helekar. Plans are being made to contact the animist matriarchy in Tensharo, to provide aid for the Helekaru coastline before the eventual Tordian annexation.

Arrowguard forces are gathering under General Guro Kwa at Hairukahama, to assist in the joint attack on Warlord Yunshung's siege of Sol Sanctum.

OOC: Sorry.. been a little busy the last few days... weeks... ok.. things have been crazy for the last month .. good thing I got rid of my Korean governing responsibilities *whew*

Anyway... looking a page back I saw something about the government so here is my piece:

IC:

The Millenium Democratic Party is a group of more or less fiscal conservatives with more centrist views on most social issues. Actually, most of the leadership could care less if you were Christian, Buddhist, Athiest or Satanist even, most of their concern was the protection of the economic prosperity in Korea. Social and most environmental issues were not considered to be a issue to be decided by the government unless it interfered with the bottom line.

As for their views on Drapol, they saw Drapol as an economists nightmare and were focused on making sure that their style of communism was not imposed on the south.... but... they were willing to make a profit off of Drapol if they saw an opportunity.

The party is led by Hu Sung, a former economist who fled to Hudecia for 4 months during the war.

Sry i miscalculated.

Hows about a hundred submarines? Twelve in the Sea of Japan, and the rest elsewhere in Asia.

Sry i miscalculated.

Hows about a hundred submarines? Twelve in the Sea of Japan, and the rest elsewhere in Asia.

That still puts your subs at one every 200,000 people.
Canada has a very small submarine complement, and have 10 millin people MORE than you do. I think they have the three recent British purchases and maybe four more previous. And none of them are state of the art.
I suppose, if you really pushed navy to the exclusion of the rest of your militray, with your level of economy, and REALLY SACRIFICED, you might be able to afford maybe 20, state-of-the-art attack subs. I wouldn't even be that offended if you punched it up to a few more(30), considering the trouble in the region, and the collapse of Bonstock, but remember to RP the drmatic finacial effects on your nation.
WWJD
Amen.

Oh...so I take it that 25 attack subs is acceptable for LRR then.

That still puts my missile boat numbers at about 130, and my corvette numbers at close to 80.

Of course, my military consists of nothing but modified soviet equipment, modified so we don't have to constantly replace it, and state-of-the-art ATGMs.

twenty submarines?

shit... this real world stuff is too damned real, but thats the point of everything, eh?

Fine, twenty submarines. And dont compare me to Canada, because although they are bigger than my nation, they dont need as many ships as a small island nation such as East Islandia would need. Besides, their nation's military isnt based as much

And I suppose I'll have to scrap my underwater bases and the like...no reason for those if i have such a small submarine force.

OOC: Hey hey! The only reason why Canada has four dinky submarines that leak is because we weren't willing to spend the extra cash up front on a dozen brand new ones. ($1.2 billion was the price tag.. we turned it down for $200 million)

The reason why Canada's navy stinks is because we don't spend the money on it.... I mean.. what would all those Liberal party donors do if they weren't receiving government checks for no work all the time. ($250 million)... or what would those people in New Brunswick do if there was no gun registry ($2 billion) or... the Human Resources Department people do if they didn't have money to waste ($4 billion)...

LOL... Canada's army, navy and air force is a joke because we let it be one. If Canada actually spent money on our armed forces we might have something half decent.

I mean .. for goodness sakes... our fighters can't even communicate with other allied fighters...

OOC: I'd prefer that none of this conversation were going on in my, "what's going on in Dra-pol" thread, but it doesn't seem to have been about Dra-pol for a few pages now, so I'll just go with it. I agree that EI could have a bigger navy than does Canada, because Canada has pretty much no need for any military at all, but actually used to have a pretty tough one anyway, when it was important (plenty of times I have been lectured by Canadian friends on how damn much their country did in the war, heh). I don't know, but EI may even have a more powerful economy as well (though to be honest I'd prefer we not pay too much attention to our listed economies, either, since any idiot can have a frightening economy, even if it's a capitalist one and he claims not to be oppressing any third world nations, which is obviously highly dubious. Of course Dra-pol has an all consuming economy or something, but I play it more like fragile or basket case, I think. If not Imma buy me a few hundred more fighters from BG!). It's just that I don't want an EI submarine to detonate an EMP and launch a full spread in response to any and every situation. I accept that it can be hard to deal with Dra-pol without shooting at them, but as we're already beginning to close-off again, attacking their interests at the drop of a hat will just lead to the more insular state getting more paranoid. What I mean is that I want to have a few RPs here and there that *may* not lead to all out war, at least within the first page.

Edit: I think maybe I'll start new threads for each little story, now, because they just get broken-up in this thread. Maybe I'll keep using this one to try things out. I'll start a new thread later, now I have to go be ill at the pub, or something.

I realise that Canada could have more subs. That is what I was saying. But, I am supposed to represent the US, the great military superpower and I wouldn't be able to field an attack sub force that size, least of all in such a small area.
Canada could field more attack subs, but would anyone say that we could put 300 to sea during peacetime?
As much as Canada did during the two World Wars, and the fact that they are a G-8 nation, this kind of sub program would hurt real bad.
12 subs=1.2 billion
300 subs=3 trillion?
That would be a little much, I think.
WWJD
Amen.

OOC: Yeah, but I'm just saying that comparing EI to real Canada is not fair ... since we have a lot of other problems as well. I think we could tolerate it if EI had 50-60 subs as long as his surface fleet is practically non-existent.

As for Hudecia, we can count the number of submarines we have on one hand. But we focused a lot more on our surface fleet.

OOC: Yeah, but I'm just saying that comparing EI to real Canada is not fair ... since we have a lot of other problems as well. I think we could tolerate it if EI had 50-60 subs as long as his surface fleet is practically non-existent.

As for Hudecia, we can count the number of submarines we have on one hand. But we focused a lot more on our surface fleet.

I agree, I was just drawing the comparison because of the realtively close populations. I agree also that hhis surface fleet would have to be almost non-existant, but at 50-60, he would be cutting seriously into his airforce budget as well, but it is not up to me. EI could concievably support that kind of force, but it would strapp his resources to the utmost. I wouldn't complain, but remember, you have to keep this massive sub program afloat year after year, and justify it to your people why they are paying for such a large force in peace-time.
WWJD
Amen.

OOC: Is there ever 'peace-time' in NS?

*sigh*

Bump

Is Dra-pol even around anymore?

In most recent news, the LRRA has announced its intention to immediately begin work on a new Armored Personnel Carrier to replace the MT-LB, based on many design points in the Alvis-Hagglunds SEP technology demonstrator.

The new vehicle will probably be ready for production by the end of the RL week.

It is designed to be simple in design and construction, following a template similar to the M-113. It will be fully amphibious, and have a higher profile than the MT-LB, but this will be coupled with much improved crew protection. The vehicle will feature a V-shaped hull for protection against mines, and composite bandtracks for improved terrain performance. The vehicle will also be powered by a standard hybrid drive system, and will be made mostly out of composites.

These construction techniques, coupled with a modular design, keeps the vehicle cost low and yields maintainance characteristics and reliability figures much better than most APCs currently on the market.

The downside of this is the vehicle's lack of advanced features. There is only a laser/radar warning system and chaff/flare/smoke grenade launchers for protection against missiles, but the vehicle's low radar and IR cross section should help overcome this fault.

The initial production batch will cover the 5,500 MT-LBVs operated by the LRRA in the APC/combat support configurations, the 1,500 MT-LBV ambulences, and the 1,000 MT-LBV engineer's vehicles. There are plans for command and control vehicles, electronic warfare vehicles, and heavy fire support vehicles as well.

Again, the program is tailored to deliver a high-quality platform at a very low cost, affordable to the LRRA, while still meeting stringent combat and environmental requirements.

Somewhere in Washington, DC, (District of Christ) in a unknown catacomb beneath the city.......

A spacious, some would say palacial cell, a man sits at a desk, his daily visit from the many psychiatrists over, he is writing feverishly, in theold style, with a pen and paper. Using the classical Dra-poel script, vigerously penning his memiors, a Manifesto.

The man is a well built, tall Dra-poel with striking good looks, if a slightly arrogent and even crazed look about the eyes. He is extremely well-dressed, by Dra-poel standards and sits in a suite attended by three loyal servants.
He has not let his exercises go, through his long imprisonment, and whas not let his time go to waste, either earning a degree in political science with honors through correspondence and studying very book on history, sociology and even advanced mathematics while writing, always writing.

The book was almost finished, his father would have been proud.

NO HE WOULDN'T!! HE TRIED TO KILL ME!!! HE SOLD ME FOR PEACE TO THESE FORIEGN DOGS!!!

He stood and starightened himself, regaining his composure, thr guards were used to his outbursts, "I need to have access to my computer again, the True Tiger Cooperative needs its master."

WWJD
Amen.

(OOC: The gunboat thing got a bit derailed, I think... much like the rest of this thread. Maybe I'll try re-starting the boat thing, later. Perhaps I will make it a new thread. Later.)

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=7523085#post7523085

The new thread where Quinntonia gets to come into the ROK.

Constitution Day Parades thrill Seoul

With Mass Games in full swing across the Choson People’s Republic and already improved rations given a further one-off boost, it is clear to see that Dra-pol is in the midst of the holiday season not set to end completely until after the 2nd of February Revolution Day celebrations. Constitution Day is upon the Republic, commemorating the 1931 drafting of the first (Suloist) constitution of the Drapoel Communist Party, carried out at a time when Dra-pol was officially unified under Emperor Wiman and facing Imperial Japanese occupation in the south.
The 73rd anniversary of the revolution’s solidification as a Korea-wide movement for equality, democracy, and independence from foreign manipulation is being celebrated in unprecedented style. Analysts in the ROK, especially scholars close to the Democratic Unification Party, have suggested that the 73rd anniversary is being celebrated in grander fashion than was the landmark 50th, and have presented a number of possible explanations.
“The 1981 (50th anniversary) celebrations came shortly after Kurosian’s Directorship had begun to appear distinct from Sulo’s. The Kurosites did not want to rekindle affection for the original revolutionaries from who they had become arguably remote.” Says one retired teacher living on the south coast, also citing the obvious enabler of the CPRD’s current economic growth.
Yi Soon-Gi, an evacuee from further north, says, “Emphasising what was really the very first movement away from hereditary rule and at the core a very self-empowering Korean struggle may be seen as a good way to reintegrate north and south within the CPRD. The Mass Games do not occur anywhere else, those ranks of missiles and tanks are Korean, the celebrations focus upon a Korea-wide movement that was brimming with self-confidence and independent character... it is a powerful propaganda tool for the modern Directorature.”

The parade in Seoul saw flyovers by new PAAF assets including a restored ROKAF Hercules transport captured during the Red Bamboo storming of Suwon, and a Beth Gellert-built MaL Morrigan long-range UAV piloted from Pyongyang. A very large number of An-2 Colt transport planes –used during the war to sneak commandos behind enemy lines, often through the mountains- and S-5 attackers as well as Hoplite and Hip transport and fire-support helicopters also took part. The Hip’s strength included an unusually high proportion of examples mounting significant armaments including ATGWs. Also evident were pairs of both NT-5 Cardinal and NT-4E Hobgoblin fighters from Beth Gellert, and KJ-1 and Fitter fighter-bombers mounting an increased array of air to ground missiles.

In the streets, hundreds of soldiers marched in perfect time and scores of vehicles were rolled out. Displayed were many familiar sights such as the Type D-14 medium and Type D-18 main battle tanks, and a number of Igovian MT-3 Hotan main battle tanks with 125mm guns able to fire modern ATGMs, composite armour, laser-warning receivers and laser self defence weapons. There were alsoType-90D and Type 89D 122mm MLRS vehicles, self-propelled guns from nimble 75mm mountain guns up to the monster 190mm, FROG-7B launchers, D-ZSU-47-2 self-propelled anti-aircraft-artillery vehicles, and Type D-19 light amphibious tanks. These things well display the UPA’s ever increasing range of capabilities for mobile and powerful artillery, amphibious and combined-arms warfare, and air defence.

There were new additions, however, making the parade actually seem worth watching. New trucks finally replaced the incredibly basic vehicles that broke-down all across South Korea during the war, appearing in four and six wheel configuration and looking a good sight more rugged than their predecessors. Examples of the first mass produced armoured car to serve the Unified People’s Army could be seen. Resembling the likes of the BRDM-2, these had the appearance of amphibious scout cars though some mounted ATGWs, which may make dangerous adversaries of the fast little vehicles.

More prominent than these small, wheeled vehicles were the UPA’s new generation of tracked AVs, the Type D-193 family, displayed for the first time. Apparently replacing the Type D-192 series born of the Type D-19 amphibious tank, the Type D-193 is slightly larger and joined the Constitution Day parades in a huge number of configurations, though with few examples of each, suggesting that they are new into production. An APC version armed with a machinegun and containing ten fully equipped troops appeared to represent the baseline of the family, and displayed its ability to lay smoke before crossing the Han under power of water-jets, proving its amphibious capabilities. Other vehicles built on the same chassis appeared with repair and recovery gear, extra communications arrays possibly for section and battalion command, ambulance markings, possible NBC reconnaissance equipment, and more than one sort of radar, probably ground surveillance and counter-battery types. There was also one example mounting two kinds of anti-tank guided missiles -two identifiable as Susong-Po (local AT-3 Sagger variant) the others unidentified tub-launched weapons- and SA-16 surface-to-air missiles.

All in all, one could see that the Unified People’s Army was not about to stagnate as the celebration season arrives.

The Navy is doing its best to maintain a credible force as one of the two Kurosian I class frigates to be upgraded in Beth Gellert returned to the republic. The upgrade is being hailed as a success, giving the ship better anti-aircraft and missile defence and improving its communications and data processing in order to make it a better flagship, but enthusiasm was dampened by the Igovian eleventh hour decision not to supply deadly new Charioteer anti-ship missiles. Portmeirion had contacted Da’Khiem to speak privately of concerns over too drastically upsetting the balance of power and provoking undesirable responses from the imperialists involved around Korea should the formidable missiles be delivered.

The Army has begun to make gains in recruiting from the liberated southern territories, but has still not been able to reach all of its manpower goals since the reunification. New APCs and, less interestingly but perhaps more importantly, new trucks will surely make life easier for the army, but with effective mobile SAMs still in relatively short supply their deployment potential remains slightly limited.

A mixed outlook for the Air Force, which has clearly re-started production of air-to-ground missiles and is rumoured to have acquired Parliament AGMs from Beth Gellert, and perhaps more importantly has noticeably increased flying times, boosting its pilots’ experience. Training times are still below those seen in the south, however, and a rumoured supersonic bomber programme appears to have resulted in failure or abandonment, which may be what prompted the boosting of current fighter-bomber capabilities. If one item stood out to observers, it may well have been the previously unseen jet aircraft that flew over Seoul during the parade. Fairly similar in size to the little Drapoel MiG-21 variants, the aircraft moved at high supersonic speeds in one pass and returned to show-off customary PAAF agility, and then surprised onlookers by displaying its swing-wing function.

Eventually it would become known that this was the first public appearance of the S-12, also called the NT6(E) joint-development multi-role fighter and nicknamed ‘Miggen’ after prototypes were constructed in the same Beddgelen plants that licence-produced Viggens for the defunct monarchy. S-12 would soon establish itself as the PAAF’s primary fighter, though in usual and necessary Drapoel style, MiG-21 and Su-15 would likely not be withdrawn until their airframes became unserviceable.

If it wasn't for the huge amounts of anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft missiles, the LRRA would look totally pathetic compared with the most modern armies.

Still using baseline BMP-1s (albeit with applique armor, bandtracks, some resizing of the vehicle, and hybrid engines), the army has very few vehicles built since the late 1980's. Some notable exceptions are the Urgan and Smerch MRLs and the handful of Challenger 2 tanks, and the S-300PMU and S-400 SAM batteries, but these advanced models only form a relatively small part of the army's inventory.

The airforce and navy are a little bit better stocked, the airforce operating a fair amount of Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets, as well as late model MiG-29s, although the bulk of the airforce's combat squadrons operate upgraded MiG-21s.

The LRRN still can't compete with the navies of larger NS nations. While LRR has possibly the strongest coastal defense force, in the form of upgraded Grisha, Tarantul, and Kilo submarines (as well as several U-212 models purchased from Germany), the navy's seagoing capability is still extremely weak, even with the addition of an aircraft carrier.

The new Dra-pol armements do not cause too much worry in LRR, especially since the state armories themselves had completed numerous new missiles and upgrade projects. The new amphibious scout cars, based on the BRDM-2, are sort of interesting considering that both the LRRA and ROKA operates many BRDM-2 models in the anti-tank and anti-aircraft roles.

- Mioak Ro Trainyard -

Beneath the height of the Yan Heshi Shange[tower], the military yard of the Spearguard marches off in a massive square. The roads to the Hill divide the barracks and factories in the western court; and the eastern court is dedicated to the Arrowguard section, and buildings from cafeterias to Officier residences.

The railway yards stand at the Western end of the Spearguard square, and it is to these warehouses and tracks that oil shipments come from the southern lowlands region.

Troops generally find themselves heading northward to the mountains around Shi-Daoken, especially with civil war across the Xiaguo Line and refugees pouring into the nation. One soldier did not get the expected call, and a special order found Sutsura Ling charged to take the oil shipment south and west to Gochu in the Tagan province, PRS and then onto the Drapoel border.

Coming to the frozen grounds of the yards, Sutsura is directed to an awaiting tanker train. At the back of the train, two military cars await tansfer to the Ogakar plain, one a 40's age artillery piece and the other a similiar level flak cannon.

Coming out of the Lowlands the train speeds on to Kaiomachi, seat of the Kai House, which represents a strong Strainist element on the High Council. The Kaiokens, native Lyongian, were enslaved in the region by the Saiyan minority ethnicity - a dictatorship which was over-thrown by the efforts of the Kaiokeni Revolutionary War. Saiyan, fighting a long and bloody battle, now number around two hundred thousand compared to the seven million Kaiokeni.

The train soon ascends into the mountains of the Tagan province of Spyr and down to the port of Gochu, where the military artillery is transferred away. The next long trip is along the Japan Sea to Chotei, crossing the border nearby. With the train stopped, Sutsura emerges and approaches the Drapoel station. Coming to a military booth, the Spearguard soldier hands the clerk a formal request form to have the Yamani Yan Heshi document presented to the administration in Da'Khiem.

Within is contained a note from the standing High Council in Mioka Ro detailing a request to exchange the Yamani oil shipments for Drapoel produced Miggen S-12 fighters and aid in producing local Yamani factories. It is made clear that this is a request resulting from a change in administrative vision, and that joint defensive schemes are going to become more seriously considered in the High Council.