NationStates Jolt Archive

Unknown to most of the Free Republic , the legendary 'Guardians of the Black Flag' that were charged with keeping governmental sites safe and secure and protecting historical sites, also had an espionage branch. General Marcus Aurelius was the 'Shadow General' , chief of the Shadows of the Republic. The Shadows had no fingerprints, no nationality, no birth certificates and were ghosts, able to move anywhere in the world almost, with trillions of Drachma in resources they were ably trained and outstanding at espionage. They could even do assassination if called upon, but that had never been asked of them.

The Shadow General moved the checkpoints at the Tollan Massif , wearing all black, his eyes hidden by thick, wrap around sunglasses. His credentials listed him as Air General Aldred, of the Air Guard Special Technical Services, he was allowed in without any question. Once inside he made his way to the secure lift and pressed the button for B36 , the key pad lit up and demanded a code, he punched in his security clearance and the lift started on it's fifteen minute journey down.

The Lift stopped at the lowest floor of the Massif, he was now a mile deep, he stepped out and nodded to the Guards, who were not Red Jaguar like upstairs but were Shadows like him, he saluted and passed making his way to the office of Dave Scarini, project manager from Narvik Advanced Ordinance.

"Good morning Dave, are we on schedule today?"

Dave noddded to the General "Yes sir, the last King Rus is being fitted as we speak. I called the SkunkWorks and Avery Frost is sending over all of the 'black crews'. " Dave smiled and handed a cup of coffee to 'General Aldred'

The General nodded and sat "Good, good. 'Offical' shake downs and testing will begin tomorrow, the Minister of Defence will be viewing them and possibly some foreign diplomats."

Dave nodded again "Big audience, but it shouldn't be a problem, the Type III has out performed every other variant and had met or exceeded all expectations, I understand that Mr. Frost is up North right now acquiring a suitable space for a full sized plant?"

The General nodded to Dave "That he is, we identified the perfect place for him, he is simply securing the rights to it and securing a contractor that can provide the technological expertise and capital to outfit the factory. "

A light beeped on Dave's console he stood and put on his hardhat and handed one to the General "That's it sir, that is the last one, All eleven are now fully outfitted , all we need are the crews. Crew zero-seven are already here, they did last weeks shakedowns on Type III One when it was fitted with the King Rus. They'll be doing the tests tomorrow as well, they are the only crew that have used the King Rus."

The General put on his hard hat and followed dave out through the offices and into the production floor.

Ilek-Vaad, Hammerstead, The Tendarus Mountains.

The Industrial city of Hammerstead was situated at the feet of the Tendarus Mountain range, home of the highest mountains in the Free Repulic and home to over seventy percent of the nations mines, foundries and mills. Avery Frost, president and CEO of Avery Frost Aeronautics LTD, stepped from his Marathon-A transport as the wind whipped the snow across the runways, this time of year, only a few flights a day came in and out of Hammerstead, more flights came in at the ski resort towns farther south and east. Mr. Frost pulled up the collar of his overcoat and walked towards the waiting men.

These were Bendith men, tall and broad with odd pointy ears and sombre expressions and suprisingly, no coats or shirts in the weather, despite it being below freezing. The man in the middle offered his hand to Mr. Frost.

"Welcome to Hammerstead Mr. Frost, I am Valen, General Aldred told me to expect you."

Mr. Frost took the offfered hand and shook "Pleased to meet you, can we get out of the snow?"

Valen smiled and led Mr, Frost to his awaiting H2 , they all piled in and then the H2 headed up the mountain road , the parties made small talk as the H2 ploughed through the snow and finally came upon a mansion, carved from the living rock, it was partially in the mountain, only the front portions seemed to be visible.

Valen once again led everyone out and through the large double doors into the warm, richly appointed stone mansion , they were by a woman (not topless like the men, Mr. Frost lamented to himself) who took their coats and things.

"This is my wife Valya, Valen motioned to her , she smiled politely and quickly receded into the house.

"Come." said Valen as he motioned to Mr. Frost and his aides. Valen then led them through the house and into the mountain, through several hundred yards of corridors, going slightly down until the reached a small banded iron door, which Valen unlocked and crouched to get through, Mr. Frost and companions followed, they stepped out into an enourmous cavern.

Mr. Frost whistled "How big is this place?"

Valen answered him " Six square miles. It was once the meeting place of all the Bendith in these mountains, but we have not used it for many ages. This place would be suitable for your production needs and I could arrange a lease through my company, Tendarus Engineering LTD, and we could also transport and install all the machinery listed in your requirements."

"Wait, this is no good unless we can move our 'product' out, it is nearly three hundred feet wide, it won't fit through the way we just came." cautioned Mr. Frost.

Valen smiled and then set off briskly, some time later he had led then across the chamber and to a set of double doors, carved from the stone two hundred and twenty feet high and each door one hundred and sevety five feet wide, Valen paused and simply pushed at the doors where they came together, they opened slowly , requiring no further action after the initial push, opening out to the swirling winds and a view of the valley below.

"The doors are perfectly balanced a single push opens them and a tug at each closes them, but nothing can pull them open from the outside." He motions to the left " you cannot see it in the snow, but the old road runs from here, down past Hammerstead and within five miles of the main rail depot. It has a gentle grade, it was orginally built for horses and carts."

Avery Frost nodded "Well, that answers that. Now what is the contract price you were thinking of?"

Valen smiled "Let us return to my house to discuss this." his sons hurriedly closed the doors as the part headed back inide the main mansion.

Avery Frost Aeronautics, Tollan, Ilek-Vaad

The Dignataries had begun gathering for the tests of Operation Thunderhead. No one yet knew what it was but a few foreign observers had been invited, they had begun arriving, Olik Ratyuig Ambassador from Vrak was there* , along with the Minister of Defence Atalea Grant, Command General Adan Ring along with their assistants. The meeting had been very hush-hush and the final place for the meeting was set only hours ago.

The city of Tollan is a sprawling city that occupies the Tollan Plateau literally on the slopes of the extinct volcano, Mount Tlaloc. The city of some three to four million people was entirely made of stone, and most houses still only had thatched roofs, giant stone Toltreca dominated every public space with the giant double pyramid of Teztcatlipoca dominating the highest portion of the city, situated behind it was the entrance to the Tollan Massif, buried in the mountain itself. Tollan was once the seat of the Tolteca God-Emperors and was now the Retaliatory Guard headquarters. Despit it being winter the plateau was still enjoying temperatures in the sixties , albeit with lots of rain.

Despite the carven stone facade of the Avery Frost Aeronautics LTD building, the inside was state of the art. The very well appointed 'observatory' was being used , it was a circular room with plush leather seating and plasma screens lining the walls. Windows dominated the one side, and looked out over the jungles beneath the plateau.

As everyone made themselves comfortable, Dr. Hans Mettleschertze of NAO and Dr. Ian Graham of Avery Frost entered,with a few assistants that began setting up satellite feeds and getting everything ready.

Dr. Graham also made sure that refreshments were taken care of he then took his place at the windowed end of the room and addressed all present.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am Dr. Ian Graham , Vice President of Engineering for Avery Frost Aeronautics and this is my colleague Dr. Hans Mettleschmertze from Narvik Advanced Ordinance.

We want to bring you all up to speed on several projects that we have been collaborating on for the Ministry of Defence in Ilek-Vaad.

You all may, or may not have seen the Orion Tactical Fighter and the Sword of Damocles Oribital Assault Vehicle**. The Orion is a modular fighter that can be configured for different mission specifications and variable payloads, ranges and speeds, and can be configured on the fly by an experienced team of mechanics. The Sword of Damocles is an orbital vehicle that first used our Pegasus Anti-Gravity engine, the stepping stone for the project we will unveil today."

Dr. Mettleschmetze then steps in

"N.A.O. has stepped in both instances to provide the armament for these revolutionary craft, including the Perun's Hammer neutrino ordinance. These weapons systems pale before what will presented today."

Dr. Graham nods and clicks on one of the Plasma monitors showing a synopsis of Operation Thunderhead (http://diablo_00.tripod.com/classified.html) . "This ladies and gentlemen, is the sucessful culmination of Operation Thunderhead."

"Today we will be giving a demonstration of all of the systems on the revolutionary Thunderhead Type III. The propulsion, power plants and computer systems have all been developed by Avery Frost Aeronautics LTD, the weapons systems by Narvik Advanced Ordinance and the hull by Costa-Tula Shipyards LTD.

The Thunderhead Type III represents a melding of all of the best technolgies from all of our engineers from the various companies working on the project. The Thunderhead Type III represents an investment of hundreds of billions of Drachmas and I think by the results you will see that it was well worth it. The Thunderhead is leaps and bounds ahead of any weapons system, platform or package that exists.

We have about twenty minutes before the tests will actually begin, if you would to take this time to ask questions, please feel free to do so."

OOC: * I will add observers as I receive TG's as to who they are, with NS down, I haven't received any but Vrak's.

**Retaliatory Guard (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=347434&page=1&pp=15)

If you have not received a TG about this you are a.) not invited b.) Have no IC knowledge about this (unless you've RPed infiltrating my defence contractors and military.) and c.) should not be posting here.

If you think you should be in on this, please TG me, do not post here, thanks!

After a short break Dr. Dr. Mettleschmertze once again steps forward and points to the central monitor.

"Ladies and gentlemen as you will see momentarily a blast shield will be deployed here, on the far side of Mount Tlaloc in Tollan" As he speak, a large concrete blast shield raises into view. Dr. Mettleschmertze then pauses and points to a second plasma screen "And here we see the Thunderhead Airship, stationed at exactly one thousand miles distant from the target."

Dr. Mettleschmertze points to a satellite map and the points appear one labled 'Thunderhead' the other labled 'Target'.

"The blast shield you see if one hundred and twenty feet high, by one hundred and twenty feet wide , it is also one hundred and twenty feet thick, reinforced with steel and cermite plating."

He motions back to the Thunderhead "We shall now demonstrate the effect of the King Rus Particle Accelerator Cannon." He pauses and clicks open a com on the console of the table "Test fire when ready."

Seconds after he speaks there is a flash of light on the screen with the Thunderhead and simultaneously on the screen with the target. The camera on the targets shakes roughly for a split second and then refocuses, on a cloud of dust, and rubble where the massive blast shield was standing seconds ago.

"The King Rus discharges it's ordinance at ninety nine point nine percent the speed of light. For all intents and purposes tragetting and firing are instantaneous, even a target moving at mach ten will be virtually standing still compared to the King Rus's ordinance. That coupled with it's range give it terrifying destructive power." Dr. Mettleschmertze explains.