NationStates Jolt Archive

Military Command Staff
PUBLIC
For immediate release

As scheduled by the 2006 Directive for Military Development & Research, development and construction of the Bastion III Missile Shield has progressed without unforeseen delay; also as scheduled, the final testing of Bastion III will take place on the 13th of January, 2006 (tomorrow in RL). Due to the current situation and developments in certain regions of the world, it has been deemed necessary to announce this testing in this globally released statement to prevent any confusion.

At approximately 12:00 Eredron Standard Time on 1/13/2006, a developmental Mark IV version of the Stryker Intercontinental Ballistic Missile will be launched from a site in the Bastion III-Africa Division. The Stryker ICBM's flight trajectory has been plotted to take it over the mid Atlantic Ocean, where it will disengage. This missile will be unarmed.

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Slightly under two dozen people stood in the multi-leveled control room as the time approached. Aside from members of the Namibian state government, the others were military personnel, either directly involved in the development of the Bastion program, or in command of elements of Eredron's nuclear arsenal.

Rows of computer screens displayed some variable of information regarding the 200 out of 800 of the missile silos in Namibia; MCC-03, the monitoring and control center for the Division III Missile Silo, Namibia had entire levels in which were housed supercomputers. Indeed, the building extended eleven stories under ground, with half of it dedicated to computers or their security.

The small group had shown little interest in those levels, and would have been restricted from seeing them even if they had had a desire to. Their attention was riveted to the live video playing on a panel of television screens: on one half, a barren landscape under which was a concealed missile silo; on the other half a blue and white checkered missile, the Stryker III ICBM.

To the scientists who were working on the Bastion projects, their anticipation was brought on by a desire to see their work come alive. To the military officers, this was not merely a test to prove the Bastion's technical operational status, but of Axis Nova's ultimatum regarding ICBM launches. The fate of the missile was creating high levels of anxiety in the government and military.

Little was said as the Stryker ICBM streaked upward towards the sky; minor technical discussions between colleagues, congratulations, scattered laughing.