NationStates Jolt Archive

Ordinary, even a bit on the obselete side. The vehicle was definitely ordinary. Track-driven, rather lightly armoured for its obvious use, with plastic seats, and some amount of integrated circuitry.
In fact, the tank could have rolled off of any assembly-line anywhere in the world sometime in the late 1980s...

There is only one small, teensy-tiny problem with that.

Testing of the remaining paint on the inside of the turret-ring, chemical analysis of the nylon preserved on the seats, and metallurgical analysis...

This tank was over a thousand years old, perfectly preserved in the deep mud of the Phlynt Canton's "Southrange" region, twenty miles from the six-mile perfect-circle of high desert called (naturally) the six-mile desert...

The spearhead half-mashed (and rusted into) the portside tread was of a type commonly encountered in 7th and 8th Century Norse sites. the corroded (but still recoverable) brass shell-casings hinted at quite a story... but the Tank was an Anachronism of the most difficult kind... worse, the bones, and fragments of plastic, and nylon-blend fabrics included one body still clutching the rusted remnants of a browning automatic pistol... these carbon-14 dated to the same time period... the crew had been killed by archers and other trauma related to melee weapons.

Okay, you've read the above paragraph, now here's what's going on: The tank is just generic enough after a thousand years of rusting and burial that it's easy to mistake it for one in past use by any nation-except Cadillac-Gage.

Those of you familiar with Eric Flint's 1632 universe and various spin-offs, will recognize the "Ring of Fire" effect for what it is, especially with the timeline in the current CG factbook.

I'm looking for players willing to admit to 'losing' a battalion-plus of troops sometime in the last ten years, in a desert region. "Why is this in international Incidents??" go 'head, ask...

Assume for a moment that the disappearances were/are recent enough for there to still be families asking where their sons/brothers/daughters/parents went.

NOW... add to that, CG could clearly become 'contested' with accusations of belonging to some other nation by descent... (Your ancestors were our soldiers, we have a claim on you.)

I want to start this rp with fact-finding, then move on to other options...

Tag for involvement, need to sleep now

Tag for interest

Tag for possible involvement.

Cultural History Studies dept., University of Todos Santos, Cadillac-Gage...

"Do you want to explain this, please Professor?" Dr. Suse Randall, the Director of the National Department of External Contacts and Affairs snarled, tossing a 'page four' item culled from a foreign news-service onto the desk of Professor Alexei Kosputin, dean of the Cultural History Studies department.

"Looks like a dig. What's the problem?" he asked, looking innocently at her.

"I didn't authorize an international press release, Professor, for one, for two, what were you doing authorizing a dig near the Six-Mile Desert without taking security precautions?" she crossed her arms, "It would almost seem you want everyone out there to know our dirty laundry."

Kosputin shrugged, looked at the bottom of the article, "Page Twenty-Two... Hardly a frontpage item." He said calmly.

Dr. Randall scowled fiercely. "I want you to send them a nice, clear, note of retraction-claim it was a prank...or something."

he stood up, face turning dark like a thundercloud, "I will NOT do any-such-thing! For years we've been looking for proof of the legends-and I found some. I'm not going to make a false statement that will only harm the reputation of this school, and this Department!" he matched her stare eye to eye, "You have No Authority to order me to do that."

She scowled, "We'll see what the President thinks of that!" she barked.

He laughed, "Halvorssen has no authority over this-and you damned well know it, I'd wager. The dig was financed by the Phlynt Canton Council, and they're the ones who invited the photographers. You keep your damn hands off my Graduate Students, Doctor. This find is of remarkable, nay, it is the most remarkable in decades. You should hear Heisenberg and Vlottsenn arguing in the Physics department about the implications!"

tag

OOC: Tag, because I'm interested in how you pull this off.

Arutha sighed, brushing the hair from his face. He had read of the found tank, and was wondering why it happened to be in the same area Roderic had sent that army, for no pratical reason, and they had dissapered. He needed to find one thing out, if it had the mark of the Rodaz Foundry. He sighed, mabey now the answer would apper.

To: The Finders of the Tank in the 6 mile desert.
From: King Arutha

We have a request of you, for simplicity reasons, I am asking you check the symbol on the underside of the turret, if it is a Pelican over a sun, then I would request I am able to veiw the thing myself.

"You can't do this!!" Professor Kosputin railed. Sgt. Noernig shrugged, "Orders, this area's been officially classified Military Reservation, an' the dig-site's been classed as a designated artillery target." he held up a multipage copy bearing the Defense Director's signature, and a reciept-of-transaction. "The Canton Government agreed to sell it, we have to clear you an' yer students out."

Kosputin read the reciepts, and the orders, and shook with outrage.

"You've got four hours to pack yer gear, an' me an' the boys will help with the heavy stuff." Noernig said kindly.

"but...the find!! It's of Historical Importance!" Kosputin said desperately.

The Regular-Service NCO shrugged, "Mebbe so, sir, but I reck'n there's a good reason behind this. Director Gustaf doesn't do this kind of shit on a whim."



To: King Arutha, Sovereign of Lessir Tsurani

From: Suse Randall, Director, External Contacts and Affairs, Cadillac-Gage

RE: Your interest in the Phlynt Canton Dig.

I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you have been taken in by a hoax perpetrated by several young men as a practical joke on poor Professor Kosputin, and a crass attempt by political activists to prevent the redesignation of an area south of the Six-Mile Desert as an impact zone for air-force bombing practice. Please do not feel that you have been made a fool of, they had several people in the University Analysis section quite taken-in as well. I wish you good luck finding your missing personnel.

Suse Randall

Okay, you've read the above paragraph, now here's what's going on: The tank is just generic enough after a thousand years of rusting and burial that it's easy to mistake it for one in past use by any nation-except Cadillac-Gage.

Those of you familiar with Eric Flint's 1632 universe and various spin-offs, will recognize the "Ring of Fire" effect for what it is, especially with the timeline in the current CG factbook.

I'm looking for players willing to admit to 'losing' a battalion-plus of troops sometime in the last ten years, in a desert region. "Why is this in international Incidents??" go 'head, ask...

Assume for a moment that the disappearances were/are recent enough for there to still be families asking where their sons/brothers/daughters/parents went.

NOW... add to that, CG could clearly become 'contested' with accusations of belonging to some other nation by descent... (Your ancestors were our soldiers, we have a claim on you.)

I want to start this rp with fact-finding, then move on to other options...




I'll get involved as long as I don't have to deal with mike stearns.

I'll get involved as long as I don't have to deal with mike stearns.



LOL!
No Mike Stearns here-the "Shifted" land arrived a thousand plus years ago-in game terms, you'd be dealing with the descendents of whoever was moved.
So you don't have to worry about the UMW guys, Comittees of Correspondence, etc.

LOL!
No Mike Stearns here-the "Shifted" land arrived a thousand plus years ago-in game terms, you'd be dealing with the descendents of whoever was moved.
So you don't have to worry about the UMW guys, Comittees of Correspondence, etc.



OOC: yay no UMWA, they frighten me, almost as much as Doc. Nichols and Gretchen. I'll send a research team to work on it(you don't have an issue with non-humans do you)

(OOC: When you say "a desert region," do you have a specific region in mind? Just asking because it could determine whether it makes sense for me to be involved.)

The sliver queens vast intelligence had noted a recent event in the human nation of cadillac-gage, a seeming temporal anomoly had occured, she would send mnemonic and synapse slivers to discover more about this seeming anomoly, to this affect she drafted a message to cadillac-gage concerning this proposal. She believed that research into the nature of a temporal anomoly would help in allowing her to selectively breed a Temporal sliver, with a limited ability to alter the time stream, a goal she had long been working towards, however without temporal disturbances to study there was no way to further the project, now she had a way and would do her best to learn more about it.

To:Cadillac-gage
From: the Sliver Queen
Concerning: The discovery near the six mile desert.

It has become known to us that you have discovered a seeming temporal anomoly or disturbance, we are interested in studying any such finds and request permission to send our children to discover what we can about this occurence.

ooc: I wouldn't mind losing a divition (so long as it's a long time ago)

ooc: I wouldn't mind losing a divition (so long as it's a long time ago)

OOC: you didn't seem to follow this very well, he said that the group would have been lost recent enough that people associated with those lost would still be alive and actually expect some answers, that means within the last three years or so is about the right time frame for this to have happened.

Actually now that I think about it this couldn't affect a nation in this world due to the temporal affects of moving a location in space-time. Any alteration to history would exist for only a mili-second at most, after which time a seperate timeline from the first would diverge and no changes would occur to the original timeline, he couldn't find those tanks and discover that they belonged to an existing nation, it defies a few bits of quantum and paradox theory.

Arutha looked the message over again, before sending it to James, who was half a contient away.

The phone rang a moment later which Suprised Arutha.

"You got the message quick." he said accusingly.

"Yea Well I was waiting for it" he replied, not shamed in the least. "Its a Cover up, I am sure of it."

"What makes you say that?" Arutha asked Suprised.

"Arutha, I am dissapointed, how many people would pull a prank like this, then, the people test things, put it on the news, then all of a sudden say its a hoax? Please, If they where in the Mockers, they would have been beaten for Impudence." He sighed. "Now, send someone you can trust to find out the truth."

Arutha nodded, before writting a new E-mail to the Duke James, he sent it, with orders on who to take, he recived six words back.

I was Expecting that you Bastard

Arutha smiled, before making the call to them.

"Yes, is this the finders of the Tank? Well I am sending someone to see things for myself, never hurts to have a second opinion, If nessersary, we will buy the area for seven times its worth." He smiled, that would get attention.

OOC: yay no UMWA, they frighten me, almost as much as Doc. Nichols and Gretchen. I'll send a research team to work on it(you don't have an issue with non-humans do you)

[ooc
No issues, I hope they're warm-blooded, though, Cadillac Gage is a cold country even in the "Heat" of summer. You'll want to supply guards as well-Phlynt Canton is Carcajou-Atrox* country...


[*The "Atrocious Wolverine", most subspecies of normal Wolverine top out around fifty pounds, and a little under four feet long. Carcajou Atrox get up to a hundered and eighty, and can be as long as ten feet, nose-to-tip of tail. They're just as mean and nasty as their smaller cousins, but stake out larger territories. Carcajou-Atrox have been known to attack Landrovers and do significant damage!]

Dr. Randall will let a non-human scientific group into the 'fenced area' before she'll permit human groups in-but the initial find isn't the only one available (she doesn't realize this yet...)

On Paradoxes: It's only a 'Paradox' if it didn't contribute in some fashion to the way history has already worked itself out. For purposes of this RP, the Temporal displacement has always happened this way. it's a causal loop, kind of like the guy who goes back in time to kill grandpa and finds himself being grandpa-history heals over woundings (which is a slight difference from my source-material here... later on, I may want to stage the actual "Ring of Fire" as it applies to this story, provided I find a good match-up. Unlike Grantville, this won't significantly alter "Nationstates" history enough to create another timeline. The incursion, and the size of the displacement, is small enough to be a mild ripple instead of a major flood of change.)
/ooc]

(OOC: When you say "a desert region," do you have a specific region in mind? Just asking because it could determine whether it makes sense for me to be involved.)

"High Desert" like the Mojave, Utah's Canyonlands,Nevada, um...that desert in china that I can't remember the name of... Lots of rock, and bad soil, some scrub, relatively little of the fine sand you would find in Saudi or other parts of the Arabian peninsula. Morocco has a similar desert.

TAG for temporal involvement... the good kind, not the bad kind.

[ooc
No issues, I hope they're warm-blooded, though, Cadillac Gage is a cold country even in the "Heat" of summer. You'll want to supply guards as well-Phlynt Canton is Carcajou-Atrox* country...


[*The "Atrocious Wolverine", most subspecies of normal Wolverine top out around fifty pounds, and a little under four feet long. Carcajou Atrox get up to a hundered and eighty, and can be as long as ten feet, nose-to-tip of tail. They're just as mean and nasty as their smaller cousins, but stake out larger territories. Carcajou-Atrox have been known to attack Landrovers and do significant damage!]

Dr. Randall will let a non-human scientific group into the 'fenced area' before she'll permit human groups in-but the initial find isn't the only one available (she doesn't realize this yet...)

On Paradoxes: It's only a 'Paradox' if it didn't contribute in some fashion to the way history has already worked itself out. For purposes of this RP, the Temporal displacement has always happened this way. it's a causal loop, kind of like the guy who goes back in time to kill grandpa and finds himself being grandpa-history heals over woundings (which is a slight difference from my source-material here... later on, I may want to stage the actual "Ring of Fire" as it applies to this story, provided I find a good match-up. Unlike Grantville, this won't significantly alter "Nationstates" history enough to create another timeline. The incursion, and the size of the displacement, is small enough to be a mild ripple instead of a major flood of change.)
/ooc]

OOC: I see, that's a good way to play it. I'll send guards it's SOP for a detatched hive force. The slivers don't really qualify as anything, they can survive in vacuum so a cold desert should be no issue.

Atrocious wolverines, is there any other kind? My guards will waste anything that could possibly threaten the work site, I guarantee it.

IC:

The sliver queen sent a group of Synapse and mnemonic slivers numbering 20 of each along with an escort of 20 muscle slivers, 10 winged slivers and 30 drones to do menial work and basic construction of shelters for the slivers in the desert. Any threats to the temporary hive would be terminated with extreme prejudice and no warning, the slivers that she had sent had a great amount of experience with all species on this planet and were much too valuable to lose, the temporal anomoly must be studied by the best to get the results the queen needed to properly breed a temporal sliver. The task group would arrive at the work site within 8 hours of their departure from the hive.

Arutha looked the message over again, before sending it to James, who was half a contient away.

The phone rang a moment later which Suprised Arutha.

"You got the message quick." he said accusingly.

"Yea Well I was waiting for it" he replied, not shamed in the least. "Its a Cover up, I am sure of it."

"What makes you say that?" Arutha asked Suprised.

"Arutha, I am dissapointed, how many people would pull a prank like this, then, the people test things, put it on the news, then all of a sudden say its a hoax? Please, If they where in the Mockers, they would have been beaten for Impudence." He sighed. "Now, send someone you can trust to find out the truth."

Arutha nodded, before writting a new E-mail to the Duke James, he sent it, with orders on who to take, he recived six words back.

I was Expecting that you Bastard

Arutha smiled, before making the call to them.

"Yes, is this the finders of the Tank? Well I am sending someone to see things for myself, never hurts to have a second opinion, If nessersary, we will buy the area for seven times its worth." He smiled, that would get attention.

The Welcoming Arms hotel, room 316, Stonetree Township, Phlynt Canton, the Rogue Nation of Cadillac Gage...


Professor Kosputin sighed, "I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to sell it. The find was on public land, and it's been condemned by the Federal government as a bombing range, that's an outrage, you know. a significant find from the Eighth Century A.D. condemned for target practice!" He paused, "There were two other potential dig-sites on the list that they haven't jumped on yet, we'll have to move very carefully though-if Doctor Randall at External Contacts finds out I've been talking to outsiders she'll just strongarm someone else in the government to shut it down, and it'll be back-to-square one, the truth buried again or worse."


The dig-site, eight hours post-contact w/ the Hive Queen...

Ground-forces guards had cleared away the curious and established a secured perimeter. It being summer, the sun was still riding high above the gray cloud-deck at almost midnight when the Slivers arrived. "Wow...those're damned strange lookin' critters!" Corporal Jan Verdiji said as the graceful insectoids dropped from the thick gray overcast.
"Orders are not-to-shoot, believe it or not, they're Guests guys, and they're definitely sentient-so no lobster jokes. They're gonna be in this area for several weeks or longer taking samples from the dig, and from the edge of the six-mile desert. Boss says it's a diplomatic thing, so we keep the civilians and the bystanders out of the way 'till they're done."

The slivers were nearing Cadillac-Gage airspace, the queen sent a message ahead to get clearance for them to fly to the work site, but until Cadillac-Gage replied the slivers were wary about entering the other natgions airspace.

Greetings soldiers of Cadillac-Gage, we are the representatives of the queen in this matter, we will be here for the next three weeks if all goes according to plan, we thank you for refraining from mocking our form and for not firing on us as we entered the area, we will set up our temporary dwelling in the hills nearest to the site.

[b]Phlynt Canton ATC centre...[/b[

"We have you on radar, Sliver Formation, you are cleared to enter the secured zone, please enjoy your stay in the Phlynt Canton, Your reception party awaits at coordinates..." Kelly Maines read off the contact-sheet, giving the Sliver formation exact aviation-term bearings and speed corrections to the work-site.

For ten years, she's been ATC chief for the Phlynt Canton, and a member in-good-standing of the Goodwives Association. When the non-human beings dropped out of easy radio contact on their way down to the site itself, she turned and looked at Doctor Suse Randall. "Oky, then, I've done what the Association has asked, it's time for the Association to explain herself."
she crossed her arms, and glared at Suse.

"Kosputin's right, we need to know more about how that tank got there, and how it relates to the Legends... but we don't need it from people who might make claims." Randall said gently. "The Slivers aren't going to sit there pretending to be our long-lost ancestors, they want to study the phenomena, and try to understand it...and they may make effective allies later."

Kelly cocked an eyebrow, "Diplomacy? Like sending those two little girls to Vastiva, or letting the Malkyeri run a military base up north?"

Randall nodded, "Exactly. a few of our...special members have had...visions. We will need allies, lots of them, and soon, what's coming is something we can't stand against alone."

[b]Phlynt Canton ATC centre...[/b[

"We have you on radar, Sliver Formation, you are cleared to enter the secured zone, please enjoy your stay in the Phlynt Canton, Your reception party awaits at coordinates..." Kelly Maines read off the contact-sheet, giving the Sliver formation exact aviation-term bearings and speed corrections to the work-site.

For ten years, she's been ATC chief for the Phlynt Canton, and a member in-good-standing of the Goodwives Association. When the non-human beings dropped out of easy radio contact on their way down to the site itself, she turned and looked at Doctor Suse Randall. "Oky, then, I've done what the Association has asked, it's time for the Association to explain herself."
she crossed her arms, and glared at Suse.

"Kosputin's right, we need to know more about how that tank got there, and how it relates to the Legends... but we don't need it from people who might make claims." Randall said gently. "The Slivers aren't going to sit there pretending to be our long-lost ancestors, they want to study the phenomena, and try to understand it...and they may make effective allies later."

Kelly cocked an eyebrow, "Diplomacy? Like sending those two little girls to Vastiva, or letting the Malkyeri run a military base up north?"

Randall nodded, "Exactly. a few of our...special members have had...visions. We will need allies, lots of them, and soon, what's coming is something we can't stand against alone."

We thank you for the directions to the site, we shall be as swift as possible about researching and detailing our findings.

Greetings soldiers of Cadillac-Gage, we are the representatives of the queen in this matter, we will be here for the next three weeks if all goes according to plan, we thank you for refraining from mocking our form and for not firing on us as we entered the area, we will set up our temporary dwelling in the hills nearest to the site.

Captain Oystein saluted the spokesbeing (creature? man?) "Welcome to Cadillac Gage, I'm Captain of troops Oystein, we've got maps, geosurveys, and, of course, supplies laid in for you over here..." he led the spokesbeing to a prefab building under camouflage netting. "and you can contact me for more. Doctor Randall apologizes for being unable to meet with you in person..." he set his briefcase on the hood of a ragged-looking Humvee, and opened it. "These are papers relating to your activities, they're signed by President Halvorssen himself, technically, the sites your Queen specified have been transferred from bomber-command to Diplomatic office, and from there, to Embassy Status for the duration of your presence here. Alpha Company and I are just about to keep prying eyes away..."

OOC: I think I can provide the lost batallion. TG me if you're still interested. I'm already planning what I'm going to say in my head.

OOC: I'd like to be involved, since this has to do with the STC, it would help to have a TRC member here, to make sure we don't have someone crash the party. It also makes something good to write about, as NS is slow lately.

"High Desert" like the Mojave, Utah's Canyonlands,Nevada, um...that desert in china that I can't remember the name of... Lots of rock, and bad soil, some scrub, relatively little of the fine sand you would find in Saudi or other parts of the Arabian peninsula. Morocco has a similar desert.

(OOC: Right, what I meant was, do these troops have to have been lost in any specific location? Would a patch of high desert in my own country or one of those I've fought against in the past do?)

(OOC: Right, what I meant was, do these troops have to have been lost in any specific location? Would a patch of high desert in my own country or one of those I've fought against in the past do?)
[ooc] Um, yes. ROF (Ring of Fire) generally not only moves through time, but geography as well. ]

Captain Oystein saluted the spokesbeing (creature? man?) "Welcome to Cadillac Gage, I'm Captain of troops Oystein, we've got maps, geosurveys, and, of course, supplies laid in for you over here..." he led the spokesbeing to a prefab building under camouflage netting. "and you can contact me for more. Doctor Randall apologizes for being unable to meet with you in person..." he set his briefcase on the hood of a ragged-looking Humvee, and opened it. "These are papers relating to your activities, they're signed by President Halvorssen himself, technically, the sites your Queen specified have been transferred from bomber-command to Diplomatic office, and from there, to Embassy Status for the duration of your presence here. Alpha Company and I are just about to keep prying eyes away..."

We thank you for providing us with shelter, it was unnecessary, but it is a welcome gesture of trust and friendship. The supplies are greatly appreciated, we had feared we would be forced to forage in this barren waste, we would be very hungry in short order and become less efficient, we feel that this could be a useful find, our efficiency is paramount in this endeavour. The others of my caste would like to view the find as soon as possible or convenient, we thank you for your consideration in this matter.

[ooc] Um, yes. ROF (Ring of Fire) generally not only moves through time, but geography as well. ]

OOC: like WV in america to thuringia in germany(for those who don't know where thuringia is it's near the provinces of saxony, saxe-weimar, hesse-kassel, and prussia. it's in northern germany for those of you who don't know where the other provinces are.)

Duke James, he was a dashing young Man, brought up by thevies, and now was the most powerful man in the western Realm. Sure, he took orders from the King, and Princess of Krondor, but the King was in the Eastern Realm and The princess was not a man, so it evened out.

He took a fast plane, piloted it himself, and collected members in record time. He had in a day done what it would have taken other Dukes a week, but then, the Duke had something on everybody, so he could get people to follow along to his tune. However, one thing he had forgotten ((Well not Forgotten, just not done)) was told those in The nation he was going to about it. Still, the message he sent out was one of peace, sort of....

Ello, I am Duke James of Krondor, I am here to check one thing about the tank, it needs to be done, otherwise I will be hurt, well, emotionly, so, can I get some landing clearence?