NationStates Jolt Archive

Duyneider rotated his head towards Meyers. "Shot yourself down? Well I hope your superiors look kindly upon thee. With the mess I just had to get pulled out of I will likely be rotated into a desk job and either left to rot or have me go for early retirement."

Duyneider pushed forward for a moment, "Well I wouldn't be so quick to grant some of these Jiggdians asylum, a good number of them are pirates."

The Captain sat back and pondered where in the hell the communication gear he was supposed to be using was. Of course there wasn't much to do...

"So Myers was this your first visit to the Klatch?"

*********
There was a quick response from Fleet Manor

We will be sending a flying boat squadron to pick up the surviors to return them to medical facilities within the United Duchies, upon your convienience of course.

"Well, shot myself down is a relative term." Myers smiled "I had to go in as low as I did to avoid hitting your men, I mean if they make a jet that can swoop down to seventy five feet why do they arm it with a missle that disperses it's cluster bombs up to two hundred feet?" he paused "So I rolled instead of climbing after firing the missles, it's easier to make another pass rolling rather than climbing and looping around. Bloody engineers"

He signed and smiled to Duyneider "I don't think they expect any asylum takers, it's just a formality. Why were you rescuing pirates?."

Myers chuckled "Yes, this is the first time I've been in the Klatch proper, I'm not ashamed to say that it's too hot and there are too many people running about shooting at each other. I'm sure I'll be headed for early retirement, or maybe a job as a flight instructor. Three strikes you know."

*****

Admiral Ilek replied to Fleet Manor:

We will be halted as of ten a.m. tomorrow morning. That would be a perfect time to for your planes to retrieve your men.

Duyneider listend to Myers with his eyes closed. It was fairly obvious in the light the dark lines under his eyes. Likely he hadn't slept in quite a number of days. "Well, I am personally glad you didn't drop cluster bombs on us. The elves and those...those things were doing a good job chewing us up without more air anti-support." He huffed a bit, "Damn Djel...thank god my family emigrated after the communist coup."

The comment of 'Why save pirates' raised an eybrow. Duyneider lifted his head and looked at Myers. "Because my duty was to serve his Grace and his Grace ordered me to serve under the JDF. Those pirates are Klatchian citizens, for better or worse, and the JDF's job is to try and protect them from their enemies. Especially when they don't have a government anymore."

He rotated his head and pointed at an attractive blond girl of about sixteen or so. Her dark eyes seemed to blaze hatred and fear at the moment. "We found her and several other girls being forced to service the guards at an impromtu prison. Intel said we should only find some heavy hitters from the former government, but there were far more people than we had intended to rescue. But we tried to get them out. Major Bothwell and the other company had all the heavy hitters. My company got behind trying to coax some of the girls out of their hiding places." He leaned his head back and closed his eyes again.

"Well the Gonad isn't the Klatch, there are quite a number of places that are more temperate and don't have people shooting at you, or tree's that will eat you, or the Djel allowed to drop bombs on willy nilly."

"After all I plan on enjoying my leave without the concept of having to use weapons. Four wonderful weeks at home...hell I might even get to see the Northshore 750 this year in person."

******

Acknowledged

As Captain Duyneider finished a nurse came up " You're next Captain, Myers you go on over to x-ray and have your leg looked at."

Myers nodded "Well, good luck Captain." He said as he clapped him on the back. "Try and get some sleep, you look like hell."

*****
Meanwhile the civilians that had been checked out first were escorted to the V.I.P. rooms in the coning tower of the Battleship. They were put in two to a room. The rooms were more like luxury liner cabins than militray accomodations. The Duty-Officers that led them to the rooms took them through the rooms like a steward showing them a luxury cabin, showing them how to work the phones, where the bathroom was, how to work the TV, and showed the Deck-Officer's just down the hall in case they needed anything. A small army of Ensigns also swarmed the V.I.P. section, delivering hot food and clean clothes.

The view from the V.I.P. quarters was particularly impressive, giving a view of the ships decks and those at the forward compartments were looking directly over the 24" Ship Destroyer Batteries, particularly impressive.

More seriously wounded or agitated civilians stayed in the Medical Ward.

Duyneider stood up and shook his head, "Nope, just went there for a visit...and good luck to you lieutenant"

Duyneider followed the nurse in a sort of half dead state.

******
(OOC: The last battleship conning tower I was in was anything but comfortable)

Most of the Jiggdians seemed to relax now that they were safe for the first time in quite awhile.

******
The Naval Intelligence officer on the Manticore sat back and looked at the slightly blurry photocopies the Marines had found in a safe.

"What the hell? Really he couldn't make any sense of them, they were obviously copies of portions of blueprints, but the copier hadn't captured any of the information at the bottom of the page. It looked mechanical, but the wide curved object seemed odd.

There was a buzz on the secure door behind him. [i]Sir..lieutenant Natra is here as you requested."

The intelligence officer turned his chair and unlocked the hatch. It showed both the marine sentry as well as young engineering officer.

"Thank you....corporal..." The engineer stepped into the small cabin that served as an office. "Sir, you wanted to see me..."

"We found this in a save on the island..." He handed her the file, "What do you make of it..."

The redhead quietly stood there and flipped through the documents. "I don't know sir, but I do know that we should be asking the New Shiron government."

"Huh?" The inteligence officer stood and looked at what she was pointing at. "It looks like just some sort of...stain...well no it looks like..."

"I've only seen that mark on the blueprints of the F-22D that Fleet Manor recieived from New Shiron when they were considering updating the air fleet."

"So we have something from New Shiron...Oh thank you lieutenant..."

******
New Shiron Encryption JDF-Z678-990
We appear to have secured photocopies of documents that appear to be from the New Shiron military. We would like to get some analysis of the documents if possible.

New Shiron Encryption JDF-Z678-990
We appear to have secured photocopies of documents that appear to be from the New Shiron military. We would like to get some analysis of the documents if possible.

The message shortly thereafter resulted in urgent meetings in the Defense Ministry and a call to the Royal Bureau of Investigations, which handled all counterintelligence work in addition to its usual anti crime duties.

Soon a pair of agents from the RBI, and a pair of Aerospace Force Officers where on a flight to the 3rd Fleet where their Tiltrotor would refuel before making its way to the Alconan warship Manticore.

----------------

Meanwhile, the airports at Gordon Bay were a flury of activity. Engineering equipment was offloaded from Shuttles and began clearing runways, while every 20 minutes another transport plane landed. At the port area, the first convoy of armored vehicles and engineering equipment was arriving to reinforce the paratroopers holding that vital area, while other armored vehicles began speeding out to the various points held by the Rangers.

OOC: Waiting for the Airship to laaand...

IC: And the eleven other CVSXs packed up and left as silently as they had come, moving back toward home, dissapointed that they had been ordered to return and not fight. For now.
Aboard the Angelus, however, things were much different. The tarmac had been put up and readied, and preperations for the Airship's landing were complete. All they awaited now were the normal shaking of hands and whatever else the men up in the Airship had in store for them. The Captain sighed as he saw the airship loom overhead, slowly getting bigger as it made its landing. All the Captain could think of at the moment was 'Why an airship?' Perhaps he would never know. But, it was not his job to ask questions, on the contrary, it seemed that was their job this time.

OOC: This post will be edited soon but
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=9283066&postcount=243

Helio lands (Helios, Rotodyenes and my Sky Witches are all refered to as airships a mite confusing but based on historical precidents)

In Gordon Bay, a series of announcements is made that New Shiron will assist in the development of a local Defense Force, and that local residents with military experience or a desire for adventure are strongly encouraged to apply, and when possible will be given their old ranks after enlistment and refresher training.

ooc
The Gordan Bay Defense forces will be equipped with modern tech weapons, aircraft and coastal defense craft, using Israeli and Japanese type weapons, equipment and vehicles. They won't be from Japan or Israel, but are leftover New Shiron stocks, except for aircraft, which will be purchased from Alcona, Dyelli Beybi or Vrak.

anyone care to guess the population of that area? Alcona do you have an informed guess?

And now for something completely diffrent
One of the oddities of the Alconian Navy was that they called helicopters, rotodyenes, and airships, all airships. This had more to do with the fact that they were all part of airship squadrons At the end of WWI, the United Duchies became intrested in developing lighter than air craft to help in various operations. Specifically in their ability to do vertical take offs and landing for force insertion in the outer islands against the Socialist Hubarians.

However, the development of the helicopter showed increasing promise. Such that most airship squadrons were quickly reformed around the far more promising military helicopter. However, since helicopters were part of the airship squadrons they were labled as airships. This continued for rotodyenes in the 1980's when military rotodyenes began to take on new mission types for both the Marines and Navy.

But for the outside world, things had become even more confusing recently with the new Sea Witch project. These were modern, lighter than air craft properly called airships. Of course they were also labled 'airships'. Which is likely what confused the hell out of the Holy Imperial Fleet, the helicopter was called an airship because of tradition, not because it was any class of the modern Sea Witches.

********
The ARN Manticore
The Myth Class aircraft carrier sat in the grey seas. There was a five knot wind out of the northwest and she was turning to put her bow into it and help the next patrol of fighters leave her deck. The aft deck was clear for the landing of the New Shiron tiltrotor although the captain wasn't too happy about having more guests aboard.

The admiral's aide waited in the aft island for the tiltrotor to land. She was to escort the guests to a nice breakfast with the Admiral and the Captain before they politely were sent off to the island.

Djel River, North of Cyro
In the quiet morning air the Captain of the lead costal battleship looked out of his bonoculars towards the spires of the great gothic city down river. The flag of the JDF flew off the foremast of the ship, and waved in the breeze. He turned to one of the officers standing next to him.
"Ensign, inform Benji House that we have an urgent package delivery for Felix Dzerzhinsky and that we will sending an armored car with the package to his office. Lieutenant inform the passenger that the taskforce has arrived and we should be pulling up to an available dock soon.

350 miles east of the Ilek-Vaad taskforce
Eight V-130's flew high over the warm waters of the the Southern Klatchian Ocean. They formed a V shape as their massive desiel engines pulled them at 350 knots towards their destination.


Ilek-Vaad Taskforce, this is United Duchies Airboat Squadron S119, requesting permission to enter your airspace and land for personell pick-up.

Tactical Group Revenge had just joined up with the rest of the Tactical Groups in international waters and Supreme Naval Commander Itxaad had formally taken command from Admiral Ilek. At about that same time he was contacted by Tollan and Retaliatory Guard Command to return to Vaadian watrts, south of the Sea of Lacon, the mutual waters shared by Ilek-Vaad and Karmanyaka.

He then also received the hail from the Karmanyakans. His comm officer looked back at him and Supreme Naval Commander Itxaad shook his head "Full speed back to Lacon, tell the Alconians we'll have to make other arrangements."

The comm officer nodded and responded:

Negative United Duchies Airboat Squadron S119, turn around. We have been ordered to return at speed to Vaadian waters by Retaliatory Guard Command. Other arrangements will have to be made. Emperor Ehecatl out.

With that the fleet turned at full speed away from internatinal waters to the Sea of Lacon.

"What the hell is this?" Dzerzhinsky was highly suspicious of anything the JDF might be sending him.

"It's a package for you they said." a Cheka courier was on the other line, "Didn't tell me what's in it though."

"Hrrm." he considered it for a moment, "Send the package over to bomb squad, make sure it isn't explosive, also make sure there are no chemical or biological weapons embued on it, then and only then forward it through to the Cheka."

So it was that the package went in the front of Benjia House, then straight out the back again...

Cyro Harbour was an odd place, designed by a paranoid people. Five Forts marked the entrance, low slung gun batteries behind a gently sloping glacis, with missile batteries on the interior. The odd little 'Monitors' floated around as well. With decks that were frequently awash, they were barely seaworthy, and next to impossible to pick up on radar, especially in a harbour with so many small islands. Then to make matters worse, they were decorated with all manner of greenery and camouflage netting, often making them indistinguishable from the smaller islands to all but the most observant spotters.

The JDF costal battleships were basicly cousins to the Monitors. They were higher out of the water to prevent being swamped by the sea. And the crews had run into the monitors before. If the JDF were up to something it didn't show, just sailed into the harbor with their flags flying. The three costal battleships sailed into the harbor in a line. The middle ship rather than stopping to hold postion in the harbor approached a jetty.

"Inform the Harbor Master we will be making a hot transfer to the jetty and then our vechicle will be heading for Fasta."

The bow thrusters of the warship angled her aft deck up against the jetty. An armored scout car in jungle camo was swung out and down onto the surface. A moment later its engine had started and the vehicle roared towards Benji house with JDF flags flying off both front bumpers.

The coastal defense taskforce waited in the harbor. Quietly waiting for the all clear from the scout car that was making it's way towards the interior of the city.

While there was no obvious outward signs, and indeed the Dyellians cooperated with the JDF without any protest, they were nonetheless 'ready for action'. The fort turrets had rotated inwards, and Bersaglieri could be noted around the dock area.

The polie had also rolled an AH-1 mobile artillery piece onto the Eastern bank. It was a monstrosity of a vehice. The hull was around twice as wide as an M1 Abrams and 4 times as long, the body of the AH-1 being the height of an M1. The turret of the beast was about the size of a light tank, while it housed an 8" Battleship cannon. It had originally been intended to be a super heavy tank, but had proved to be too easily spotted with a turret that turned far too slowly. It had then served as close support Artillery during the civil war, but had proved too heavy to be of any use in the desert sands. Finally it was given to the police force, more or less because the Army didn't like it..

Cyro
In the Harbor the JDF Taskforce appeared to pay no real attention to changes in the defensive posture around them. Accept that one of the battleships slowly turned such that her two 11 inch guns were pointed at the AH-1. There was nothing overtly hostile in the action, but nothing overtly freindly either.

******
The armored scout car drove through the streets of Cyro and over the bridges without really pausing or appearing to take notice of the increasingly dense security. At Benji House the scout car stopped and someone appeared from the hatch of the small gun turret at the back. A second man in JDF fatigues opened the side crew door and stepped out. He was followed by a woman dressed in a gray overcoat, only the slight rise of her breasts and the long pony tail in her brown hair made it obvious she was a woman.

Both flanked the door as another figure stepped out. Unlike the other two she wore only some elegant white sandals on her feet, loose fitting gray pants, a white blouse, a gray silk jacket, and a fadora that covered her face. Someone inside the vehicle handed held out an IV above her for a moment. The woman in the trenchcoat pulled out an IV pole and attached the bag of saline solution to the pole.

The group then turned and walked slowly into Benji House.

Benjia House was divided into two parts. The 'bunker' where the Cheka opperated and the 'Offices' above ground where the Central Intelligence Department was based. As such Benjia house saw a fairly regular stream of CID Officers and Metropolitan Police going the business of maintaining law and order in Cyro.

They were mut bet a male Commisaar in the main entry foyer, "State your name and business." the Cheka wasn't bothering with formalities this time, "Commisaar Reilly will be available to speak to, but unfortunately Commisaar Dzerzhinsky is not available at this time."

The group stopped and looked at the Commissar, then back at each other or rather at the figure with the IV in her arm leaning against the pole. Before either could say anything, there was a chuckle out of her.

"I am afraid that Commissar Reily was it? is quite out of his or her depth on this matter. Therefore perhaps you'll be so kind as to deliever this message to Felix while I go and visit the offices of the Inner Consul while I wait." She shifted and handed a small envelope to the Checka Officer.

"As to who I am, and why I am here, well that is on a need to know basis. Since this is Benji House, Felix decides who needs to know. So I will let Felix decide if you should know or not, just point me in the direction of the Inner Consuls Office."

(I thought Felix's office was on an isolated floor of Benji House)

(OOC: He has an office running off the large open plan Cheka control room which is a couple of stories underground.

"If you're talking about General O'Booze, he resigned over some comment that went through to Parliament that he had not intended to write." the Commisaar eyed the newcomer suspiciously, people should know that sort of thing, "Sure I'll deliver the letter to Commisaar Dzerzhinsky, please take a seat."

The foyer did have seating, although nobody else was sitting on it. The Commisaar vanished, doing exactly as his leader had asked and rather than handing the letter over to him, handing it over to the bomb squad.

"Hmm, fine...but any white powder is likely just some talc from some of my bandages." The group took their seats and politely waited.

The evelope was quite normal in almost every way. An x ray would have shown paper, five sheets folded, one staple in corner. A chemical swab test would have shown no particular chemical attributes besides that of commerically bleached paper using ozone rather than bleach. Nothing particularly harmful.

Of course the Checka, being the Checka would open the letter (although it would be far safer to just pack it up with 10 pounds of C4 and blow it out of existance, but then you might actually want to read the contents).


Well Mr. Dzerzhinsky,
Hopefully you will actually get to read this letter. Specifically there are several matters which need to be discussed upon events in Port Olympus and throughout the rest of the Southern Klatch. I have been delegated to discuss these matters with you, as it is hoped that we can find mutually benifical solutions to these issues.

However, so that you realize that I am not some silly crackpot walking off the street, I have included the conclusions text of a recently submitted scientific paper that is being considered for publishing. I have highlighted a portion of text which I think you will find intresting, and potentially dangerous with a group of elf hating religious maniacs desiring to build a base so near your borders.

Thank You for your time
-V.W.C


The second page of the photocopied text had some words highlited by a green highlighter pen.

The presense of a high count of individuals in the Djel River population with mitochondrial DNA almost identical to the native Gonad Population indicates a tendency some groups in the latter to have produced offspring with the former rather recently in generational terms considering the low number of mutations between these examples. The non-native Gonad Population has barely any common markers with the native population indicating a completely alien society invading the native population. However in contrast the Djel River Population, perhaps large portions of it, appear to have partially integrated with the native population some time in the past

At the bottom of the page there was a note, obviously written before this photocopy was made. Bloody Hell Their Hal... however the copying process had cut off the end of the comment.

OOC: Yup, confused the Chancellor's office with Felix's Office.

After Bomb Squad had read the letter, and become somewhat confused by it's content, the Cheka had swooped, immediately silencing them with copies of the "Official State Secrets Act". Dzerzhinsky was called and notified, but still didn't appear, this wasn't his business, it was the business of an altogether shadier character in Dyellian politics.

He appeared through the main entrace, striding quickly over to the group of Alconians, "I don't believe we've been introduced?"

He hardly needed introducing, tall for a Dyellian,he wore glasses and close cropped blonde hair. The blue eyes were also somewhat unusual in Dyellians. The voice was unmistakable, cold, crisp and nearly totally emotionless, "Otto Himmler. You're in the wrong place to talk about this. I have a car outside, you may organise for your tank to follow it."

The woman in white stood up slowly, "Well if I knew that by throwing that little pebble into the pond was going to bring up Otto Himmler himself to the surface. And for someone who is supposed to be retired from public life and making a fortune off selling Vaadians tanks, you do happen to pop up in mysterious places."

She was taller than Himmler, actually she was quite tall and well built for a woman, especially in this part of the world. She tipped back the brow of her hat, and any futher introduction was completely unneeded. After all Himmler had likely been swearing about that attractive face, red hair, and blue green eyes for years.

She turned her head slightly, "Will someone go inform Commisaar Felix Dzerzhinsky that the Outer Consul of the Federation would like to have a word with him."

She returned her level gaze to Himmler. "Really the midtochondrial issue is one of several items I need to speak to Felix about. I just sent that note to wet his curiosity so I didn't have to announce to the whole blasted world that I'm here. Just like a former Chancellor it seems, I wanted to operate below the radar for a bit. Well my plan backfired. But if your dealing with that er heditary issue and you'd like to still discuss it, I am more than willing to meet with you after Felix."

Himmler laughed, it was dry, and didn't sound like he actually saw anything funny, "Oh yes the Vaadians and their tanks. They have some odd ideas, but as they say, the customer is always right. I don't really think I need to have a full meeting over this, all I need to know is who is writing the paper so that they may be suitably disuaded from publishing."

"I think you will find that that particular 'little pebble' will turn out to be more like a ten tonne boulder." he concluded.

Someone did go and inform Dzerzhinsky. He appeared a minute or so later, although before he did a suspicous number of Met Officers, also began to drift into the room, loitering about in small groups. Chief Constable Felix Dzerzhinsky was tall for a Dyellian, with a long gaunt face and an untrimmed goatee, giving him a scruffy look despite the immaculate field grey uniform, "I suppose." he skipped all introductions, "You'll be wanting to meet somewhere more private. Please could you step this way."

He nodded to a Police Sergeant who had followed him out. The man was carrying a portable metal detector. It seemed the Dyellians were expecting the Outer Consul to try to assassinate the head of Intelligence.

Victoria looked at Himmler with either laughter or hate in her eyes. It was difficut to tell with her, "Quite, Somehow I should tell you that only luck that I, for some odd reason, was asked to peer review the article. And the author has been disuaded from publishing it. Although I think by more subtile means than you've been known to employ. As for the size of my rock, even a pebble in the right place can cause an avalanche."

As Felix appeared she nodded towards him. "Yes, unless you like having every officer in the Checka and CID know what we're discussing. And you'll have to excuse me but I am going to have to sort of roll after you."

Of course the stainless steel I.V. pole made the metal detector go off constantly. Victoria chuckled again and looked back at Himmler, "Would you please explain that royalty sends other people to do their murdering? We tend not to sully our own hands with such dismal deeds. And anyway I'm only dangerous to an athesmatic ant with a large amount of shopping who can't get out of the way. And no, your not taking my I.V. pole away, I need my drip."

OOC: Not sure Terry Pratchett would like this very much.

OOC: Considering that we are as insane as the diskworld ever was....
Stop spamming threads...

At Gordan Bay, the New Shiron deployment was finally complete. The 7th Army, with 2 mechanized infantry divisions, 2 airborne divisions, 2 marine divisions and 3 ranger brigades had firm control over the area. In addition, nearly 2 divisions worth of engineers were present, 6 brigades total, and they were improving the airports, docks, and communications networks.

The RAF was present in strength too, with 4 fighter wings, and a pair of air defense groups, while the Navy wasn't left out either. Nearly 100 Sea Lions were now operating in the coastal waters, while a task force of the 7th Fleet, 1 cruiser, 2 destroyers, and a large submarine, watched further offshore.

A steady stream of ships continued to unload supplies in vast quantities, including a huge amount of food, fuel and clothing, for the civilian population.

Volunteers were being formed into a new Gordon Bay defense force too, so that eventually the 400,000 New Shiron military personnel could go home.

"Assassination is only ever a weapon of last resort." Himmler explained pedantically, "It is vile, underhand and a violation of the purity of the Dyellian race."

It was true, the Cheka had very rarely used lethal force since the end of the Revolution, they used threats and bribery far more efficiently.

"On the contrary Landgravine, we have found Nobility more than willing to go to whatever means necessary to eliminate both real and imaginary threats." Dzerzhinsky replied, his tone was mild enough not to offer offense, "Let them through."

He led the way to a private conference room down the coridoor. They never entered the Cheka section of Benjia House. This room was usually used by CID. On the route, Dzerzhinsky picked up a second Commisaar. A gangly looking man, who seemed to be constantly fingering his side arm as if expecting the Alconians to attack. This one set up Station by the door, as the Cheka's leader indicated that the Alconians should sit around a round walnut table. He himself did not sit, "I can't stand formaility in situations like this." he growled, "Why are you here? I presume the bodyguard are Klatchian Marshalls, they have a lot of nerve showing their faces in Cyro."

[OOC: Tag pending post.]

Actually assasination was not considered very intelligent way of dealing with problems by Alconians either. Victoria bit her tounge on commenting about the purity of a race spending a good deal of time, and treasure killing off blood kin en masse. She wasn't here to goad Himmler, although she wondered about his background still.

Actually only the woman in Grey followed Victoria, the JDF crewman stayed in the lobby, obviously he was transport and not considered high enough for this meeting.

As the Landgravine almost dropped into a chair she looked up at Felix with quite a good deal of annoyance. "Could you cut the theatrics please? If you bloody well haven't noticed I'm trotting along an I.V. which has started to ich like the devil. And no she isn't a Marshall. My armsman was killed along with my driver, and she is my temporary replacement."

"However, I'm assuming that your refering to the odd similarity of rumors about who the dead bodies in the Port Olympus mourge really belonged to?"

"So who told you it was the Marshals? Or did your analysis boys and girls come up with it?" Her voice wasn't weak, but it was filled with the overtone of exhaustion.

"My sources scarecely matter." Dzerzhinsky replied smoothly, "What I know is that there are very few organisations within Klatch with the motive or the resources to attack us. You may try to deny that the Marshalls have moved against the Cheka, but to be frank I won't believe you."

He paused, giving the woman in grey a suspicious stare, "Now with that going on in the background, I am sure you will understand the need for added security aroud here, in case any of your Marshalls decide Benjia house needs to be leveled. You are yet though, to answer my question, why are you here? I assume this is something important and not a social call?"

The Landgravine nodded, "No I do think whoever your source was is important. And perhaps you'll agree in a moment. You see there is something decidely sinister going on. Well even more sinister than usual for the Klatch. Arms supplies to the elves, the rash of lawsuits on the Naxcha, and a host of other events, including the mass execution of your agents in Port Olympus."

Victoria paused again and considered how to tackle this problem. "Before I can answer why I am here. I have one nagging question that I need to know. Why does Dyelli Beybi stay in the Federation? Because if the only reason your in the Federation is to prevent us from attacking you, then get out now before it's too late."

"You call it execution Landgravine, I call it murder." the Senior Commisaar grimaced, "Execution sounds clean and legal, and unless I'm missing something, the slaughter of so many of my agents was neither." from the sound of his voice, it seemed the usually cool headed Commisaar had taken the Port Olympus matter personally.

"Money." Felix replied simply to the question as to why Dyelli Beybi was in the Federation, "As well as an element of pride. We were institutional in the founding of the Federation, and as much as we may not necessarily like many of the other States, but we're not going to leave just because of that."

"Anyway, as long as the Federation keeps buying our garbage, we're quite happy where we are. You may not believe me, but Dyelli Beybi has not, in my time, ever actively plotted to do anything we percieved might harm the Federation. The Federation just has a tendency of sticking it's nose where it was specifically advised not to, and getting burned."

He paused momentarily, "So what is it that you want? If you want to get rid of us from the Federation you'll have to pursue legal avenues, because we're not about to leave on your advise. If you're here to threaten us, you're wasting your breath, I believe attacking Dyelli Beybi would be highly unprofitable."

The Landgravine shook her head, "No, I don't actually...well there are sometimes when I'd wish you'd just go off on your own. Especially after that mess you caused with the OMP, and after you blew up that anti-matter bomb in the Gonad." She paused for a second.

"And you are right, it was murder. Even if there was an execution plan devised to clense the captial of Checka agents, that plan was only to be used if Admrial Collins seized the Deyllian Government and announced herself as Empress of the Klatch and then ordered the Checka to remove the Federal Government. It was never authorized, since it would have needed unanimous consent of the voting Privy Council. The data was fairly high level though. Which brings me back to the reason I asked the question."

She paused again looking about the room for a second, " If Deylli Beybi was only in the Federation to prevent being attacked by the United Duchies, I would promise that would not occur upon your exit from the Federation. If the only reason you were in the Federation was to to save your skins, then I would tell you to get out because all hell is about to break loose. Someone is out to destroy the Federation and they are appearing to play each of the States against each other, to cause a civil war. And truth be told their doing a wonderful job of it."

She shifted in her seat looking at Felix with her eyes going more and more dark blue. "Right now I am trying to get ahead of them the only way I know how, to come to you for assistance."

"Alright" Dzerzhinsky nodded, he was open to conspiracy theories, or at least willing to listen to them, "I scarcely think that anyone needs to help the Federation along it's path to self destruction, just look at Midlonia. They'll merrily provoke war with the rest of Klatch just because they like big explosions, and Vrak is becoming little different."

"So what's your theory Landgravine, who do you think is behind this? What do you think their motive is? And what do you propose to do about it?"

Victoria looked absent minded for a moment likely the morphine dosage was slipping. "Ah yes the cruical questions, Who, Why, Where, and How." She paused again, "We have stumbled upon their funding apperatus, quite ingenious actually. There are a group of investors in Port Olympus who want to cut a canal through the end of the Gonad to shorten shipping times to the Southern Klatchian Ocean. It seems they have been one of the major arms suppliers to this Oracle chap. Of course the Oracle has been paying for these weapons, and others using some fairly nasty drugs. The money from the sale of these illicit drugs on the international market is likely one of their sources of revenue."

The Landgravine paused again, "Whatever is going on is centered in Port Olympus. Only someone with deep ties to the city could create a splinter cell of Marshalls. Yes, some of the Marshalls have gone rouge, and if I attempt an internal investigation or an external investigation likely it will become a quagmire. I can't just disband them, that would likely create even a bigger nightmare. And IIS is having troubles of their own."

She smiled a wry smile. "It seems those in the know have gotten the message and clammed up after the splinter cell demonstrated its ability on your Checka agents. Those that are talking are so far removed from any real information its just wild theories. The most recent one is that an Ursa Lord is back from the dead. I don't need the Vrakians in their current religious leaders hearing that it is a cult worshiping the Dog God Ubu or we'll get a Vrakian version of the Inquisition running about."

Victoria shook her head, "No, I don't know who or why...but there have been too many events pushing us in that direction and too many actions against any stablizing forces. But the splinter cell of Marshals, and finding out who is leading them is a start. IIS has lost two of their agents within the Marshals, just vanished, and considering how long planning has been going on I expect that some in both the Checka and IIS have been turned. Especially since it appears the Checka allowed O'Booze to hang himself."

She paused, "So my first proposed action is to do something no one in their right mind would expect. A joint IIS, Checka mission to infiltrate the Marshals and locate any information on who is leading this splinter cell."

Dzerzhinsky considered this for a moment the nodded, "You have yourself a deal. If this is some kind of trap though, you'll live to regret it."

This seemed to about sum everything up, "I think we may have possibly already turned out some of the rot in the Cheka. We found out who had been messing around with our Communications during the Fiord Harbour business, although it seems that particular tumour may have spread more than we thought, we're weeding the field at the moment, as it so happens. We'll circulate the identity of the suspect, although you should be aware, she has gone to ground and is displaying an admirable ability to stay hidden."

Victoria nodded, "One point for Mister Black, he thought something was up in your house. I thought it was a localized event to Port Olympus." She paused again. "As I was thinking the IIS problem. But Mr. Black decided on acquiring some affilliate members for this operation. Ones who it is quite unlikely to have been preverted by any underground group."

She pointed to the woman in grey who took up the conversation "Quite, we wanted to start with about twenty agents, ten from the Checka, ten from IIS. We thought starting out small at first would make the most sense. It would be helpful if we had some people from your side that could blend in with the er arrogance of Olympian social higharchy."

"I think she wants some of those ex nobles you've got hidden about Felix" The Landgravine just shook her head.

"Quite, they'll be valuable in being able to integrate better in the upper crust salons of the city. Anyway, we will be assembling the group on Paros in the greek islands." She handed over a brocure for a two story, whitewashed hotel on the island. "We have a nice little hotel with a pool leased for this activity the only other major item on this joint operation is feild command..."

"I thought something this important deserved to have a former head of intelligence, someone who can see the big picture as well as deal with the minutia of details in a small operation, as feild commander. I was going to go with a former Mister Black, unless of course the former head of the Tzarists intelligence service is around" The Landgravine put in.

Mr. Black was of course the operational head of IIS and ISS. And his (or her) idenity was closely guarded. Hell the Alconians actually used hidden means to actually pay Mr. Black who could be any number of middle or high level beurcrats within IIS and ISS who all worked and lived on Hull Island. And Hull was Benji House without any of the pretenses of being a normal government building. A massive fortress in the Inner Sea sat protecting the harbor and was also home to the Hull Division, the legal name of Alconian Special Forces.

The only Ex-Mr. Black to have ever been revealed to public knowledge was Edward Barnsworth when he had been accused of government corruption by the Internationalist. The fact that the Alconians were willing to reveal another former Mr. Black demonstrated a great deal on their investment into this operation. (Barnsworth had died years earlier, although his Grandson was now in ISS or IIS depending on the analyist)

"Funny you should mention the Tzar's head of Intelligence. You met him a few moments ago." Dzerzhinsky replied, not entirely certain if the Landgravine knew that information or not.

"He might go down quite well you know. On the outside he's very vocally anti-Federation." he mused, then shrugged, "Whatever you decide, I'm quite willing to let you guys run the show, just don't get too many of my agents killed."

"I'm sure I can drum up ten former nobles for you, although it might look a little suspicious if ten showed up at once, it would mean something was up, something along the lines of another Fiord Harbour. Off the top of my head... do you think the person who would be the Tzarina if things had turned out differently would go down well?"

He considered this a moment longer, "Yes... and that would help to explain why ten."

Dzerzhinsky had just quite consciously spewed out a closely guarded State secret. The fact that the Dyellians hadn't in fact killed all of the Tzar's relatives.

The Landgravine smiled weakly One point for me, actually IIS had not confirmed Otto as the former head of Tzarist intelligence. It had been a debate within the security apperatus of the United Duchies for some time.

"Well we are hoping that Paros is enough out of the way to avoid any serious threat of detection. I doubt they've wasted much time in pentrating your assets in the Greek Islands or ours in Italy. It might be wise though to send some of them off to seperate med airports and have them all travel to Paros.
Nor do we need all of them to be former nobles, but we will work with who you assign." The woman in grey became quiet again.

"Now for the next item on my agenda. Which is related to this...stopping the flow of arms into, and drugs out of, the Gonad. With the recent Parliamentary decree for the place to be turned into a national park, I was thinking that if we went along with the canal plan we might well dry up any weapons shipments to this Oracle...and get them to pay for a far more defendable eastern border for you...After all they would have to cross a serious body of water...and the elves never struck me as much in the way of mariners."

[OOC: I'd like to join this (after all I have had agents in the Klatch before), but I find myself unable to determine what's happened and what's going on. Anyone care to TG/email me a summary?

Khrrck
Khrrck967@gmail.com]

"Don't worry, we're not going to bundle everyone in the same plane and ship them out." the Head of the Cheka assured the Landgravine, "If we were going to do that, we might as well just issue them all with beige trenchcoats and enormous false moustaches."

"You just give us the rendezvous and a suitable password and we will trickle our agents in."

The young woman in gray shook her head, "There is only one dock on Paros and one landing strip. There will be someone waiting to take them to the hotel near the windmill in town. The password call sign in inside..." She pointed to the brocure laying on the table."

The Landgravine looked up, "any thoughts on my other matter?"

"The elf business?" Dzerzhinsky shrugged, "That theory has been around for years. A load of rubbish, naturally it could cause widescale racial violence in Dyelli Beybi if it was let out though, so as such anyone who came up with such a theory in the past was suitably disuaded from publishing."

"No about building the canal to give you a more secure eastern border."

"Oh right, yes, well I'm not an engineer." Dzerzhinsky shrugged again, "Although we'd be more than happy to put the D.B.P.A. to guarding the workers. This whole elf problem is quite tiresome, although Himmler promises he will have a solution to the problem solved by Christmas, it's what we're paying him for."

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Somewhere in East Benjia.

A man in a suit and a Generale were seated together in a truck, watching a TV screen, "And zoom in." the man in the suit spoke through a microphone.

"Zooming in." the voice which replied was harsh and metallic.

The view on the screen rapidly zoomed in, "So as you can see Genorale." the man in the suit continued, "This would allow the unit to effectively target at range."

"Weapons?" the Genorale demanded to know.

"It has a laser, like the kind we use on the Star Fighters, it also has an electric weapon, like a high powered taser, I don't really know quite how to describe it, for closer ranges."

The Genorale grunted, "Still when you're asking for a billion Kronors a unit, it seems a bit excessive, especially when you tell me it possibly wouldn't win in a one on one against a tank."

"Yes but it can do so much more..." the man in the suit protested.

"Accomplishing primary objective"

"... can a tank hover, or hack into computer systems, or fly a plane, the A.P.M.P. can do all of that, it's smart."

"What did it just say?" the Genorale held a hald up for silence, "Hey, what the hell is it doing?"

"Umm, I don't know, what did it just say? It always communicates what it's doing." the man in the suite looked alarmed, as the view switched, whatever they were viewing from was moving.

"Aquiring target."

A rather unfortunate and shocked looking Benjian in a lab coat suddenly appeared on view, a split second later he shrieked, then collapsed, dead. The view swung around again, targeting another Benjian in a lab coat who was rapidly fleeing, he met a similar fate.

"Shut down unit! Shut down unit!"

Abruptly the view stopped moving, "Genorale, I can explain..."

"It races around and slaughters people just because it can, and doesn't show the slightest hesitation?"

"Well yes, but..."

"How much were the units again?"

"Ah, well then I will get the bill moved forward allowing the company to charter. Really I think there are far to many people in Port Olympus with money to invest in a project like this."

The Landgravine paused again, "As to that live fire incident in the Gonad. That seems to have really upset quite a number of people."

"It's war, accidents happen. It's regretable, and the State has already issued it's apologies. What more can we do?" Dzerzhinsky did not attempt to hide his frustration.

"We can't prosecute the people involved, they had no idea there was anyone down there. It was faulty intelligence on the part of the Military."

The Landgravine nodded, "I don't blame the pilots or the aircrews. But whoever was supposed to be in charge of the mission should have contacted the local JDF command about any possible cocurrent missions. I can understand Dyelli Beybi attempting to secure itself against outside agressors. But really you should at least have the common courtesy of asking the JDF where their units are in Federal Territory."

The implication was obvious. If the Dyellians put the commander of the air squadron that had bombed the Alconain Marines for not contacting the JDF command in the Gonad about any possible units there, (or derliction of duty actually) then the mess could likely be cleaned up between the Alconians and the Dyellians.

It was also implied that attempting to try the aircrews themselves for their actions would not go over so well.

"You're really speaking to the wrong person." Dzerzhinsky pointed out, "You need to speak to Air Marshall France. However, I can tell you that he will probably argue the JDF hadn't mentioned any missions to him. The problem you'll find in most Dyellian organisations like the military is they opperate more like a big family and don't really like trialing their members."

OOC: Telegrams, Dyelli.

"And I should point out that Dyelli Beybi does not any legal right to be told what the JDF is doing in the Gonad on specific operations. But, that happens to be immaterial. I am sure that you will convey my thoughts on the subject to the Air Marshal"

"While Dyelli Beybi may have no legal rights to know what the JDF is doing, it would certainly seem both sensible and reasonable to let them know you are active in an area where they are carrying out large scale military opperations." Felix countered, "But naturally I will relay your feelings to the Air Marshall, although it is very unlikely to come to anything. Prosecuting troops is bad for morale, especially in cases where the outcome is the result of errors from multiple parties."

And morale in units going into the Gonad was traditionally at rock bottom anyway...