NationStates Jolt Archive

Within weeks of the leak to the media from the IINSA, several of the more imperialistic elements of the Malkyeri government met to discuss the issue. After the proverbial smoke-filled, back-room deals, the end result was a coalition of sorts between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Colonial Affairs, Defense, and Finance which supported expansion into the new region. Their stated goal was the usual spiel about protecting the native peoples and preventing hostile powers from conquering this new land, but anyone with any degree of independent though new what their true aim was: influence.

Outright conquest would not be popular with the public, and none of these imperialists wished to see the Liberal Party gain in the next elections, eroding the current Conservative hegemony. And so, the Imperial Commonwealth made plans to establish friendly relations with one of the local states, referred to off-the-record as "tribes."

The nation of Huelva, nestled along the northeast coast of the continent, was deemed the target, the "recipient of aid."

***

In the mad weeks following this new land's discovery, the Imperial Commonwealth had been quick to move. Declaring the nation of Huelva to be a protectorate, the Royal Navy was ordered to dispatch a carrier battle group, and several detachments of Royal Marines. The extent of the odd cloud-cover was not fully known, but it was reasoned that the flying machines employed by the Malkyeri would impress the locals more than the dormant, however awesomely destructive, power of a full battlefleet.

And so, the Malkyeri arrived on this new land, called Lieraze by the locals. They appeared off the coast of Huelva, their ships a dull grey under the cloud cover. A crowd of people gathered at the beach along a coastal town where the Malkyeri decided to land. The locals stood back as an assault boat came ashore, unsure of what this strange craft was. The armored gate fell, collapsing into a ramp from which a full platoon of Royal Marines departed swiftly and efficiently. The platoon took up positions around the beach area, keeping alert, but also careful not to frighten any villagers by pointing weapons at them. Like Columbus five hundred years earlier, they were the first to reach this part of the continent.

There were a few odds and ends among the villagers’ weaponry, but they were, for the most part, too stunned to react to these strange men. After a moment, a man in a suit stepped off of the boat, followed by a military officer of the rank of colonel. The suit looked around, and then said quietly, “Yes. I believe ‘Navidad’ suits this place quite nicely.”

The colonel nodded.

OOC: This is my post claiming Huelva in The Macabees’ Anabasis RP, the main thread of which is located here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=447115). I probably won’t post again until Sunday, so I’ll go ahead and outline some things for when I get back.

1) Malkyer doesn’t exert full control over Huelva [yet], but maintains a relationship more along the lines of the French and Amerindians during the first part of the eighteenth century in Louisiana and Quebec. Needless to say, this will likely change.

2) The Malkyeri ‘capital,’ as it were, is called Navidad, after the town/fort founded by Columbus on Hispanola. Navidad is considered to be part of the Imperial Commonwealth, and is the only area in Huelva where the Imperial Commonwealth exerts direct authority. The native name is largely ignored. Problems with the locals will arise when I get back on Sunday.

3) Huelva is a declared protectorate of Malkyer. Basically this means that we don’t care what you do in the rest of the continent so long as you don’t cross Huelva’s borders.

Like many of the nations on Lieraze, Huelva had a sully functioning government and economy, though their technology was somewhat lacking. The arrival of the Malkyeri had, as of yet, caused few problems, and the Huelvan government saw the foreigners as a blessing, because Malkyeri trade goods were making Huelva rich. High-tech items and tools were bought by Huelvan merchants, who turned around and sold them to the common folk and the merchants of neighboring countries at nearly twice the price. All in all, it looked like Huelva could only benefit from Malkyer's arrival.

To make the deal even sweeter, Malkyer demanded little in the way of political power. Outside of Navidad, their capital, they exerted almost no coercive force other than that of their merchants. Navidad itself had grown to a bustling metropolis of some fifty thousand in the month since Malkyer had come to this land, of whom close to three-quarters were colonists. Adjacent to Navidad was the town-sized military base of Garrison, where one armored and two mechanized infantry division were based, partly to defend Malkyer's 'protectorate' and partly to suppress the native populace around Navidad in case hostilities arose.

Outside the capital, the only Malkyeri presence was found in the occasional military patrol around the southern border region, and the hundreds of prospectors who'd moved into the interior as soon as it was realized that the Huelvans possessed a great deal of silver. In fact, numerous mining settlements had already sprung up, though these were not considered by Malkyeri authorities to be under the jurisdiction of Navidad, and were therefore private property. Malkyer would not interfere with Huelva's influence in these settlements. That is, until the natives disrupted the flow of silver...

***

Several dozen miners and their families were gathered along the outskirts of one of the more remote mining settlements, women and children clinging to their husbands and fathers in frightened family groups. Several men on horseback stood guard around the miners. Their Mauser-like rifles and swords may have been obsolete, but were plenty deadly to the defenseless miners.

The leader of the riders spoke in thickly accented English. "You have come to our land, and made our merchants rich. You claim to help us, to want to protect us. Yet you trod on the commonfolk. In your city of Navidad, it is the Huelvans who live in squalor while you outsiders feed off of silver platters."

At this, one of the miners tried to speak up. "It's not like that, we're not with the government in Navidad, we just --" A rifle butt cut him off quickly.

"You will not speak. You will listen. For a month now, your Commonwealth has sullied our lands, flooding our nation with your devilry [OOC: technology]. We will fight you off, while we still can."

The rifle shots and screams did not echo far beyond this mountain valley, and when the riders departed, there was only silence.

***

Captain Hiram Avery's patrol had stopped on a road in the mountains to fiz a flat tire on one of the Humvees. Waiting for the tire to be replaced, Avery stood by the side of the road that dropped into a mountain valley. The odd clouds made even the noon-time sun dim, and it was difficult to see very far.

This stretch of mountains, about a hundred miles inland from the sea, marked the extent of Malkyer's influence, however token. Most of the population centers of Huelva were another hundred miles away. About fifty miles to the south was the border with another country on this strange continent, though Avery couldn't remember the name. Then a sound brought him back to reality.

There was a crashing sound, like someone falling out of a tree, followed by several shouts and expletives. Then the sergeant yelled, "Cap'n Avery, you should take a look at this!"

Avery hurried over, making sure his sidearm was at hand. He came to the other side of the line of three Humvees, and was startled to see nothing more than a man surrounded by a few soldiers. Avery looked toward the other side of the road, the side that sloped up the mountain, and could see the break in the brush where the man had run through. Avery took a second look at the man, and noticed few details he hadn't before. The man had a wild, hunted look in his eyes, and parts of his clothes were soaked through with blood. As Avery stood, the patrol's medic had begun applying bandages to the worst wounds.

"What happened?"

The man didn't speak for a moment. Suddenly, the words came in a flood. "They came out of nowhere...got us all to together...oh, God, I can hear them...they killed them all."

Christ, Avery thought. "Henry, get on the horn to Garrison. We may have a situation."

***

The odd clouds of this land rendered fixed-wing aircraft useful for little more than shiny toys to impress the locals, but helicopters could fly low enough to be used as transports.

Several helicopters took up positions above an isolated village on the western side of the mountains, only a few miles from the mining settlement. The helicopters lowered in the air.

Without warning, rockets and bullets sprayed into the village, bathing it with fire. The reprisal had begun.