Fodmodmadtol
02-10-2005, 16:54
"Listen to me. . . Listen! Listen carefully."
The connection was weak, the message coated with sloppy encryption and protection. Static was constant, faintly heard underneath the voice and the white snow flickering over the video. It was desperate, entirely too desperate. They were hell bent on getting their message out.
He fiddled with a few wires, lights flickering slightly in the dim and cramped space. Papers were strewn everywhere, and only the light bulb dangling from the ceiling, constantly flickering, gave any impression that these people had any technology at all. That, and the struggling transmission.
A man was in front of the camera, shadowed to the point where nothing was recognizable. Yet in his voice one hears the anxiety.
"We come from Fod. . . We need help. Fod has taken part in atrocious acts against people, but not people, sentience. Humans, elves, anything, For disagreement. This isn't something spectacular, this isn't something original and unique to Fod. It's happening no less. Help us, please. . . I work for the Ministry of Truth, I know everything about what's happening. Executions of entire Districts. . . Entire Schools being erased. It's out of control. Help, we need help."
The transmission grew weaker, the man's voice fading almost entirely and the image completely consumed in static.
"Yumenye MPO Three. . . Help. We can explain everything, Yumenye MPO Three. . . Shhh Shhhwere Shhh. "
It died.
Fodmodmadtol
03-10-2005, 17:07
"We interupt your broadcast for an anouncement from State Imperial News. Please stand by, and thank you for tuning into IRC twenty-four twenty-four."
The radio went silent for a moment.
"Good evening. Earlier today it was brought before Administration-Corporation that a prank has been played on Yumenye District. A fake distress call was broadcast to anyone within reception this morning. Administration wants to reassure you that this broadcast was a fake, a joke played on the Yumenye District Administration-Corporation. The criminals have been aprehended and are being treated in a Federal Education Center. Thank you for your time."
A silent room.
It seems almost too silent, as though soundproofed; which, of course, it is. The room has carefully been checked for wiretaps many times. Anything that goes on inside it is top secret.
Where? Somewhere in an underground bunker, below the Catacombs of Barik. Somewhere that no spy could ever reach, or listen through the walls, made of solid rock. The electrical lights are always on. Czardas, at least, has good and working technology.
Inside this room sit two women and two men. Screens on the walls show other faces. The four inside sit at evenly spaced intervals around a solid brown table. The one in charge seems to be the short woman with dark Eastern features and long straight hair. She speaks first.
"So, what do we know about this...broadcast?"
"Nothing whatsoever," replies one of the men. "It comes from a nation, apparently, called Fodmodmadtol... but we can't find anything about it in our database."
"That isn't entirely true," says the other man, shorter and stockier than the first. "We know its population and size, and a bit about its 'glorious' history... but besides that, there's really no information."
"I see." The woman nods. "Besides that: do we know anything about its government?"
"It appears to be fairly corporate-based, with little political freedom," responds the second man carefully. "We're not entirely sure if it's generally an oppressive state, or not."
"Captain?" She turns to the other woman, who has not spoken until now: younger, taller, and slenderer than the first, much more used to danger and violence.
"I think the best thing to do will be to send out a Kestrel or two, and get back their groundscans," she replies. "It should stay entirely within the 14th. News might spread among the Air Force and somehow get to them, and by now we ought to know that letting the nation get wind of our intentions would be fatal."
"True," says the shorter man. "We don't want them launching a military operation against us if they feel it's necessary. Just look what happened last time."
"Last time" had resulted in the deaths of over 400,000 civilians and the implosion of Czardas's economy, not to mention total destruction of large portions of the countryside. At that time Czardas had been facing a military whose total active forces numbered about double Czardas's entire population. While this nation would not pose as such a serious threat, especially with Czardas's newer and more advanced military equipment purchased in the aftermath, it was never a good idea to incite another nation to war -- especially if the cause might be just a false alarm.
She addresses the taller man this time. "Lieutenant, I want you and Enigma to take two Kestrels and scout this place. Set groundscans to 81 and report back whatever you find."
He salutes. "All right, I'll get Enigma at once."
"And you," she continues, talking to the shorter man, "I want you to make sure nothing contained in this meeting gets out to anyone. Withhold it from my division, too. Only the four of us, and Enigma."
He merely nods. "I'm good at that."
"All right, Airya, are we finished?"
The first woman says, "Yes. You may go."
------------------------
From a military airport at an undisclosed location in Czardas, two Kestrel 60-24 Stealth/Distant Attack Espionage aircraft take off from the long runway, kept clean from the surrounding snow, heading south.
The two aircraft soar over the snow-covered Czardaian mountains and plateaus, south towards the nation. As they fly the world below appears white. National borders are only visible on the constantly updated groundscan screens above the controls. Even from 55,000 feet they can see what is going on beneath them.
Nothing so far... but then they are still some hours away from their destination.
[ooc:] Where can I find some information on your nation? Do you have a wiki?