NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: Warning, this thread may spontaneously turn Future Tech)

In a series of very well documented attacks in recent days, it has been revealed that several Dyellian Naval Vessels have been involved in acts of piracy in International Waters. Not aiding the situation at all, no crew members were killed in any of the raids... the ships were stripped of everything the Dyellians could carry, then turned loose again. The Dyelli Beybian Government was very quick to respond.

A Statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

We find it highly unlikely that any Dyellian ships have been involved in acts of Piracy. Such accusations are baseless, and clearly just a poorly contrived response to taxation on vessels using Dyellian waterways. We have nothing further to say on the subject.

OOC: I want to get invovled here, will post tonight.

Any invaision into our 50Nm claims will be met with force...if you can pass the minefield. Otherwise, we don't care. But please, have a basket of fruit!

OOC: What? How did you know the official Dyellian Government response. There has been a security leak!

OOC: What?

OOC: Never mind.

International Waters, near the pirate incidents

The ISS YEAGER was a rare ship in the IDF Navy. She wasn’t built with the stealth signature that most of the DDGs coming out of the various yards along the Med had. She was the only operation class of imports, built for speed. She was one of 16 Sabre class vessels purchased from Freethinkers about a decade before. What she lacked in stealth, she made up for in speed.

The YEAGER had been on deployment for 2 months now in what had been an uneventful voyage. “Bridge, Combat,” called the TAO from the CIC. “RADAR has a new ship appearing on our scopes. She appears to be adrift. She is bearing 185 at 200 miles.”

“Very Well,” responded Captain Murray. “Set new course 185 all ahead flank.” Captain Murray was glad. His ship finally had something to do and he now had an excuse to go to 60 knots. Normally, high speed runs were done at 55 knots, but during emergencies he could to 60. A large ship adrift constituted such an event. Normally though, he was stuck going at 30 knots as the IDF Navy had restricted the unnessesary high speed cruising due to fuel usage.

As the ship got to 125 miles from the adrift ships, the Captain had to order the speed down to 55 as continued running at 60 knots would cause severe engine damage. He couldn’t wait until his next refit to help alleviate that issue. “Bridge, Combat,” called the TAO once again. “I have 3 additional ships that also appear to be adrift. I think something is wrong here.”

Captain Murray wasted no time. “Get the SH-60 up to get a look at them.”

The BNC (Chief Bosun’s Mate) took his pipe and blew it over the 1MC and announced that the ship was going to flight quarters. 10 minutes later the SH-60 was up and heading towards the abandoned ships.

SH-60
The helo flew south at over 120 knots to get a quick view of the deserted ships. The ships were now on their scope and the helo dropped altitude to get a better view on them. “Holy Shit!” called the pilot. “These ships haven’t just been deserted. It looks like someone stripped them of valuable equipment. Looks to me like piracy.”

The Captain was startled to hear that. “Get back NOW!” he ordered to the chopper pilot. He didn’t want to find out if the pirates were still in the area. “Set Condiation 1!”

“General Quarter! General Quarter! All hands man your battlestations,” called the BCN over the 1MC.

The CO was unsure about what exactly had transpired, but he knew to contact fleet HQ to inform them of the situation. Now that they knew activity had occurred in this area, the intel agencies would know to look at possible satellite overheads to see if they caught what had happened.

Dyelli Beybi didn't exactly believe in International waters, they'd laid mines in them for a start...

What they did believe was that any ship pottering around near their Coastline was potentially a threat. While most navies went into weapons, armour and stealth, the Dyellians had gone down a different road. They'd gone for electronics. A Dyellian ship on the horizon was unmistakable, all but the smallest ship carried at least one gigantic pagoda mast, something no other Navy had been known to use since Imperial Japan. It also made them very easy to pick up on radar... not that that mattered much, they had enough jamming and scrambling equipment aboard that it usually didn't matter much.

The Yeager had not gone without notice, and very quickly had company. A squadron of four Scout Cruisers approaching from the East. (OOC: Dyellian shore is to the North, it runs North East into Greenbeard, and West into South West Benjia, although there is a big and highly illegal minefield between shipping lanes and the shore.) They travelled at a stately and farily non-agressive speed of 20 knotts, at a range of 70 nautical miles they hailed the Yeager.

This is Scout Cruiser Squadron Iota, Commanded by Vice Admiral Collins. State your name and purpose in Dyelli Beybian Waters.

Several things immediately sprung to mind. First of course was that the ships were technically in International waters. The others would only be realised by those with a knowlege of the Dyellian Navy, but that was to be expected in this area. Dyellian Scout Cruisers weren't amazingly fast, and therefore must have been relatively close to the scene, furthermore in the past it had always been the Scout Cruiser and Destroyer Captains that had tended to become involved in piracy. Then there was the name; Vice Admiral Collins... if it was the same person, they were the one who had caused the last Piracy scandal. All up the Squadron could only be described as 'highly suspect'.

Tactical Group Namroth Vedic was currently still in it's previous position. That is about five hundred nautical miles south of Dyelli Beybi and five hundred nautical miles west of Greenbeard. The unrest in the Gonad, and Karmanyaka had drawn Tactical Groups Sir William Issem and Emperor Ehecatl back to Vaadian and Karmanyakan waters respectively, but Namroth Vedic had been judged too far away and was in a good position to monitor movements by Federation naval assets, so it had stayed put.

Admiral Ayamara, aboard the Flag Ship Namroth Vedic, had noticed the overly aggressive Dyellians. He was certain it would lead to the type of chest beating showdow it had previously with the ridiculous Organization of Maritime Powers. He sighed and forwarded on the reported piracy, and the 'Official' Dyellian response.

He took a seat as he sipped his coffee and looked over the reports from the varios ships in the Tactical Group , he doubted that any pirate, no matter how brave or mentally deficent, would harm Vaadian shipping with the Namroth Vedic still conducting 'maneuvers' so close to Dyellian 'teritorial' waters.

Still, if they did interfere with Vaadian shipping, it would give him something to do, but for now he contented himself with watching the Dyellians deal with another obvious mess, they semed incapable of learning from past experience.

ISS YEAGER (DDG-2715)
"Captain, we have a radio communication from Vice-Admiral Collins of the Dyelli Beybi Navy."

"Patch me through," ordered Captain Murray. THe Captain listend to the message and quickly responded. He was alarmed when he heard the name Collins. He knew that DB had been involved in past piracy incidents just before IDF joined the OMP. He had hear stories about a Collins. Even before he sent the helo up to report on the ships he thought this was piracy. This wasn't the 1st time this happened near DB. Piracy was not a new thing for this nation and he was almost 100% sure his suspicions were right. He was glad that he had contacted IDF Fleet HQ about his suspicions. THe picture was now becoming perfectly clear for him.

"Admiral Collins, we are just investigating some abandoned ships we got on our scopes. Our helicopter got a look at them and we believe piracy was involved here. We are approaching the ships now to further investigate the situation. We just ask that you cooperate and allow us to continue. That will be all."

Captain Murray shut down the comms link and turned to his XO. "I think we are in for some trouble. I bet DB is back to its old trick of piracy. Send a new report to Fleet HQ telling them about Collins and that it appears DB has returned to piracy in international waters."

"Aye Sir," responded LtCDR Watkins, the XO. "Sir, I want to add something disturbing. Our LADAR and RADAR are now both tracking warships not too far from the drifting ships. Early indications are they are DB Naval vessels."

"Very well," responded a nervous Captain. The ship had stood down from GQ only half an hour before. He was now ready to return to it. "Set condition 1 again, I smell trouble."

"General Quarter! General Quarters! All hands man your battlestations. All hands man your battlestations. Condition Zebra will be set in 5 minutes!" came the call over the 1MC as the ship's gong sounded bringing the ISS YEAGER to GQ for the 2nd time in a few hours.

King Ari was less than pleased when Grand Admiral Jacobson brought the news of piracy to him. He thought that the OMP had eradicated it world wide, but Dyelli Beybi was going to be bringing it back. "I want this dealt with," he said. "Use whatever resources you need. I've come to trust your judgement in these cases."

"Thank you Sir," said the Admiral as he departed. "I will do you proud.

WIth that, the Admiral left the new palace that was built once IDF switched back into a monarchy, something not seen in Israel since King Solomon over 2500 years ago. He had work to do.

Once arriving at Naval Command in Tel Aviv, Jacobson was quick to act. The IDF Navy was a large one and that meant getting the ships to support the vulnerable ISS YEAGER wouldn't be hard. He knew Murray was a great Naval Officer, but even he couldn't conduct this investigation alone, especially with the threat of attack by the Dyellian Navy. Help had to be sent. Jacobson reviewed what was at sea and in the area to send. He made his list and sent it ot his commanders.


19102005 1627Z
***TOP SECRET***

A. BY ORDER OF FLEET ADMIRAL JOSEPH JACOBSON, CINC IDF NAVY, THE FOLLOWING
ASSETS WILL BE SENT TO THE AREA SOUTH OF THE DYELLIAN COAST IN INTERNATIONAL
WATERS TO SUPPORT ISS YEAGER (DDG-2715) IN INVESTIGATION OF ACT OF
PIRACY.

ISS MONTGOMERY MENACHEM BEGIN CLASS CA
ISS YORK MEIR CLASS DDG
ISS SAMSONITE MEIR CLASS DDG
ISS ORTON MEIR CLASS DDG
ISS INDIA RAMON CLASS DDG
ISS ARMSTRONG RAMON CLASS DDG
ISS DES MOINES CHICAGO CLASS FFG
ISS BOILERMAKER BADGER CLASS FLEET SUPPLY VESSEL
ISS STINGRAY HALIBUT CLASS SSN

OOC: These ships are days away still. YEAGER will be on her own for a while.

A Tech-Com Corporation Freighter, the SSC(Surface-Sea-Commercial) INTERSPACE, was steaming past Dyelli Beybi Waterways, not in them, at 70 Nautical Miles they would surely be to far for trouble. Yet the prospect of pirates in the area had the Tech-Com Captain particularly unnerved. So he had ordered all of his Tech-Com Mercenaries(which were really just names for the Tech-Com Corporations Private Army/Security Force) to keep a look out and he was keeping a fine eye on his radar. He was carrying a load of the famous Red Tidean Sports Car, nicknamed the Rorek, to a distant trade partner. And he was a half an hour ahead of schedule. He wanted to keep it that way.

"Yeah, this is squadron three. Repeat, we have found the missing cargo ship. It's about 100 Nm off the Dyelli Beybi coast, and the crew looks OK. It looks like its been stripped of alot of stuff though."
The Viper VOTL (Picture a V-22 Osprey, but with swept back wings and engines under the wings) hovered over the drifting cargo vessel. The other nine hovered or ran patrol sweeps around the ship.
"Ok, units 1-4, lets begin pickup. Everyone else, fly cover."

The four vipers lowered ropes, and one landed on the heilpad at the back of the ship. The crew were loaded on to the VOTLs, as was anything else of value that hadn't been stripped by the pirates.

"Squadron three, you are ordered to maintain your current position until navy units have arrived." The voice of the air command officer interupted the loading.
"Negitive, command, we've got a wounded man here. We'll fly all the crew over to the imcoming vessel and everyone else will fly cover. Whats the ETA of the ship?"
"About 20 minutes, squadron command. It'll have enough landing space for your squadron."

"Roger"


Thirty minutes later, one cruiser and one tow ship to pull the cargo ship were sailing back towards Nistolonian waters with the crew. The remaining cruiser and two destroyers, along with squadron three, had picked up radar interferance towards the north and were sailing towards it.

OOC: Thats were IDF's ship and the three Dyelli Beybi ships are.

The Admiral of the Fleet was not happy. Had, he been a cat his tail would be lashing about furiously at this time. He paced back and forth, eventually stopping to face his Aide, "The Vice Admiral says what?"

"Piracy, Sir, OMP have noticed, they'll be all over the show in a day or two I'd warrant... as usual." the aide replied dourly.

"Well tell them to get the hell out of our waters, and that we had nothing to do with it." von Scheer (the Admiral) snarled... "We did have nothing to do with it."

"The Vice Admiral tells us that her vessel was closest to the scene, but that she certainly had nothing to do with it, neither did she register the prescence of any other vessels though."

"Odd." the Admiral grunted, "I reckon we need to take a good look at that Squadron of Scout Cruisers..."

----------

"Tell me though." Eamon Collins, High Chancellor of Dyelli Beybi, asked frankly, "Are we really looking at Dyellian Pirates."

The woman he was speaking to was the new head of the Cheka, a 'Tania Fradkov', she was middle aged, with typical dark hair and eyes, she was striking, if not attractive, "I can tell you, without the slightest hint of doubt that there are no acts of piracy being carried out by Dyellian Vessels, this is all part of a smear campaign against the Government."

"They're going to a lot of effort to smear us." the High Chancellor replied dubiously, "Are you quite certain."

"Yes. It just further reinforces the need for the Emergency measures voted to the Cheka the other day, these are turbulent times, we need to be able to arrest and try suspects rapidly, without all the red tape usually associated with Police procedure. I would put money on this being some form of Tzarist plot."

Collins raised an eyebrow, but did not reply, he found the whole business rather odd, and Fradkov's explanation had some very obvious flaws in it. He'd need to speak to Otto Himmler, and then his wife...

----------

At sea though the Dyellians were taking their usual aggressive response, to the prescence of IDF forces, in their waters,

This is Scout Cruiser Squadron Iota, any investigation of piratical activity in this region, should be carried out by Dyellian forces. Please remain in your current position and await our arrival. Thank you.

-----------

Meanwhile any sailors being interviewed would identify their attackers as using motor launches, the kind found on most naval vessels (although the main vessel was never spotted). The attackers were definitely Dyellian though, the accents were unmistakable, plus they were wearing Dyellian uniform.

Admiral Ayamara watched with increasing concern as more foreign ships began heading toward Klatchain Regional Waters. He frowned and turned to the Captain.

"Put the entire Tactical Group on alert. Deploy our air screen and array the submarine screen. Put me through to Tollan Fire Control and request a Death's Head umbrella be put on standby."

Once agin, the Vaadians responded in their usual manner, sort of like usining a Cadillac to swat at a fly. Tactiacl Group Namroth Vedic slowly fanned out, the 26 ships of the surface fleet and 24 submarines now covered right around four hundred square miles of the ocean south of Dyelli Beybi, their ait unbrella stretched out another three hundred miles beyond that. The Tactical Group began monitoring all communications in the area, snd Tollan Fire Control began reviewing it's archives for any satellite imagery of any acts of 'piracy'.

Admiral Aymara stood and paced back and forth in front of the main screens in Namroth Vedic Fire Control and nodded as his Tactical Groups assets blinked online one after another.

*****

Back in Tollan, Fire Control Duty Commander, Command General Ibn Baibars quitly activated Tactical Groups Tomislav Vaad, Naach-Tith and Enver Pasha, and allocated them to support Admiral Aymara and Tactical Group Namroth Vedic. High above him on the flat Tollan Plateau sirens sounded as the the 32ft thick blast doors slowly opened and the Death's Heads Sub-Orbital Bombers taxied out to prepare to fly shifts in support of the deployed Tactical Groups.

Whoever the pirate was clever. They attacked in the fog. Added to that they were using a rather heavy ECM system to mess with radar trying to see through. This tended to point to some kind of military vessel, probably Dyellian due to where it was and the general obsession the Dyellians had with electroic warfare. IR though might pick up something if, anyone had a Sattelite with that kind of technology that just happened to be over the area within a 1 hour timeframe...

ISS YEAGER (DDG-2215)
Captain Murray had his ship running at Condition III Sailing now, but she was still at a relaxed condition zebra where men could move about the ship so long as they dogged the hatches shut. Murray was reading the recent communiqué from Vice-Admiral Collins. He had orders to investigate and so long he remained in International Waters he would do just that.

He got on the radio frequency to respond. “I’m sorry Admiral, but I have direct orders to investigate this incident so long as I’m in international waters. If you truly have nothing to hide, then let us continue our search, we mean no hostile intent. We have a right to these waters and will remain on station until we complete our mission. We will not take orders from you. That is all.”

“Sir,” said the EWO. “We are getting some jamming on our RADARs. They are barely functioning I’m having trouble keeping the DB ships on my screens.”

”Lower the power output being sent to the RADAR and send that power to the LADARs,” ordered Murray. He was glad that every IDF warship was equipped with a very powerful LADAR after the infamous Operation Crucible. Some ships were now being equipped with LIDAR too as an additional back-up. RADAR was too easily jammed, but nothing could jam LADAR and it was amazing effective in guiding weapons. If DB’s plan was to jam RADARs, it would fail as the LADAR wouldn’t be affected by electronic interference.

“Radio, put them through with the Ilek-Vaad ships here.” The radioman quickly responded to this order. “Admiral Ayamara, this is the IDF guided missile destroyer ISS YEAGER. We are investigation the incident of piracy we’ve both seemed to uncover. I would like to ask if you would like to share any information you gather here with us. We will do the same with you. I have a fear that DB is behind this and we will have to cooperate if we want to survive.”

OOC: DB, even with my LADAR, my ships didn't see the piracy act itself as it was at a good range when it occured so we wouldn't have detected the EM blocking so we still officially don't know it was you, but they have their suspicion.

OOC: Wouldn't you be limited to targets you can actually see for that? Either that or rely on a UAV?

The Dyellian reply was swift and and unhappy,

You may not investigate this incident on your own. We will allow a joint investigation but not a solo investigation by any Nation affiliated with OMP. Prior experience warns us that OMP Nations may be prone to fabricate evidence in order to further their dubious goals.


Collins wasn't pulling any punches today. Smoke was now visible on the horizon, the Dyellians were closing slowly but surely.

OOC: It works just as well with RADAR and it's major limitation is trouble seeing over the horizon, just like RADAR. I do have stealth UAVs on some of my ships. I use them on my battleships to give OTH laser targetting for the guns when I fire long range. I've read that in the final decade of use of the Iowas, they were given UAVs just for that.

IC: We have no problem with a joint investigation Admiral. I can assure you we have no intent to fabricate evidence. We just ask that you cooperate and don't stonewall with the investigation.

Captain Murray was also awaiting response from Ilek-Vaad to see what they had discovered.

"We are closing on the ship signals, sir." Leutenant Lethram looked up at Captain Helriss as he passed. "We had to switch to using satelittes for radar, we're getting some ECM interference. We'll be there in about ten minutes. In the meantime, we've picked up the communications from the IDF and Dyelli Beybin ships."

"Very good, Leutenant" Helriss glanced at the transmissions. "Hold position as soon as we get into visual range. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, get a Viper up there to see whats happening."

[My involvement in this will be minimal, just something for me to do while waiting for Hogsweat to reply in my other ongoing RP.]


Ever since the first fiasco with the Klatchians, and specifically the Dyellians, the External Security Service had been careful to send spy satellites over the region to monitor the day-to-day situation there. Although they had never seen an act of piracy in progress, it would have been impossible for them to not notice the occassional floating hulk. However, it hadn't been realized that they were indeed hulks until the IDF had notified of them of the situation through their embassy in New Copenhagen, which had merited further study of the intelligence that had been gathered in the last month or so. Beyond the regular studies of real-time video that had been recorded, radio intercepts had also noted exchanges between the IDF guided missile destroyer and the Dyellian cruisers, although there was not enough time to break the nortoriously tough encryption that the Klatchians regularly employed. It was enough to warrant diplomatic notes and other preparations.


..::Class 1 Diplomatic Message, 2056kb Encryption::..
TO: IDF Embassy, Imperium of Scandavian States
FR: Duchess Asiya Saleh, Director of Foreign Services
SUB: Piracy Investigation

The Imperium is willing and able to help in the investigation of the continued piracy within waters surrounding the Klatchian Federation. If necessary, we will dispatch a small task force to back up your destroyer.
..::End Class 1 Message, End Encryption::..

..::Class 3 Diplomatic Message, 512kb Encryption::..
TO: Dyelli Consul, FKC Haven Trading Post
CC: Vrak Consul, FKC Haven Trading Post; Alcona and Hubris Consul, FKC Haven Trading Post
FR: Duchess Asiya Saleh, Director of Foreign Services
SUB: Piracy Investigation

This note is being sent to notify authorities within the Klatch that the Imperium intends to investigate current piracy allegations around Klatchian waters. We request, but do not require, cooperation in this matter. Outright interference will be looked upon as an admition of guilt and dealt with according to established piracy laws within the Imperium and other nations.

Furthermore, we warn that if Admiral Collins is once again involved she will not enjoy sovereign protection as would be granted her husband if her squadron is caught committing the alleged acts.
..::End Class 3 Message, End Encryption::..


After sending the messages to their respective recipients Asiya looked up from her terminal at Admiral Jorgenssen, "What are you going to send if IDF officially requests assistance?"

"CarDiv3, CruDiv1, CruDiv13, and SubDiv1 from White Fleet," replied Sven, referring to what he'd detach from one of the Home Fleets.

"Isn't that a bit much?" The Duchess wondered.

"Standard cruiser escort for a capital ship is two CGNs and two CANs, so double would be SOP but I don't want to spook the Klatchians too much. The subs will be doing independant intelligence missions," answered the First Sea Lord.

"And if they misbehave?" The question wasn't a theoretical as it would have been with any other nation or group of nations, if for no other reason than the Klatchians had proven themselves to be abrasive and quite the opposite of cooperative.

"8th Fleet is conducting patrols near South Haven, the xenophobes will be punished if they try anything offensive," it was obvious which meaning the Fleet Admiral was using and sincerely hoped they would make such a mistake.

"Our naval buildup isn't yet complete, we can't afford to fight the entire Federation because of one stupid nation," noted the diplomat.

"No, we can't afford taking the fight to them, but if we sieze their trading post and make them come to us, they will be playing in our backyard. Besides that, the Sarzonians and Omzians are our allies and in Haven, they'll back us up if we need it," the surety in his voice assuaged Asiya's worries.

TO: Dyelli Consul, FKC Haven Trading Post
CC: Vrak Consul, FKC Haven Trading Post; Alcona and Hubris Consul, FKC Haven Trading Post
FR: Duchess Asiya Saleh, Director of Foreign Services
SUB: Piracy Investigation

This note is being sent to notify authorities within the Klatch that the Imperium intends to investigate current piracy allegations around Klatchian waters. We request, but do not require, cooperation in this matter. Outright interference will be looked upon as an admition of guilt and dealt with according to established piracy laws within the Imperium and other nations.

Furthermore, we warn that if Admiral Collins is once again involved she will not enjoy sovereign protection as would be granted her husband if her squadron is caught committing the alleged acts.
..::End Class 3 Message, End Encryption::..


To: Duchess Asiya Saleh, Director of Foreign Services
From: Vrak Diplomatic Corps
Subject: Piracy Investigation

We are currently unware of any piracy occuring within Klatchian waters, although we concede that there have been suspicious activities in the past of the coast of mainland Klatch, specifically off the coast of Dyelli Beybi.

Still, your particular presence is not needed. You have shown yourselves to excaberate situations instead of utilizing other, more effective approaches. In stating that you do not require our cooperation in this matter has already started this process on an unfortunate note. We ask that you reevaluate your stance in this matter.

We trust that you will respect the 200 nautical limit of our FKC colonies in the Haven region as well as nautical limits off the Klatchian mainland. Our FKC colonies as well as our civilian shipping has always respected the nautical limits enjoyed by other Havenic states.

You are advised to contact the FKC Ministry of Defense for exact nautical figures.

..::Class 3 Diplomatic Notice, 516kb Encryption::..
TO: Vrak Diplomatic Corps
FR: Duchess Asiya Saleh, Director of Foreign Services
SUB: RE: RE: Piracy Investigation

I will submit that Klatchian unawareness in the past and present has caused these recurring incidents. If the Klatch Federation was willing, or even able, to deal with its member nations in accordance with commonly accepted laws on piracy, the Klatch wouldn't have the problems it does with foreign nations. However, if there was a reversal in these policies the Imperium would satisfy itself with merely monitoring as it has done in the recent past.

Note that I stated the Imperium requested cooperation, the latter part of the sentence was only added because the current Klatchian administration has shown itself to be generally uncooperative and belligerent. The Imperium would be more than happy to have the cooperation of Vrak and other Federation members, but our deeper involvement in this situation rests with factors and nations outside of the control of the Federation.

What I find most disturbing is your admission that the current allegations center on Dyelli Beybi and its waters. During the last incident we gathered intelligence that Admiral Collins and her cruisers were involved in acts that most nations would consider piracy; we still hold that evidence. Should the Imperium find that Collins was involved in these most recent incidents, we will have all we need to try and convict her of piracy. I'm sure the Federation remembers what penalty piracy holds within the Imperium.
..::End Class 3 Message, End Encryption::..

Whoever the pirate was clever. They attacked in the fog. Added to that they were using a rather heavy ECM system to mess with radar trying to see through. This tended to point to some kind of military vessel, probably Dyellian due to where it was and the general obsession the Dyellians had with electroic warfare. IR though might pick up something if, anyone had a Sattelite with that kind of technology that just happened to be over the area within a 1 hour timeframe...

Fortunately for Tollan Fire Control there were always TWO RASTER Satellites focused on the Klatch. With Deylli Beybi hosting the Foreign Guard, the satellites were often focused on Deylli Beybi. There was certain to be footage of the piracy as it happened, it was simply a mattering of finding the incidents and identifying the ships involved. Fog , darkness and other things that might hinder the satellites thermographic imaging, of course the ships involved would be much harder.

The acts of 'piracy' were finally found by Fire Controls analysts. They now would spend the next day or two matching the heat signatures of the ships involved with known heat signatures from the archives. It would be an 80%-90% match at best. Of course, no one even had any orders telling them what they should do with them when they were identified. Not that any decision had been made in those regards.

The Dyellians radioed back to the IDF ships, they were always ready to compromise it seemed,

This is acceptable. You can rest assured we will not stonewall. It is in the best interests of Dyelli Beybi and the Federation that this is resolved swiftly. As such we request permission to send a small group to come aboard and discuss the problem facing us.

The four ships had finally come into visual range. It seemed 'Scout Cruiser' in Dyellian meant 'large frigate'. They looked quite old fashioned, huge bulky superstructure and funnels emiting huge gouts of black smoke. Years previously the Dyellians had been forced by treaty to forsake nuclear weapons, they had blatantly kept producing them, but had taken all of their nuclear reactors out of their ships and replaced them with oil engines. It was cheaper for them anyway, Dyelli Beybi had large oil reserves.

The Scout Cruisers were an odd creation, in the Squadrons they acted in, they could repel an attack from enemy shipping, but were primarily AA and ASW vessels.

----------

To: Duchess Asiya Saleh, Director of Foreign Services
From: Commisaar Reilly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Subject: RE: Piracy Investigation

Your participation in ongoing investigations by the Dyellian Navy and IDF Forces is neither requested nor welcome. You may relay information pertinent to the Investigation to those involved. You may launch a parallel investigation of your own, but it will not be treated as legal by the Dyellian Government. This is an internal issue and of no relevance whatsoever to Scandavian States.

Dyelli Beybi does not respect the legality of a Scandavian States court to try Dyellian Military Commanders. In consideration of threats already levelled, any attempt to move an armed Scandavian States vessel to within 50 nautical miles of a Dyellian one without adequate explanation will be taken as a hostile action and regretfully, we will be forced to fire.

----------

The vessel the Vaadians found to be involved could have been one of two similar classes of Dyellian vessels (which narrowed it down to 50 vessels). The one responsible was either an R-Boat or an S-Boat, one of Dyelli Beybi's fleet of raiding diesel electric submarines.

..::Class 3 Diplomatic Notice, 516kb Encryption::..
TO: Vrak Diplomatic Corps
FR: Duchess Asiya Saleh, Director of Foreign Services
SUB: RE: RE: Piracy Investigation

I will submit that Klatchian unawareness in the past and present has caused these recurring incidents. If the Klatch Federation was willing, or even able, to deal with its member nations in accordance with commonly accepted laws on piracy, the Klatch wouldn't have the problems it does with foreign nations. However, if there was a reversal in these policies the Imperium would satisfy itself with merely monitoring as it has done in the recent past.

Note that I stated the Imperium requested cooperation, the latter part of the sentence was only added because the current Klatchian administration has shown itself to be generally uncooperative and belligerent. The Imperium would be more than happy to have the cooperation of Vrak and other Federation members, but our deeper involvement in this situation rests with factors and nations outside of the control of the Federation.

What I find most disturbing is your admission that the current allegations center on Dyelli Beybi and its waters. During the last incident we gathered intelligence that Admiral Collins and her cruisers were involved in acts that most nations would consider piracy; we still hold that evidence. Should the Imperium find that Collins was involved in these most recent incidents, we will have all we need to try and convict her of piracy. I'm sure the Federation remembers what penalty piracy holds within the Imperium.
..::End Class 3 Message, End Encryption::..


To: Duchess Asiya Saleh, Director of Foreign Services
From: Vrak Diplomatic Corps
Subject: Piracy investigation

Read over our last communique again. We concede that there were suspicious activities in the past. We don't know about now. The Klatch is a large region to monitor and I will not bother to explain our constitution to you.

As well, the Klatch is not beholden to some self-appointed ageny that seeks to enforce laws to suit its own agenda. Do not seek to enforce some unilateral law. We are great respectors of national sovereignty and we find it that nations such as yourself seek to meddle in the affairs of others only serve to worsen situations.

Unless you decide to adopt a more civil tone in your communications with this office, consider this our last message. Implied threats regarding how the Imperium penalizes piracy is not welcome nor needed, but does serve to strengthen our previously held views of your nation.

Finally, we ask again that you respect the territorial waters of not only the mainland Klatch but any and all of her colonies.


OOC: Not sure how much I can RP here. Darn busy semester with 6 classes and practicum. I'll do my best.

edit: OOC thread is here:

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=9824147#post9824147

It's almost disturbing how predictably and brutally hardheaded they can be, thought Asiya of the walruses who ran Vrak. In the past she would have simply notified them that the Imperial Navy would be conducting an investgation into yet another series of alleged pirate attacks in and around the FKC and if they didn't like it they could go fuck themselves, in the most diplomatic language possible. Instead, she had laid before them the choice of cooperating and perhaps gaining some level of trust, but they had merely spat on the offer. It was as if they were determined to provoke an incident. Nothing for it, and no matter given the Dyelli reply.

"Empress, it's obvious the Wideloads aren't going to cooperate. Normally I'd recommend sending in a fleet and parking a moderate distance from the area and detaching the suggested task force. However, for whatever reason the Vrakians believe 121 ships signifies a serious commitment of resources for the Imperium and view it as a threat. Send in the task force as proposed and I believe we'll have fewer problems," recommended Asiya.

The Empress turned to Sven, "Is the task force ready?"

"Empress, one of the carriers is having a problem with her waterjets and it's becomming increasingly likely that she's going to have to be put up in drydock to have the problem fixed. I've contemplated adding a carrier from another division, but that would mean detaching a Macha from an entirely different squadron as well. I suggest sending the task force as is, if something untoward happens a single carrier isn't going to make much of a difference," the Fleet Lord replied.

"Very well, I shall follow your recommendations. Sven, I want those ships underway by evening. I don't feel comfotable with Collins keeping such a close station to an allied destroyer, nor so close to merchant shipping," intoned Lien.

Underground, somewhere on the Dyellian Coast

"The pakrahs have taken the bait it seems." Pierre remarked as he watched the cargo being unloaded.

"Yes." his associate nodded, "I take it you will have no further need of us?"

"No, not at the moment, your loyalty will not go unnoticed, Rufus. Go back and rejoin Wiking."

"What of the cargo?" Rufus nodded towards the boxes being unloaded from the submarine and stacked on the jetty that jutted out into the submarine pen.

Pierre shrugged, "We'll burn it, it's not worth the bother trying to sell it, someone might get suspicious."

"And what of the Vice Admiral?" Rufus persisted, "What if nothing comes of it, or she is cleared."

"She is a brash and stupid woman, we will make sure she feels very alone where she is, alone and frightenened. She will lash out even if the pakrahs don't arrest her first, and if not, Wiking can settle the matter."

The vessel the Vaadians found to be involved could have been one of two similar classes of Dyellian vessels (which narrowed it down to 50 vessels). The one responsible was either an R-Boat or an S-Boat, one of Dyelli Beybi's fleet of raiding diesel electric submarines.

Supreme Republican Commander Ring chuckled as he read over the report.

"Did we ever doubt that it would be a Dyellian ship?" He asked rhetorically of his Staff Seargent.

Seargent Emaele shrugged "I personaly never assume anything, what do we do with this data?"

Commander Ring smiled and slipped the files back into the dossier. "We let the Minister of Defence decide. Alert Admiral Aymara of the current situation and put top level classification on this this."

Seargent Emaele nodded "Yes sir."

*****

Within the hour the package had been delivered to Great Lassic and was being looked at by the Minister of Defence, who as was his want, took decisive and unilateral action. He resealed the contents and had them transferred to a locked diplomatic case, it was then put aboard a diplomatic flight to Dyelli Beybi for delivery to Ambassador Von Darckenfels, who was in turn instructed to deliver the pacakage directly to Mr. Eamon-Collins.

Mr. Collins also received an e-mail fro the Minister of Defence with an encrypted attachment. It simply stated that Ambassador Von Drackenfels would be arriving with a special diplomatic package and a USB Key that unencrypt the e-mail attachment and gave Mr. Collins the combination to the suitcase.

*****

In Cyro, Ambassador Von Drakenfels made an appointment with the Chancellor as instructed by the Minister, and then awaited the arrival of the case.

The lone aircraft pulled away slowly from its near twin and the refueling pods known as "buddy tanks" that it carried. A small amount of fuel jettisoned from the drogue and splashed over the airframe, a larger amount would have resulted in enough fuel to be sucked into the air intakes to cause a rather serious problem.

The pilot slowly banked left and eased the throttle forward of the 33% point, bringing himself level with the other aircraft. She saluted the other pilot and he acknowledged with a nod before breaking off to return to his carrier, "Pleasure doing business with you, Navy."

"Pleasure's all mine. God speed and good luck, Voyeur," replied the other pilot.

"Voyeur, this is Pathfinder. Change your vector to one-seven-five and climb to Angels 40, over," came the direction from the Navy E-14.

"Roger, Pathfinder. Changing bearing to 175 and climbing to 40,000 feet. Keep the door open for me," responded the Lt. Colonel.

"You got it, ma'am," responded the ATC.

Lieutenant Colonel Cho "Voyeur" Kim was an RF-125D pilot, officially called the "Peeker" by the Imperial Aerospace Force. The ground crews and pilots of other aircraft called it the "Pervert", for the simple fact that it was very good at making the opposition feel violated. Well, thought Cho, our little friends to the south aren't going to like this one bit.

Some hours later she was close enough to the Federation that her aircraft's extremely sensitive signals detection instruments were beginning to pick up traces of naval radars. That was her cue to begin with the run; she brought her aircraft to a heading that would allow her aircraft to gather all the information she needed without violating the 50nm limitation the Dyellians had imposed and then hit the afterburners after she brought her aircraft to a 45 degree angle of attack. Once Cho hit 80,000 feet and levelled off, her aircraft began accelerating to its full speed of Mach 3.42. Turning everything but her side-looking radar on, she set the autopilot for a reconnaissance run and began monitoring her signals screen in case the enemy radars turned from search to lock. If that happened she was in trouble, but she didn't think that would given that she wasn't inside anybody's declared airspace. Still, it never hurt to be prepared; she had enough jamming gear to confuse any fighter's radar and a couple missiles to deal with anybody who got too close.

The four Dyellian ships reacted to the percieved threat, by clearing the decks, and trying to aquire a lock on the Scandavian aircraft. Meanwhile a nearby Carrier launched 6 Sea Harriers (FA-2) which began closing on the aircraft, fast.

Scandavian States had acted without warning by sending a plane towards Dyellian Naval assetts, so the Dyellians had naturally assumed they were under attack, and responded accordingly.

OOC: Sorry for lack of posts. I"m in the middle of midterms and should have something up when I get home Saturday.

[Just an FYI, if you follow the link in the OOC thread you'll find all the info you need on the RF-125D. Needless to say, these are fairly stealthy aircraft, if not as stealthy as the baseline F-125 interceptors.]

Kim was impressed with how the Dyelli jets had come in on a vector that would render the horendous speed disadvantage moot, if she had any intention of continuing on her present course. Instead, she chose to alter her vector by throwing her joystick hard right and back. The aircraft continued to close with the Harriers for a few seconds before the Peeker's indicated air speed began to climb once again and the distance between the two groups began to lengthen once again. Cho was still breathing hard from the 12g turn and her muscle ached from the effort of resisting massive blood flow, but a grin graced her face because of the sheer fun.

Punching up the view screen for her long-range comms and selecting the appropriate relay sat, she said, "Keyhole, this is Voyeur. I have the data and am currently RTB. I'm almost bingo fuel, give me a vector to a buddy."

"Roger that, Voyeur. Come to 020 and decrease altitude to Angels 35 in one-five minutes, over," answered the duty radio operator at her base.

"Wilco, Keyhole. Coming to 020 and decreasing altitude in 15 minutes," confirmed the Lieutenant Colonel.

The flight back was fairly unevenful, except for the fact that the same pilot that had refueled her before was on the job once again. Noting the tail number she thought, Have to get his name from mum.

The Vrakian satellites tasked with monitoring the South Klatchian Ocean did not see the Scandavian State’s intruder. Even detecting the wing eddies or perhaps a lucky beam hitting the top half of the plane would be extremely lucky – since it would also depend partially on the astuteness of the operator. Only the Great Clam would know how many false alarms the software incorrectly perceived as threats, even though there have been improvements in the system.

But, unknown to everyone else in the Klatch, the Vrakian satellites were quietly upgraded a security level after the last formal communiqué with Duchess Asiya Saleh. The last little episode left a bitter taste which the large ones vowed never to partake again. Certain strike aircraft and extreme long-range bombers were quietly shifted into the Vrakian corridor, for Dyelli Beybi was always considered the path of attack that any invaders would use. Basically, because that unruly state managed to generate sufficient attention that forced the Vrakians to make some adjustments in their overall order of battle.

What was detected were the six Harriers leaping into the air and closing in on…something. A few seconds passed and the various extrapolations were run through the computers. Although the Dyellians were a touchy lot, they rarely send up their fighters unless they detected something, and despite them having some of their navy still running on coal power, they did possess exemplary ECM technology and detection ability.

It was with great interest that the Vrakians decided to track them as best they could. As well, a lone A-50 Mainstay bird thundered off into the night while the nearest Guardian naval squadron was informed and told to keep a sharp eye on the skies as well as the seas.

Apparently the Dyellian Harriers weren't tracking the Scandavian aircraft themselves, they reacted rather slowly to any changes in course, occasionally floating off entirely on the wrong vector. The first half dozen sloped back to their Carrier after flying around aimlessly for a while. They were replaced by another six which took up position protecting Collins' Squadron.

There was a time, not so long ago, when Drakonia wasn't all that concerned about space (or even anything outside the atmosphere of the world). But that had changed. A handful of military satellites, launched to monitor crises around the world, had been replaced by a vast network of satellites that made the Imperium one among the hundreds of nations' systems that made orbit so perilous.

One might note that the Imperium's interest in space coincided with its Declaration of war on the Federated Klatchian Coast. And the situation of an extensive number of missile and space defense satellites over the continent over Nusquam Esse, as part of the next generation of the formerly exclusive planet-bound network. The same network that had proven itself the world's best (but unfortunately not perfect) when the former government of Dyelli Beybi had launched an overwhelming genocidal nuclear missile attacks.

So it was, while navigating the usual density of spy satellites, one of the Imperium's many military intelligence satellites just happened to be monitoring the most recent military activities. The satellite quickly sent a communiqué to the nearest satellite, rapidly transmitting a tag via its LASER communication systems. That tag was rapidly transmitted along the network, until a line-of-sight connection could be made with Talon Military Base deep in the mountains of Nusquam Esse. A similar transmission was also made directly to Drakonian Intelligence Agency (DIA) Headquarters near the city of Caesarea.

The information was quickly analyzed, processed, reprocessed, and written into more than a dozens reports as it quickly trickled through the upper echelons of the Imperial Drakonian Military and the Imperial Government.

It seemed, the Imperium was still watching.

OOC: looks like i got a few threads and therefore timelines mixed up. sorry folks.