NationStates Jolt Archive

Somewhere under the streets of Kinshasa

The members of parliament shuffled into the cramped concrete room and formed a semi-circle facing the President and a grim, black-coated man known to most them only as Colonel Tomé. They knew something was up, and the frequent patrols of regular troops with short rifles and submachineguns outside did nothing to put them at ease.

The president was the first to speak. "As you all know, Booker Sese Mbeki is southeast to speak of a potential permanent industrial and military alliance Lusaka and a potential host of black African nations who would support us. I know I am being vague, but out of consideration for the necessary secrecy of this alliance, I must be."

There was a vague chorus of assents from the ruling politicians. Most of them African Democratic Union, List For Unity and Secular Party, but a few African People's Front members were also present.

"As we align ourselves with friendly nations, our combined leverage grows; and with it the threat we pose to the imperialists."

There was some nervous shuffling at this. Mshone Ndelebe rarely called foreign nations "Imperialists", and the times he had, more often than not, missiles had been fired.

"By this I mean we threaten Roycelandia, and also the other great powers of the world. Russia, France, Beth Gellert... Yes, even China and Quinntonia! Their rulers are no fools, and they will not hesitate to weaken and eventually crush our nation, and eventually all of Africa, when they see the chance. It is no coincidence that these nations have nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are real force."

The assembled politicians began to sweat cold. Whatever was going to happen, it could not be good.

"Gentlemen, -ladies, I propose we utilize our nuclear powerplants and uranium mines to build an arsenal of atomic weapons and cruise missiles to carry them to the doorstep of our enemies."

Before the reactions could make themselves known, the president held up a hand.

"I don't have to say that we must all be agreed on this matter. God willing they will never be used in wartime, but as a deterrent its utility only grows."

There was a sticky silence. After a fashion, Nina Mwani, leader of the socialist AFP; stood up and spoke, her normally confident voice bristling with frustration.

"I don't agree, and I never will, Mr. President! What about our plans for the Commonwealth? For rebuilding Africa under the aegis of dialogue and peace!? Shall all the funds we could do so much good with, go to build bigger bombs?"

Ndelebe pressed his lips together to a thin, dark, line. Often had the AFP politician showered him with scathing criticism, and he'd ignored it all in good humor, but this was no debate over universal suffrage. This was something he believed in. Fortunately, Colonel Tomé intervened for him.

"Still your tongue, woman! What comprehension could you possibly have for the gravity of the situation? You will comply with the wish of your president."

Nina almost shook with anger as she retorted.

"Cram it, Salvador! Your gang of murderers and spies are no longer in charge - The Secular Party has no total authority over a decision as important as this."

Then she turned to the room at large.

"I will have this before all of parliament and subject to a public referendum - It is not to be some covert and deceitful plot in this secret basement."

Colonel Salvador Tomé did not let the womans angry insults aggravate him. If he did, he made no sign. At age 36, he'd made head of the dreaded internal security force and secret police Manus Nigra; he was the original Black Hand directing a yet unknown number of assassins, clerks, military officers and spies. He had clawed his way to the top at the time of Nwabudike James, and his loyalty to the Secular Party was great and, to the great fear of the rest of the government, possibly superceded his loyalty to the Commonwealth.

The poker-faced man did not answer Mwani, he only turned to the president and gave him an odd, almost resigned, look. The president lowered his gaze, his face slightly contorted with great doubt. Then he talked to the other politicians.

"Ms. Mwanis criticism is noted. Are the rest of you resolved to go through with the creation of these weapons?"

The other politicians almost visibly distanced themselves to Nina Mwani, and then said their agreements. After a very short debate regarding potential problems with the acquisition, they all left; and Booker Mbeki was called in Old Lusaka and informed of the need to contact other nations about a sensitive matter.

15 minutes later, an alley in Kinshasa

Nina Mwani walked around the slums she had grown up in with practiced ease. Her house could be reached so much easier if she cut a corner through these dark alleys - She'd always hated it, and with good cause. Bad things happen in dark alleys in a city like Kinshasa.

Her nervous paranoia and distressing thoughts about the Presidents plans drowned out the already soft sound of Salvador Tomés calf-skin boots on the cobbled stones. He pulled out a Mini-SAF submachinegun, as was common issue in many areas of government, competently screwed on a silencer and depressed the trigger at close range. Nina Mwani died in a rain of 9x19 Parabellum bullets, and the secrecy of the Commonwealths new weapons programme was ensured.

Beth Gellert, China and Dra-Pol

Three nations were cautiously approached by LFU diplomats demanding absolute discretion and secrecy in the meetings.

They were given pretty much the same story: Quinntonia, Roycelandia, Russia and United Elias posed a clear and present danger to conventionally weak nations in Africa, and a nuclear deterrent is needed - Knowledge on how to properly create a sophisticated high-yield nuclear device is sought, rather than the crude, high-uranium, low-yield device Kinshasa currently has plans for. Also, alternate designs like Hydrogen and Neutronium bombs are also being reviewed, and any help the nations can spare will be fully repaid in diamonds.

(Just a tag, for now. I'll get you a proper reply, later. Oh, I wouldn't put too much hope in Dra-pol, they're in the middle of a civil war with isolationist anti-technocrats on top!)

(Tag now, reply later)

A worried tag

If the Roycelandian Government knew of this, no doubt they'd send a James Bond-esque secret agent in to do something about it. Alas, as yet, they don't, so consider this a Tag... ;-)

Approaching the Commonwealth in secrecy had been a very difficult thing to do. That was at least between the years 1989 and 2004, where left-socialists dominated the political scene and near apolitical anarchists provided the mass body of Beddgelen society.

In 2005 the African diplomats had little difficulty in attracting the attention of Generals and Civil Servants elected on the returning tide of revolutionist waters. That was to say, clearly politicised and elected to lead rather than socially and politically laissez faire and slaved to referenda as in the open systems of the nineties. People didn't believe that the work of revolution was done, and were sufficiently rested since reunification to have regained their bloodlust and shaken-off war weariness that framed the lazy conclusion of the last century in Beth Gellert.

As such they were prepared to elect public servants who promised to follow an agenda or drive towards a target rather than to leave well enough alone and hand out ballot papers whenever a decision had to be made. This worried some individuals, but the mob was the mob and democracy was crap, so there was nothing to be done but to take a deep breath and dive in, hopefull that all was ultimately bound to progress the revolution another step.

This made it possible for Kinshasa's diplomats to meet influential people in private rather than the people's pawns in public.

The (Igovian Soviet) Commonwealth's nuclear programme wasn't a patch on the one in Quinntonia, possibly not even on par with those in Roycelandia and China, but it was several decades old and, over-all, a success. The arsenal was said to contain 630 devices, and most were small relatively low-yield though modern components of the Agni ballistic missile. The Agni was a ground silo or submarine-launched 8,000km range platform containing usually three to five low-yield warheads, and eighteen of these missiles were carried aboard the 25,000 tonne Lipoleurodon ferox SSBN. Other small bombs were to be delivered by Mangonel cruise missiles deployable on Anunkai class SSGN, or specifically outfitted Springer attack jets.

However, it is also widely known that the Sopworth Commonwealth (1982-89) experimented with depth-charge, torpedo, and both naval and land mines using nuclear warheads, and that even earlier the Principality (1947-82) had worked towards gun and rocket artillery delivery systems for so-called tactical nukes for any potential show-down with the Hindustanis for total control of the sub-continent.

So, the Igovians haven't experience in building anything designed to wipe-out a country or sink the world into nuclear winter, and have worked on the assumption that a strategic nuclear war isn't worth worrying about, since nobody who takes part can expect to win against anyone worth shooting. Their weapons have been aimed at winning the conventional war should a nuclear conflict break out, hopefull that common sense would end the prospective conflict there. Of course, Beddgelen WMD research has been primarily directed towards the realisation of genetically targetted biological warfare agents, but nobody seems to know even whether such programmes have given any results at all, let alone whether they continue today.

Yes, the Africans meet with a lot of what appear to be delaying tactics. The political forces rising in Beth Gellert are not yet in a controlling position, and their agents seem unprepared to really admit it. There is significant interest, but the Africans may have to wait if they want Igovian help.

However, the fact that Yugoslavia, with its own (rather smaller) uranium reserves is not proving as pro-Soviet as initially hoped, and the matter of Kinshasa's approaches to the Chinese, both are things likely to endear the African Commonwealth to Portmeirion's aspiring political elite. If they're going to get nukes, they'd best get them through us, not Beijing...

Promise not progress, thus far.

((I figure this would relate well with your post. Ciao))

Algiers Palace

The Gardes Sherpa gave a general salute and a trumpeter played a volley as His Majesty King Louis I in Algeria and Queen Yolande proceeded from the Royal Apartments to the State Room. They were followed by Cardinal Ayons, Grand Almoner of Algeria, and a clique of Generals and Franco-Algerian Noblesse forming their inner circle.

The Kingdom of Algeria had experienced certain disruptions during the unrest in France, being cut off from their Bourbon masters. The invasion of Tunisia fell apart on itself and the Grand Armee retreated back to Ft. St. Joan in the Southern section of the Kingdom. Yet due to the swift nature of the royal quelling, order had been maintained, though fragilely. A number of well co-coordinated rebel groups were evidently hiding out in the lower steppes of the Atlas Mountains. The Royal Algerian Army, run by crack warlords and supported by French Armor, had managed to prevent the rebellion from spreading past the Mountain zones. Yet, following the return to normalcy in France, His Most Christian Majesty Louis-Auguste planned to relocate the Royal Dauphin Corps back to the motherland. He would rotate several green divisions of Gardes Francaises (not harmed by the mutiny in France) supported by elite regiments of the Royal Army from France to prop up Louis I in the Dauphin Corps stead. Royal strategists were planning to keep the Royal Algerian Army up to par as a solitary entity. Le Merechal de Gras du Mont, Field Marshal for Algeria, was responsible for organizing the Royal Algerian Army to first be comfortable in holding the Kingdom against threats external and domestic and then organizing to stamp out dissent in the Mountains.

One hundred Bell Huey helicopters, freshly bought from Roycelandia as part of a much larger purchase of that model of helicopters for the Kingdom of Algeria, were now arriving in Algiers. They were part of du Mont’s plan to combat the rebellion and present to His Majesty a stable Kingdom. While the French troops would reside (along with the majority of Royal Algerian troops as well) in Algiers, the major cities, and Ft. St. Joan, du Mont would form shock Air Cavalry wings to raid and burn the rebel holdings.

And so the Kingdom of Algeria chugged along, very much in tact. Their economy, like the French economy proper, returned to normal. Trains ran on time, troops secured the streets, and everybody worked (mostly for foreign French Noble and Royal concerns). Pay checks were dispensed, and food could be bought in the stores. The state television network, a propigandic sub-division of RNN France, controlled all means of public communication and posters heralding the glory of Bourbon administration and golden ages to come littered the streets. Islam was tolerated, but imams and Muslim holy men were regularly arrested and tortured to prevent and Islamic radicalism. Mosques which preached anti-colonialism were closed. Those who continued preached after being dislodged were promptly relocated to Devils Island.

Ambassadors were currently in Baghdad and Tunis, renouncing all Bourbon claims outside Algeria and hoping to sign non-aggression pacts with the mighty nation of United Elias, which neither Louis could afford to anger.

The cavernous doors opened before Louis and Yolande, and their state ministers rose to greet them. Their Majesties sat in their thrones, and the ministers, along with the inner circle now sitting, resumed their tables.

Louis, that Algerian in powdered face, along with pregnant and pale Yolande de Bourbon his spouse, regarded the ministers a moment before Louis cleared his throat and spoke.

“ I have just gained an audience by telephone with His Most Christian Majesty, my brother-in-law Louis-Auguste. He agrees with General Yousef Ahmed, our esteemed General Staff Chairman, that strikes against the dissident holdings in the approaches to the Atlas Mountains should be thoroughly ‘shaken up’. We concur that rather than alarming our subjects, it will show strength of purpose: if we can keep the economy moving, these skirmishes against a basically helpless enemy should bode well for our news and public relations efforts. Monsieur le Merechal, how is the formation of the Air Cavalry units proceeding?”

De Gras du Mont, dressed in a fantastic uniform and just finishing a pinch of snuff (or something else?), smiled and held his ornate baton at attention, the very plumes on his tricorner waving with excitement.

“Sire, we have one squadron ready to go, twelve aircraft and one hundred and fifty men. If Your Majesty will allow me the presumption, I have several targets in mind, one foremost.”

Louis nodded and waved his hand, lighting a cigarette and crossing his legs attentively.

“Some ninety miles south-west of Laghouat, Sire, the very nexus of our defenses here. It is a small rebel camp used to move supplies into the mountains, thence to the rebels. For all we know, they carry on in trade with Libya and the damned SADR (Moroccan resistance?) themselves! Boq-al-Quish has a population of under a hundred, Majesty, and most of them are no doubt dirty with the trade anyway. A perfect choice. Good location, no heavy resistance expected, a perfect start. If I may say so, Majesty, the tactics I have formulated are quite similar to Quinntonnian helicopter doctrine in Indonesia, save one hundred times improved because we have nearly perfect vision.”

“Well done, Merechal,” said Louis putting out his cigarette “launch at once. Take prisoners , but kill some too, and when your done burn it all to ashes as an example to those who oppose my brothers and I!”

Boq-al-Quish

The small trade outpost, which ran supplies, sometimes military up the mountains to a burgeoning resistance was on low alert. Though they were less than a hundred miles from Ft. St. Joan, the Royal Government had been lax following the troubles in France and the Bourbon blunder, rather international fiasco, in Tunisia. Princess Anastasia was now somewhere in Roycelandian Port Royal, living on a royal stipend and staying quite incognito. It had no guards to speak of, rather civilians-come-patriots who were eager but rather slow.

A woman in hijab, strictly prohibited under Royal Law, was filling her bucket from a well, her little child beside her. Chickens scattered here and there when someone walked by. By a house some men were loading up an old model truck with food, medicine, some pistols and a bit of dynamite for a trip to the Atli. A few elders played a game only they knew the rules to and somewhere an imam was calling the faithful to prayers.

Then they heard it, the dull distant rumble of a Bell Huey helicopter.

Not one, dozens.

In under a minute they came across the horizon, like bloated black ticks. Then all hell broke loose.

Several of the Hueys were armed as gunships. When they came in range, while the other nine Hueys were landing with their assault teams of doughty ARA troops, they opened up with their chain guns and rockets. What pitiful resistance there was, along with an eighth of Boq-al-Quish’s residents, disappeared then. The assault troops smashed through the town.

The woman in hijab unceremoniously had the cloth removed from her head to identify gender and was shackled. Her child was locked to her, given a candy, and told to sit and stay still. The chickens were blasted away by the rocket fire. The truck attempted to drive away, the rockets and chain guns had passed it by (the helicopter pilots were, after all, Algerian)! In seconds twenty ARA troops unleashed a withering fire on it. Still it managed to inch away, its tires gone, dirt flying, its drivers screaming. Then one trooper trained an RPG on it. Next thing you know, all you know, is a burning wheel goes down the road. One elder produced a rifle, he was shot sixty nine times by various machine guns. The rest surrendered; along with the remainder of the survivors (eighty nine percent of the original village) they were put on trucks to be questioned and then relocated, possibly to New Provence as laborers.

When they were done, the village was torched. The buildings that were too tough to burn were exploded. By nightfall, the only thing left of Boq-al-Quish was a smoky column in the sky.

RNN and Algerian State Television got choice coverage, of course only covering the heroic Algerian Royal Army troopers. All in all, a fine operation. Louis got a call from the other Louis that nice, on a job well done. Oh, and Jillesepone and he would be coming by before too long. Adieu!

The overtures by the Africans caused some concern at the top. Basically, while the best scenario would be having an African state with no nuclear weapons, it would be preferable to have an nuclear armed african commonwealth friendly to China rather than someone else. The more important tasks were to find out who else had been approached.

A low-key convoy of minor diplomats and intelligience agents were dispatched to Africa in order to find out more about this. Meanwhile, a very low key reply was sent, stating that the Africans first needed to provide more information on what their intentions were, and how much they were willing to pay.

The United African Republic had achieved some success with its own nuclear programme in the past, but the whole affair was shut-down before the Tendyala Junta came to power, and now was virtually forgotten with no hope of ressurection.

City claimed to have carried out one nuclear test, and seismologists were able to confirm, "an event consistant with a large underground explosion" at the corresponding time. The truth of the matter was not common knowledge, and some had suggested, in the absence of samples from air and soil, that it was nothing more than a massive conventional explosion using hundreds of tonnes of TNT normally used in the mining industry, and nothing more than a propaganda effort to intimidate either Roycelandia or United Elias... or possibly even the African Commonwealth, given that relations were not always so rosey as today!

Other explanations looked to then-Kuroiste Dra-pol, which had tested and deployed pure fission and, reputedly, boosted fission bombs not long before the Lusakan event.

Even today, years after the close (due mainly to economic hardship) of Lusaka's nuclear projects, the Social Progress Party remains unwilling to talk of the was-it/wasn't-it A-bomb test.

The SPP is now split over the prospect of AC nuclear armament. One camp feels that it would be a waste of resources badly needed in the yet-secret African National Pact and its ambition of continental liberation and Pan-Africanism, while the other sees it as a protective blanket that could be cast over ANP operations... and of course a small minority believes that North Africa would be better irradiated than occupied.

Beth Gellert

Not at all comfortable with the degree of stalling and transparancy in the Bedgellen political arena, the Commonwealth clerks decide to press the issue. While visibly awed by the power of the Bedgellan nuclear arsenal, they would preferably develop both low- and high-yield devices if possible.

Rhetoric is now spun to endear the African Commonwealth to the soviets - Yes, well, we DO have free elections and many civil rights; the Roycelandian empire is always on our back with spies and arming insurgents and what not. Oh, did we mention we condemn Frances annexation of Algeria, and so on and so forth. Of course, crafty Sovietist diplomats have probably heard all the flatter before, but there is a note of sincerity in it - The Commonwealth would much rather associate itself with the liberal socialist Beth Gellert than its own disturbing long-time ally, the brutal sham-socialist dictatorship Dra-Pol. Although, it is mentioned, we have asked others..

China

List for Unity diplomats tried their best to allay Chinese fears. Yes, the Commonwealth was in Africa and it was a state, but no, it was not an unstable tin-pot dictatorship. The last coup was the one of Nwabudike James in the 90s that had overthrown the criminal Kabila and united Congo, Burundi and Rwanda as well as parts of Tanzania; creating the politically stable Commonwealth and ending ethnic wars and the widespread unrest in the area. There was no chance of psychos coming into office and nicking the warheads - Also cited was the legitimate fear of the nuclear weapons of Roycelandia and United Elias, and a stand-off still remembered with dread during the Gabonaise war when a poor decision to fire conventionally-armed IRBM against an Elian firebase almost led to Kinshasa being atomized by high-yield hydrogen warheads.

Yes, a deterrant was decidedly in order; and Beijing would see itself rewarded for sure. Although most of the Commonwealth considerable industrial power is currently being geared towards aiding development in poorer African states such as the West African Union and Zambia; but AC could open it's market towards its large resource-gathering sector, allowing China cheap access to its vast copper, diamond and natural gas markets; as well as bargains on the agricultural surplus of bananas, cane sugar and grains.

Chinese diplomats trying to actually glean information about who else had been contacted regarding the Nuclear Program would find that it was harder than trying to pry a peanut from a rats jaws. Tier one of the Congolese government was completely tight-lipped. Indeed, members of parliament didn't even know that the decision to start the program had been made, and nervously brush off the matter as hearsay when asked.

A nasty close call arises when a Chinese diplomat is detained by Manus Nigra (secret police) officers in black leather coats. Just as they were about to start interrogation in the kind of small office room where horrible things often happen, they are themselves called off and jailed with a stern reprimande, and the diplomat is given an audience and apology by vice president Ngolo Marshall; who, perhaps out of a guilty conscience, explain that the Beth Gellen Soviets have been contacted, as has Dra-pol through the last pre-civil war channels to Hotan the Commonwealth has.




OOC>> Elkazor, is it? Welcome back - I'm not too sure how levelling an Algierian village relates to the African Commonwealth program, heh.

Needless to say, Parliament is entirely opposed to the idea of nuclear weapons, period, so if it was known that The African Commonwealth is in the process of developing one, Mumbai would not look favorably upon it.

But Mumbai doesn't have the slightest idea of what's going on, not as if it would have mattered anyway, and Parliamentary criticism is focused on The African Commonwealth's "Authoritarian and unstable political climate," and "lack of reliable democratic institutions."

The Chinese envoy, after some communications from Beijing, decides to ask for more information about uranium sources and processing facilities in the most subtle and unintrusive way. Wary that their diplomats were being tracked, knowledgable locals are being paid for information about the extent of the commonwealth's nuclear capability.

Officially, the envoy has stated something along the lines of "Maybe. If you'll tell us more, we'll look into it further."

Much of the early Congolese research in nuclear fission happened in the three TRIKA research reactors gifted to the nation from Belgium, ironically, in exchange for not developing nuclear weapons. Since Nwabudike James' ascent to power, such promises were of course interpreted very liberally, and once the first nuclear power plant was built outside Mbandaka, more uranium was enriched there - Up until now, a clandestine program built under James had collected enough weapons-grade uranium to build a sophisticated nuclear device; but had failed because the Commonwealth scientists could only make a crude device that required four times more uranium than was available. Now, with two advanced civil power reactors powering nuclear plants, and the three aging TRIKA reactors undergoing modernization, it is evident that enrichment can happen in any of the five sites, although the AC government does not elaborate on where.

The only locals that both know about nuclear reactors and can be found by the Chinese, are those who work at the nuclear plants. Thanks to the research and development classification act of 2002, the personnel at the three research reactors are completely off limits. The men and women working at the two nuclear plants in Mbandaka and Mbuyi-Mayi seem extremely fearful of mentioning ANY details of their interaction with the government, even that regarding civil, legal power purposes. As with the members of parliament, every low-level employee contacted denies that enrichment for weapons is taking place; and everyone in the plant management either denies knowledge of the program, or shut like clams, urged on by black-clad 'secretaries'.

As for the source of Uranium, the government explains, the Commonwealth has "rightful ownership" of the province of Katanga, a place that accounts for over 60% of the worlds uranium reserves. In reality, however, the mine-rich landscape is a highly disputed province; nearly precipitating a war of ownership between the Commonwealth and the United African Republic of Lusaka in the late nineties. These days the nations are friends, and a settlement of ownership that leaves most of the province in Commonwealth hands is underway in Lusaka, according to the clerks asked.

The Imperial Intelligence Service has sources everywhere (having even managed to bug the office of the Angolan President, Albert Santos, using a shiny gold pen!)

Word eventually filtered back that the Chinese appeared to be looking for Uranium in the African Commonwealth (OOC: I know this isn't the case, but no intelligence service is perfect, and they're basically deducing this on the basis of hearsay), at which point it was decided that perhaps someone should go to the African Commonwealth and have a look around...

[tag]

(btw I am back after a short leave of absence)

After that little fact finding mission, the Chinese envoy returns home. Mindful that any official support of the AC weapons programme could offend the Holy League and Elias, and that any unofficial assistance could be discovered, the chances of the Chinese delegation returning are very very low. Traditionally, the Chinese have been reluctant to interfere in the affairs of others. Now was not the ideal time to start. The mission did serve a good purpose however - for the first time the Chinese had an intelligience contact in Africa.