NationStates Jolt Archive

The standard briefing with the External Affairs Office was seemingly going as routinely as such meetings go in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Building. Deputy Senior Vice President and External Affairs Officer Grant Haffner was giving his report on the various brush fires that seemed to occur daily on the international scene.

"That wraps up my report," Haffner said.

"Thank you Grant." President Mike Sarzo stood up and gathered the notebook in which he wrote down notes to use as bullet points for his press conference the next afternoon.

"If that's all," Sarzo said. "Have a good day."

"Actually, Mr. President, may I speak off the record for a moment?"

Sarzo looked at Haffner and noticed an uncharacteristically troubled look in the young deputy's eyes. Even though Haffner was a good shade younger than either Lorber or Sarzo, he had all the assurance of someone who'd been running the office for years longer, so Sarzo knew something was up.

"What is it Grant," Sarzo asked as he turned back toward Grant and sat down in the chair immediately across from Haffner's desk.

"The situation with The Silver Sky has been troubling me ever since we severed relations," Haffner said. "That situation has been one of the worst public relations and foreign relations black eyes I've seen since I joined this administration. Frankly, Mike, you caused a lot of it."

"Grant," Sarzo replied in a fatherly tone that caused him to pause for a split second before continuing. "You were as much a part of what happened as I was. If I remember correctly, some of our government missives came from your desk."

"I know, Mr. President," Haffner said, taking care to use the honorific title even though Sarzo had long since told him he could address him as Mike. "But even though my office is officially tasked with setting the course for international relations, you still provide the coordinates."

"I'm not sure what you're getting at."

"Mr. President,, to put it more directly, you're the one who sets the tone for what our government does. This country isn't the Incorporated States of Sarzonia for nothing. Our relations with The Silver Sky are the way they are in part because you fucked up."

"Mr. Haffner," Sarzo said in a voice that began to get higher-pitched, "The Silver Sky are the ones who aligned with the Doomies. They're the ones who severed ties with The Voltarum. Edging them out of the Woodstock Pact was necessary."

"That brings me to another point," Haffner said as his voice began to rise slightly in volume. "The Skinny87 situation notwithstanding, you nearly caused the destruction of the Woodstock Pact with your behaviour toward The Silver Sky. You wanted to establish that alliance as a beacon for democracy and you made an autocratic decision. That's the height of hypocrisy Mr. President."

The two men spent the next 30 seconds staring each other down before Sarzo finally stood up and walked out of the room. He reached for the door handle as if to slam it, but he remembered that he was in Haffner's office, not his own. His arm then thrust violently down toward his thigh as he clacked angrily back to the tunnel leading to the Gray House. Haff was right, he knew. But telling Mike Sarzo not to be stubborn was akin to telling a male deer not to grow antlers.

Time would tell if that stubbornness would prove to be Sarzo's downfall.

Kara Maddox sighed as she read the daily intelligence briefing. "Damn, so many things happening with the world." She thought as she flipped the page.

The job as President wasn't as glamorous as she had believed it to be, after she had taken office due to the resignation of President Garner due to personal reason, all she did was read the daily foreign intell report about what was going on in the world.

The war with Otagia was over in the colonies was over, and after pulling out of the defence of Czardas, a calm had settled over the country, essentially pulling out of the international stage, however, military spending was at an all time high for some reason, new ship classes and even 2 new naval armadas had been commisioned. Along with the buying of several planes from Soviet Bloc and the Doomignslandies. The military was at it's highest strength ever, and the economy was roaring

But, something always deeply troubled her, that damned Sarzonian President, Mike Sarzo, how she hated him.

"He is the pinnacle of arrogance and ignorance." She had told the Senate during a hearing of the breakdown of relations with Sarzonia and The Voltarum. The biggest black eye for the former administration, although that's not saying much, nearly 60% of the people in an independent poll said that the withdrawl from the Woodstock Pact and ending of relations with the two governments was the correct choice. This was mostly due to the signing of a bilateral alliance with the Praetonians, and increased relations with the Pacitalians.

Still, it was a big mistake, not only did it rob the country of a source of naval ships, but with the merger of the military companies of Space Union with PIW it robbed them of a source of planes, not to mention OMASC. The issue with The Voltarum however, was quickly forgotten.

This had a horrible effect on the economy for a while, but increase in trade with other countries more then made up for that, and the large amount of resources the other countries needed gave the country a trade surplus.

"Damn that Sarzo! F*cking dumbass" Cursed President Maddox as she slammed her fist on the report from the military. They urged her to repair relations with the Sarzonians because they wanted access to the newest bomber from Space Union and a few of the newest PIW ships. "How the hell do they expect me to negociate with that Son of a B*tch."

After fuming for a few minutes more, Kara walked out of the office.

"I'm leaving early, going to get some sleep." Said President Maddox to her secertary as she grabbed her coat. "Good night ma'am." Responded the secretary as Kara walked out of the door. Tomorrow she would over see the latest reports from the "Ravager-Class Heavy Dreadnaught Project", those military briefings could be exhausting.

The situation with Sarzonia, as of now, was still unresolved, only time would tell if this would ever be fixed.
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OOC: Hope you thought it was good, the ball is in your court! :)

"Here's the intel briefing you wanted, Mr. President."

Sarzo grabbed the document from the intern's hands and nodded his thanks. If there were ever a time to begin a round of small talk and joking, this wasn't that time. Even with the intern fresh out of uni, he realised that quickly and turned to leave.

"Stay here for a moment. I may have some questions for you," Sarzo said, peering over his glasses.

Oh shit. "Y-yyes, Mr. President."

Sarzo read the intel briefing and shook his head repeatedly. Each shake of the President's head added just a little bit more anxiety to the proceedings for the young intern. Why couldn't he just have taken a nice, low pressure internship at the Portland Iron Works like everyone else in his class seemingly wanted to?

"So Jason Garner resigned as President for, as you say, "personal reasons?"

"Yes, Mr. President. Speculation is centering on a health problem in Mr. Garner, but as you can understand, with relations being what they are, The Silver Sky isn't exactly forthcoming with information about what's really going on."

Sarzo didn't respond to that except with a grunt. He continued reading.

"Kara Maddox is President now," Sarzo read. "Oh shit."

"What's wrong Mr. President?"

"I don't like that dumb bitch, that's what's wrong," Sarzo said. "If she had even the slightest bit of sense about foreign affairs, she wouldn't have gotten her nation into that mess with the Doomies."

The intern opened his mouth. He wanted desperately to tell the President that he played a large role in The Silver Sky's broken relations with Sarzonia. He wanted to tell the President that his overreaction was what led The Silver Sky to leave the Woodstock Pact. But he knew it wasn't his place. Besides, the President probably would have dismissed him with a curt, "thank you Tiberius."

Praetonian Prime Minister Tiberius Polax had in fact told him the same thing. Pacitalian Prime Minister Timotaio Ell probably would have if their relations hadn't come so close to the breaking point just months earlier. But in the case of Polax, and by extension Imperator Sarius I, they had license to tell Sarzo exactly what they thought. So did Lieutenant President Nicole Lewis, and now to an extent Haffner. But some snot nosed kid from uni had no place telling the President what he did wrong. So instead, he just sighed.

"You're free to go," Sarzo said, almost as if he sensed the kid's dissent and didn't want to say anything he would later regret. The kid turned around and walked out briskly as if he were trying to get away from a scolding. Just then, Lewis showed up.

"Mike, this situation with The Silver Sky is nearing its breaking point," she said. "We're going to have to bring this situation to a head with The Silver Sky and since you're the one who basically shoved The Silver Sky out of the Pact, it's going to have to be you who does it."

"Screw them. If they want to cozy up to the Doomies, let them. Then we'll attack them."

"Mike, listen to yourself talk! The Silver Sky is anything but a nation like the Doomies and you're going to attack them for what? To mend your wounded pride? For revenge? That's no way to run a country." Lewis turned around and walked out of the office. She could get away with that when even other members of the Cabinet couldn't.

Sarzo just turned to his computer, seething.

OOC: Sorry about that, been busy with stuff, was gone over the weekend too.

IC:

"As illistrated by these photos and charts here, the Ravager-Class has much more protection against shells then the classes it replaces." Said Rear Admiral Bruce Bailey as he pointed to various photos and charts of ballistic armor testing. President Maddox squinted at the pictures and took notes from the table in the dimly lighted room.

"The Ravager has performed remarkably well in test against ships of similar displacement due to it's outstanding protection. However, construction on the third and forth prototype is taking longer then expected to due to a lack of funding because of the war." He finished a sat down, the pictures disappeared and the room lightened.

President Maddox stood up and began, "I realise that production is going slow, however Congress is expected to pass a bill for more funding, so hopefully the project will continue as planned." She finished and several mumurs of approval were heard throughout the room.

"That is all for now, this meeting is adjourned, meet back here at 1700 hours." Bellow Naval Admiral Sutherland, however, before President Maddox could leave she heard Sutherland, "Miss President, me and the other commanders would like to speak with you.."

She sighed and sat back down, "Yes Admiral? Can we make this quick? I have important matters to attend too."

Admiral Sutherland just stared blankly at her, "I'll tell you point blank, we need to improve relations with Sarzonia, they have several classes of ships we want. And although we've managed to replace most Sarzonian made weaponry, we still need those 1000mm torpedoes."

Before she could respond Admiral Sutherland sent a sheet of paper gliding down the table to her, "That there is a official declaration signed by the Joint Chiefs and The National Congress, your hands are tied Miss President."

President Maddox read the paper while seething in silent anger. She finished and slamed the paper on the talbe. "Fine, I will." With that she got up and walked out of the room. She didn't miss Admiral Sutherland's smug smile though and it caused her blood to boil even more.

"That conceited bastard..." she thougth as walked into her office and slammed the door.

She quickly masked her anger as she picked up the phone, she dialed the number for the Sarzonian External Affairs, "May I speak to Mr. Grant Haffner, please tell him this is urgent."

Haffner was reading through a list of speaking points for a possible conference with The Silver Sky. He knew the Intelligence Directorate was having a hard time finding out more than cursory information that was available to out-of-country diplomats, but with other nations allied to Sarzonia having closer relations with The Silver Sky, getting second hand information about the goings on was within reach.

Still, that made his job a lot harder. Even Sarzonia's more distant allies were more forthcoming with information than The Silver Sky was with relations completely severed. Haffner knew the fault was partly on his president's head, though the old saying "it takes two to tango" certainly applied.

We make it known when our leaders defecate he mouthed in an effort to satisfy his internal censor. Meanwhile, Garner calls it a career and we don't know shit. He knew that former Secretary of State Kara Maddox was the new President and he knew that Garner resigned the Presidency for more than just the old standby of "spending time with his family." But the whys and wherefores that led the secretary of state to become the president instead of Tim Witt.

Haffner decided that finding out the essential information about The Silver Sky was going to be a priority for External Affairs, even if it meant sneaking in special forces. Sarzonia failed at one key lesson of politics: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Right now, friend or foe, The Silver Sky was a black hole where information struggled to escape. Haffner scribbled a note to discuss the matter with Intel.

Just as he finished his note and attached the sticky note to his flat screen monitor, his phone rang. Haffner raised an eyebrow, thinking that it might be Lorber, but he knew Lorber was supposed to be meeting with the President for lunch so that wasn't too likely. He turned and picked up the receiver.

"Grant Haffner."

Kara Maddox swallowed the lump in her throat before beginning.

"Mr Haffner, this is Kara Maddox, President of The Silver Sky, I don't believe I've had a chance to meet you, how are things in Sarzonia?"

[OOC: Since it's been a while, I'm calling fluid time.]

"Not too bad," Haffner said. "Portland's doing pretty well from what I hear. They've got an interest in acquiring a company in Space Union."

Haffner thought for a moment. He remembered Maddox as his boss's counterpart from The Silver Sky. Now she's President? Garner and Sarzo ended on hostile terms as their countries severed ties, but with information being non-existent from The Silver Sky, the Secretary of State was now the President?

"The more important question," Haffner said, "is how are things in The Silver Sky? How is President Garner?" Haffner knew from secondary and tertiary sources that Maddox and Sarzo did not get along. He spoke his next few words in a voice barely above a stage whisper.

"Let's get to the point Madame President. I know you've got a reason for calling us after months of not having relations. Shall we discuss the reasons you're calling sooner or later?"