NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC: This is completely open to anybody.]

Dietrich Harbinger took another sip from his coffee, keeping his eyes on the man infront of him. The key to successful business was to show no fear, and eye contact was a symbol of superiority. This dictum had served Harbinger thus far, and the empire of wealth Kriegzimmer constrolled was a testament to this. Harbinger put down the cup and said, "Jesus Viktre, it is time you retire. With this money you'll be able to live a life of luxury, no matter what happens to our, or any other, economy." Harbinger's eyes did not move, and he fixed his gaze.

Viktre Deloraín was the long time owner and corporate executive officer of Beda Fromm Geneticon, a large research industry looking into future biogenetics, especially stem cell research. Unfortunately, his business was wavering, as the country seemed more nterested in large tanks and quick aircraft - not in genetics. Of course, Deloraín knew that was logical, but this time logic had failed him. He sighed and addressed Harbinger's concerns, "You know as well as I that I cannot just stop making money. I can't sell my house in twenty-four hours, how can you expect me to sell a company? Apart from twenty billion Reichmarks, what do I gain from this?"

Harbinger laughed, "A retirement?"

The other man seemed annoyed. He took a quick glance at the clock on the wall, and then turned back to Harbnber, "I'm forty-three, I don't deserve a retirement. If anything you should retire."

This quirked Dietrich, who did not agree with his age. He seemed to drop his sympathy for Deloraín and retorted, "When this war is over I will own every armaments company from Dienstad to SafeHaven, and from Faracat to Guffingford. Do you think I came here because I had to? If I wanted I could simply buy you out and leave you in the street. Fortunately for you, I have yet to lose my etiquette. But my patience is short. I am not a man to pursue trivial matters." His face redenned for a bit, but the anger soon dissipated and Harbinger relaxed and cooled down, two characteristics that were of utmost importance in business.

Viktre Deloraín was not shaken and he responded, "What would a man like you want from a business like this?"

The owner of Kriegzimmer didn't wish to answer that question, because the response would be dark, and any reasoning he had was clandestine, even to his closest friends and family members. Although, then again, most of his friends ended up dead if they tried to compete against him. He shook his head, "Everything and anything is good for the armament business."

Deloraín chuckled, "Do you really expect me to believe that?" He tilted his head a bit and laughed more, realizing that his comrade sitting on the opposite side of the table thought him stupid. Viktre continued, "Buy me out Dietrich, but I won't give in to your threats. BFG is not a poor company, despite a lax in profit. I am definately not a poor man, and you of all people should recognize this. Everything is publically traded here, I can buy just as well as you, and in the end, although Kriegzimmer is unlimitedly more wealthy than BFG, I myself am not that much poorer than you, my friend." Harbinger would expect that coming; that man thought all business should be easy, just because he was the biggest fish in town. Deloraín pressed further, "It's interesting. The strongest animal in the food chain is the human, but the biggest threat to the human is himself. Could the relationship be similar?"

Harbinger wasn't amused in the least bit, "Perhaps, but it was the Roman Empire which fell due to a lack of conquests. Entropy exists economically, just as it does biologically, and frankly, the only way to avert it is through the constant increase in profit through conquest. Of course, entroy is inevitable, and to a certain extent you are completely correct, but answer me this. Would you rather die tomorrow, or in a year?"

Deloraín turned the other man's logic on its head, "The same could apply to me, no?"

Harbinger thought for a minute and then responded, "A different case Viktre. I am offering you a better death. Would you rather burn out, or slowly fade away? In the end, this can be applied to me, just as it can you, but I am the bigger man here, and you must recognize and respect the fact. It is up to you whether or not you take my agreement. If not, I will simply have to slaughter the lamb."

Viktre Deloraín thought about this for a minute, "I hear you have a gentlemens club Harbinger."

Harbinger raised an eyebrow. What was this man talking about? Was he a loon? It suddenly hit him, "Not a gentlemens club per se -"

Viktre cut him off, "Yes, yes I know. It's not much of a secret Harbinger, except the fact that your 'knights' truly haven't done anything remarkable."

Dietrich laughed and answered, "It all takes time."

Viktre took the contract, and then a pen from his front pocket, and was about to sign, when he looked up and said, "I have time." With that, he put his signature on an array of different locations throughout the thick paket laid in front of him and Beda Fromm Geneticon suddenly transformed into Beda Fromm Geneticon Partner and Associates, a subcompany of Kriegzimmer. The formal binding would be announced the next week, and it would most likely be all over the papers throughout the world. Anything that Kriegzimmer did was big, since in fact, it was one of the largest armaments exporters in the world, as well.

Harbinger stood up and extended his hand, which was met by Deloraín's hand. With that Harbinger turned around and left the other man's office, heading to the elevator, and from there taking it to the executive parking garage. Once he arrived he took his keys from a side pocket in his parka and clicked the button, listening for a double beep, which did come, and came from a Mercedes Benz, new model. His face filled with a sinister smile he left for the airport, where he would grab a flight on his private jet to Mandalay, where he had some business to conduct with a couple of Fuermak generals, dealing with the new RoLu-21.A and B Boneharvester Attack Helicopters, which had again averted Kriegzimmer, meaning Kriegzimmer could not sell them. This new policy of the Fuermak was beginning to madden Dietrich, and he hoped he would be able to put a stop to it once in for all - with a lot of money. If not, perhaps he had a job for Deloraín after all.

He boarded his aircraft twenty minutes later, rondevouzing with his right hand man, Chaner Fíeron, one of two corporate executive officers of Kriegzimmer, and direct slave [technically] to Dietrich. Fíeron looked at his boss and asked, "How did it go?"

Harbinger smiled at him, "How do you think it went?"

Seperate from Chaner Fíeron was Harbinger's wife, Amie Sanz, and she expressed her hapiness with cynical words of pleasure, "Good job my love. Victory again." Oh, how Harbinger hated her sense of superiority and her aura of elitism. In his mind, only he could express those ambitions and characteristics, and even he was more down to Earth. He smiled at her and sat by her side, putting his head back and resting the rest of the way to Mandalay.

Back in Beda Fromm, Viktre Deloraín sat in his office, pondering the happenings of that evening. He picked up the secure line on his desk and rang his bank, a Doomingslandi design, which would turn out to be safer than the home options he had. A distant voice picked up and answere and he said, "Deloraín. Did you recently receive a transaction?"

A muffled response came back, "Yes, for thirty billion."

He looked at the ceiling, giving a slight breath of relief, and said, "Perfect."

The response was, "What do you want to put this under?"

Deloraín pondered for a minute and then decided, "Place it under the title 'merge'." Before he could get another response he clicked the phone off, and placed it back on its holster. That done, he sat up, put on his jacket, ordered his desk, took his briefcase, and headed to the parking garage, where he would take his beautiful and sleek Tango et Kartuma home. The life of a big business CEO was really not that difficult... except reality would seem to change very, very soon, especially in the Empire, and especially for both Dietrich Harbinger and Viktre Deloraín.

It was yet another long day for this man. This man possessed Asian ethnicity (namely Chinese), a frame of 5'11, and built averagely. Not thin, not fat, not muscular (though his body leaned slightly in that direction, a reference to his years in the Singapore Armed Forces war journalist in Iraq, like the fact that his skin was a light dark tan). When he was out at work as the leader of his nation, he wore a jet-black, smart suit that was stylish and attractive, but could have been worn by any office worker in the world and expensive loafers. This man had a lot of respect at home and world-wide, by allies, friends, neutrals, unfriendlies and enemies alike. The man was called Yao Yang Nelson Neo, and he held the highest position in his nation's government: the Prime Minister.

Right now, Neo was lying on his bed, arms and legs outstretched and trying to relax. He had removed his trademark powered sports sunglasses he wore as a political prop, and currently wore his spectacles that had rectangle shaped glasses with a silver-colored titanium frame. He had removed his black suit coat, dark loafers and dark socks, his feet not giving off a filthy stench since it had been a while he took them off.

He tried to forget about global affairs. But he couldn't for a strange reason or another. He had alienated every other issue directly related to global affairs except for one topic that consisted of several other details and two words: Kriegzimmer Conglomerates.

Kriegzimmer, he thought. When translated from German into English, it stood for 'War Room'. Heheheh....how appropriate for an arms contracting giant, one that would make a former arms manufacturing and contracting corporate titan of the past, the Carlyle Group to look insignificant in comparison. Good arms contracting company run by expert businessmen that hire wonderful designers....

He then thought about his political opposition, namely his detractors (which usually gave every member criticism, none escaped their eyesight on every decision they made to try and help the people, only for it to backfire or be against their [the opposition's] interests). Currently he had forgotten about the fact he was trying to forget about global affairs. On the many things they had had accused him of being, there were two descriptions that he was currently thinking about. 'Self-righteous hypocrite' and a 'Closet corporatist-that-masquerades-as-a-liberal' because of the fact that the Southeast Asian Army, Air Force and the Navy, as part of their modernization program, bought from weapons designed and sold or licensed to Kriegzimmer for sale (most prominently, the Ingrerier-class Battlecruiser, the Praetorian II Mobile Surface to Air Missile Battery, the Lu-25 "Black Mariah" STOVL Multi-Role Fighter and several Praetorian missile variants).

Both Prime Minister Neo and Minister of Defense Paul David Nettleton never had any time at all to respond coherently, as each time they opened his mouth to answer the question to the subject, they would be jeered, spat on and their responses drowned in the overwhelming noise caused by radical anti-globalizationist mobs. Neo actually agreed with them, and believed that Absolute Capitalism, their nation's economic doctrine and their very own, would ultimately end up in Kriegzimmer Conglomerates' destruction, by the Board member's very own, most definitely human feature: want. Also known as desire and greed. They wanted too much and were too satisfied.

I wonder of our ties with the Empire of the Golden Throne and Kriegzimmer's future after the War of Golden Succession ends. I have not announced my nation's stance, but I have a neutral position, and I am to keep it that way until something drastic occurs.

Hmmm....perhaps I should call a meeting with one of my fellow ministers tomorrow....

[OOC: Consider this a detailed, perhaps overblown [TAG], The Macabees.]

Mandalay, Imperial Provence of Dienstad
Harbinger looked through the array of RoLu-21s displayed before him, and sought something intangible in the distance - perhaps boredom, even. Apparently, the Ejermacht officers that were presenting him the Boneharvesters seemed to not notice, and they continued in their usual jabber, attempting to show ingenuity to a man who simply didn't care. It took them, perhaps, around ten minutes to finish their speech and then they offered Harbinger a simulation, and Dietrich politely declined. He had other business to speak with them of. He turned to General Argeríur Credast and looked him in the eye. He stood there for what seemed like an eternity, but what really translated into eight to ten seconds, and then said, "Who do you, and your research teams, think you are?"

The other man grew wide-eyed and slightly confused, looking at his partners with blank stares. He turned back to Harbinger and responded, "Excuse me?"

Dietrich Harbinger was not one to mince words, and he gave the man a tongue lashing he probably did not deserve, "I am owner of Kriegzimmer, one of the largest armament manufacturing conglomerations in the world, and you dare go behind my back and design a helicopter, with my companies? You did this with the Morrigan, you did this with the Anat, and you did this with the Pacitalia, but those were all independent projects. Now you dare design a helicopter with Luftkrieg, and do it all without me knowing? General, do you think I'm stupid? I control your job - your success is up to me." General Credast broke a smile and even laughed a bit, and gave amused looks to his comrades. Harbinger was not amused, "What are you laughing at, general?"

Credast looked at him and said, "Your days are numbered Harbinger. The Fuermak no longer respects your authority in weapon designs." Credast turned back to his helicopters, who's rotors had already begun to spin at ungodly velocities, lifting the body of the chopper off the ground and into the sky. The general pointed and said, "Be quiet and look at what we can do without you." This was an insult to Harbinger, but he kept his calm.

Dietrich looked at the squadron of Boneharvesters do their dirty work against prepared targets, but within him he thought for the worse. I will speak to Fedor tomorrow, and I will get this sought out. With that, and saying no words, he abruptly turned around and headed for his car, entering through the back seat and telling his driver to speed off. Mandalay was not to his liking anymore; I'll have to change our testing areas to alienate this new endeavour of the armed forces. He looked outside the window to see the helicopters tail him for a while, menancingly, but he saw this only as another insult, and above all else, a threat. He would have General Credast's job nullified and he would have the man put in the street without a pension. Fedor would not dare say no to the man who armed his military, especially considering that Kriegzimmer could just as well begin to arm Weigar and Sarcanza, as opposed to the imperialists, turning the tables of this war. Given the armed force's new projects, there still wouldn't be enough time to complete it all before the war was over, should Harbinger decide that he should begin supplying other armies. He continued thinking to himself for the rest of the car trip to the city of Mandalay proper.

He took out a cell phone from his coat pocket and dialed a number. It took a second or two before he spoke, "Prepare my flight for tonight. We are leaving for Fedala. I want three vehicles waiting for us on the tarmac, prepared to take us to the frontlines." There was a long pause and then he said, "Yes, yes, of course, armoured vehicles. Make it some of those G11s we're preparing for issuing to the Ejermacht. Maybe it'll drive the message I want to give him." He smiled and closed the phone, placing it back into his pocket. He had a feeling all would go well tomorrow.

The River Nestor, Following Day
The short convoy of three G11/H light armoured vehicles arrived at the front the next day at around noon, doing the crux of Imperial operations, attempting to coerce the final surrender of the sorrounded rebel army, including Prince of Dienstad Heinrich. The G11/H was the ambulance version of the vehicle series, and it was decided that given the space needed for the wounded, it would offer the best comfort and space for a professional like Harbinger. But the man would have preferred a specialized version, although he understood that one day was not enough to do this. He would have to make sure that next time he had one at his disposal. The soldiers milling around looked at the convoy strangely, and they were stopped by a major who asked for indentification. Upon seeing Harbinger he immediately let them through, and it was not a long wait before even His Imperial Majesty Fedor I was at Harbinger's disposal. Indeed, Harbinger thought, the world is to my liking.

Fedor said without much thought, "Your business here Dietrich?"

Harbinger extended his arm, but Fedor did not extend his, and Dietrich retracted his offer of a handshake. This was strange. Nevertheless, he continued with his complaint, "This general Credast, I don't like him. He insulted me. How dare the Fuermak go behind my back, to my company?" He expected Fedor to sympathize with him, but he got exactly the opposite.

"It was under my orders Harbinger. The Fuermak and I feel that Kriegzimmer is no longer a company which from we can procure safely. In fact, we find ourselves fighting against our own weapons. This is simply unacceptable." Fedor did not waver.

Harbinger scoffed and retorted, "You need my weapons; without them, this war is lost." He knew it was true, but didn't expect that the Emperor had an ace of his sleeve.

Fedor jabbed at him, "Your job depends on my will. Remember that. Now leave, I am conducting an operation, and you are not welcomed here. Do not return or I will have you arrested." Harbinger looked at the man wide-eyed, as if he was crazy, and Fedor noticed, adding, "You come to me with these petty arguments and stupid quibbles with my officers, like a child running to his mother. I don't have time for such trivialities when I have to conduct a war." Harbinger said nothing, but noticed the figure of another tall man behind Fedor, and noticed it was President Revello from Hailandkill, and his mouth twitched - he had been humiliated before another world leader. Kriegzimmer would be made a joke. Harbinger nodded and left for his vehicle, but before the G11 drove off he said, "You will learn to regret this."

Fedor didn't say much, except, "Fuck you."

Harbinger's face filled with red as the convoy drove off, and he again took his phone from his pocket, and dialed yet another number. Putting it to his ear he spoke soon, "Deloraín, I may have a job for you." That was it.

It was the morning after next. A very different Singapore, compared to the one Neo and his peers (most of which would be later on be in political office, and his opposition would argue are not coincidentally his colleagues and that Neo was a crony capitalist, which would later be proved on to be untrue), was under a rainy weather - also known as monsoon season.

How was the scene different? Well, to put say that it looked something futuristic but within modern technology's reach would be a lazy and too brief a description, but it looked something like old meet new.

Prominent buildings, primarily called skyscrapers, common through out the influential and well known cities in the United Sovereign Nations, were beacons of Southeast Asian national pride. Symbols of commerce; and where so symbolism was concerned, a skyscraper was a symbol of national business pride as a Super Dreadnaught to a nation's maritime power. The towers were more aesthetics heavy and larger (but despite the fact the capitol no longer had an airport on itself, but on another land - man-made, they were slightly less tall than compared to those that lacked airports nearby), messengers of light and given the diversity of Singapore (and Southeast Asia in general), an equivalent of a national statue, like the American Statue of Liberty. Old designs, such as the ones left-over from the British Empire and her Commonwealth (when vast portions of Southeast Asia were held in the grasp of imperial powers from the West and for a brief time the Empire of Greater Japan, which were then returned to the Western powers - in Singapore's and Malaya's case at least before they were let go and declared sovereign states) were spotted (more so in the urban neighborhood areas), still looking grand as ever, modernized to fit better conditions or rebuilt from ground up.

Neo sat in one of the meeting rooms - not the staff meeting room, where the cabinet would meet. This room still possessed a good view of the city, and even through the constant hammering and showering of rain, the city to him was ever grand. As he stared out the Emerald Executive Recluse's window (which was, like virtually all parts of the structure, a great effort in , a mixture of Tudorbethan and modern Western architecture, with elements of Southeast Asian decoration - in fact, all over a variety of places, the most prominent being the domestic products, the others were more subtle.

He recalled his thoughts to the previous night before he went off for bed, about the Kriegzimmer Conglomerate. He had arranged a meeting with the Minister for Finance and Senior Deputy Prime Minister of the United Sovereign Nations of Southeast Asia, Henley Leong.

"Good morning, Mister Neo." was the early day greeting of what his nation would call the 'second-in-command' or Neo's 'right-hand man'. Neo turned around and smiled, responding back. Then the Prime Minister gestured to a desk, and so would commence the meeting.

[OOC: A bump to get things up Mac, sorry I forgot....]