NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC: Closed, solely for Terra Recedentia (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=492701) role-players.]

Somewhere off the coast of Northern Terra Recedentia....
Aboard the bridge of the Indochina-class Battlecruiser SANS Indochina
Operation: Lunar Landing

Captain Clement Liang stood at the helm, observing his fellow sailors updating him on the situation of the convoy as they made their way toward Terra Recedentia. And he was thinking about the situation at home. Many people had been criticizing left-leaning Prime Minister Yao Yang Nelson Neo about his idea of setting up an orbital-launching spaceport and a space research facility in Terra Recedentia.

Critics of Neo, both within his own party (the Federal New Liberals) and the opposition alike (like for example, the Conservative Parliamentarian-Republican Party) had been pointing parrallels to Prime Minister Alistair Tetley (a.k.a. Lord Salisbury), saying that the Prime Minister wanted to pander to him and turn the Southeast Asian Union from a constitution-based federal republic with parliamentary representative democracy to an Imperial order.

Even the crews of the warships sent to escort the landing crew were being criticized as "pro-imperialist" and "warmongers", and the only thing they possibly had done wrong was simply bear arms to kill people....and even then, it was only in self-defense, a la the Southeast Asia/Joint Conglomerates Conflict.

Originally, the first proposal (http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a338/Singaporean_Liberal/myclaim.gif) took up over one-sixth or one-seventh of the 30,000,000-plus kilometer square continent, but that was quickly dropped even before it got to the voting department. The second proposal (http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a338/Singaporean_Liberal/myclaim2.gif) took still too much space and it would still make Southeast Asia look highly imperialistic. The third, and final, was at cluster of gateways to a river, but thanks to some poor coordinates and interpretation, the rest was history. This (http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a338/Singaporean_Liberal/myclaim3.gif) would be the place where the group of Southeast Asian vessels would land, and the Indochina-class nuclear-powered battlecruisers (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10424028&postcount=6) SANS Indochina (as the name suggests, it is indeed the lead ship of her class) and SANS Ingerier (the second ship to be rolled off the docks) would be immortalized on camera.

Only a few seconds just before the transports got close to shore, did Liang realize that they were in the wrong place. (However, later, the Southeast Asians would later make trips to the rivers, and consider placing a base there and some research teams over).

Oh brilliant....was the exact words of that thought.

[OOC: Urgh, not exactly well written, but I gotta go off the computer right now....]

The first individual to set afoot on what would become a Southeast Asian naval base and a getaway spot, was the grandson of Taufik Akbar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taufik_Akbar), a candidate for a United States Space Shuttle mission, a backup for a fellow Indonesian astronaut Pratiwi Pujilestari Sudarmono (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratiwi_Sudarmono). However, thanks to the Challenger incident of January 28th, 1986, neither of the two Indonesians would ever make it out of the Earth's atmosphere, let alone get off the ground in a rocket....at least in actuality, in simulation they had. The two Indonesians' mission (dubbed STS-61H) was to, which were at least planned, bring a series of commercial satellites into orbital order. Mission STS-61H would have two satellites - one Briton and one Indonesian, the Skynet 4A and the Palapa B3, were to supposed to be accompanied by native representatives each. Had Sudarmono been in absentia for some reason, Akbar would have to attend, but alas, that never happened, and neither would the female (would-be) Professor ever get the oppurtunity for reasons mentioned above.

But enough talk about the two Indonesians, better refered to as Southeast Asians thanks to the Union Act - the two are either retired and old and would rather enjoy all the time they have let in their twilight years or repugnant, most vile smelling corpses beneath the surface - not something exactly delighting to discuss at say, the dinner-table, isn't it?

How did this grandson of Akbar look like? This is a photograph (http://www.spacefacts.de/more/international/photo/akbar_taufik_1.jpg) of the said individual, circa mid 1980's (note - this is an estimate, roughly in that said time period). Now, picture his grandson as younger, with more hair (on the scalp, none at all on the areas very near toward the chin) and less of an oval head. And not wearing the space-suit, of course. The man was analyzing the terrain of which the convoy had mistakenly landed upon.

At least we're right where we desired....just not at the specific spot. he thought dryly. He and the rest of the chief scientists had arrived onto the shore via an air-cushioned landing craft belonging to the Southeast Asian Navy, but as the Captains of both battlecruisers chose to respect the individual's wishes, few soldiers accompanied them along the trip. Besides, as the Southeast Asian unmanned aerial vehicles were sent out within range to analyze the territory, and they saw little native life about. When they returned, Captain Liang's thought was - We're inevitably going to catch their attention soon enough, I had a good feeling why Akbar had no desire to bring too many military escorts on the LCAC - bad publicity amongst the locals. Never underestimate the importance of local knowledge....we'd better be cautious.

Finally, the man turned around, after analyzing the area. His (the grandson's) name was revealed - Taufik Akbar Jr. - on a golden tag. He politely questioned one of his fellow pioneers for a mega-phone. One of them complied, just after the that person took out a suit-case and plucked it out for him. The grandson of a spaceman that would never make it out to space thanks to a certain fatal seventy-three seconds after lift-off, would finally have his goal avenged. The grandson Akbar spoke in Bahasa Indonesia - the national language the late dictator Suharto created when he managed to unify Indonesia as one giant state and he had to create a standardized dialect. It was basically a modified version of the Malay language, and the two languages, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu, were very much alike.

"Ok, ladies and gentlemen," he spoke in the fashion of a confident, pioneering leader (which he essentially was), not worried about communication barriers thanks to the fact that many Southeast Asians were multilingual, especially in the case of the Malay languages and it's dialects - many knew how to speak, read and write in, or at least understand one dialect, and get a mostly good idea of what it meant. "We're here in Distant Land. We need to establish contact with Singapore ASAP, and we need to make a good impression with the natives. Let's set up shop."

It was a short speech, but good enough nevertheless to cause a few cheers or two. And with that, everyone started setting up, getting to work. Within a few hours, they would make a basic tower of a communication center, thanks to the crew-mates of the Ingerier and Indochina, who sped up the construction process, and allowed them to bring a few extra material and equipment (after being suggested by the Federal-Parliamentarian Government in case there wasn't quite enough room, but enough to be sacrificed for the battlecruisers).

Some hours later......

The basic outline of the communications center was set up, initially, history would record it as recording on it's own individual power plant (a solar one with a diesel-electric type), thanks to the fact that there were no other power sources around. It would later use another power source once urban development was completed, but the original power plants would be kept as back-ups.

Now, as soon as the communication center was completed - at least to the basic point of communicating without causing any harm, but not the exterior, which was still hardly done, just a proper and most sturdy skeleton. Anybody with a communication line on the entire continent, a communication form of any type, you named it - radiowave, e-mail, instant messenger, whatever that wasn't outdated and that worked in the 21st Century, it was there. And one of this form was sent to the capital of Southeast Asia, and word would be picking up on it soon. Transmissions could be detected as far as....well, all over the continent with a developed communications system and good listeners, could pick it up. North, south, east and west of the entire landmass - including Oceania, the Khailfah al Muslimeen, whatever developed spot, could pick it up. And history was made.

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To: All Parties on Terra Recedentia with a Communication Line, and to Singapore, Southeast Asia
From: Taufik Akbar Jr., Chief of the Expedition on Terra Recedentia, USNSA
Subject: 'Operation: Lunar Landing' a Success

Greetings, My Fellow Members of Humankind,

I would like to introduce myself to the world. I am Taufik Akbar Jr., named after my grandfather, not my father, as my father was not christened that name. I would like to inform you of the Challenger incident in the United States, which happened oh so many years ago. It was that very incident, that did not enable him and a friend of his, a fellow country-person of mine, Professor Pratiwi Sudarmono, to enter space in the peaceful act of introducing a telecommunications satellite to orbit.

However, we in Southeast Asia desire to rectify the results of such a tragic incident, where a common school teacher was supposed to make history and conduct a series of science experiments in space live on global television, was violently incinerated along with several others. It was discovered that a fatal error in a part of the Space Shuttle, an O-Ring and freezing temperature, hindered the said part's occupation and causing a ghastly explosion that left none of them alive.

That is sad but true proof, that humankind must be careful in our quest for knowledge. What is also true proof is, that we have landed in the wrong location thanks to poor coordinates information. But that is of little manner, for all that matters is, that we have landed in Terra Recedentia, and we have strong feeling that Southeast Asia can locate a suitable location on this vast continent, for a fully-dedicated space research facility and an orbital rocket-launching space port.

We Southeast Asians only wish to come here in peace, and only wish for peace and progress for all humankind. I only wish to accomplish what my grandfather and his intimate acquaintaince failed to do.

In variatete concordia, my fellow members of humankind, that is my nation's national motto. It is Latin for, "United in Diversity." One may find it all strange, thanks to the fact that Southeast Asia is not the cradle of the Latin language nor did it have the position as great as the position of the former British Empire, but many feel it is appropriate, for it is true that Southeast Asia is a cradle of many cultures and ideologies, and that we are a multinational state. And we pride our selves on tolerance.

It is as such, on the behalf of my people, that I reach out with open arms help from other nations in our quest for the stars. It is with great honor that I reach out my arms, as this is a destiny that shall be remembered for all time. I look forward to seeing you all, and hope for a great future for you all, thank you very much.

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Accompanied by the communique, was the photos of the SANS Indochina and the Ingerier, with an assembled staff grouped together in a group-styled photo, and smiling sailors off the battlecruisers. History was made, indeed.

[OOC: Ok guys, you can post a response now to my people with governmental communiques, et cetera, airplanes coming over, and the like. That's why I wrote the communique from Akbar in the first place...lol to me.]

Subject: 'Operation: Lunar Landing' a Success

The government of the Commonwealth of Delesa would like to help in conquoring space, by setting up a internetyional space station of sorts.

OOC:Short but i have to go...

[OOC: Well, I was hoping that one of the more respected role-players and those that I would get along with well both IC and OOC (i.e. Hamptonshire, Oceania), on TR would respond immediately without having any notification OOCly, but I guess that I'd have to invite them in first (which was what I did with Hamp, though I have yet to make an offer to him ICly). Here's my response, and my homeland's reaction.]

There was a mixed reaction from both the Southeast Asian Federal-Parliamentarian Government and the people of Southeast Asia. Dissappointment that they were in the wrong location and not the place they intended to be (though on a giant sized version of Earth, and with the Earth far too large to map every single location, one should've thought better), and happiness that they (at the very least) landed in Terra Recedentia. The Southeast Asian mainland itself had a lone space center, but with the advent of political willpower and financial issues on who would fund it remained elusive, it failed to truly see potential. Another cause was due to the Southeast Asia/Joint Conglomerates Conflict, which slashed funds from the peaceful scientific program to the defense budget. But now that One could describe, when the two perspectives of the Southeast Asian Federal-Parliamentarian Government and the Southeast Asian general public, in a single word: mixed. But it could also be called "positive", as many thought of the landing positively.

At the Emerald Executive Recluse (the Southeast Asian Prime Minister's official residence), there was a happy reaction initially. But then came the next problem, the next question screaming away from the Southeast Asian public: who would be funding the program? The Neo Administration, inevitably, had it all planned. What they forgot to do, was contact the (foreign) program funders before starting the journey off to the vast continent of Terra Recedentia. Sure, Southeast Asia had the domestic companies for satellite intercommunications (thanks to it's impressive economy, which showed potential for many investors, and the fact that the rich-gap divide was almost nil to many, it had a large middle-class.) to supply it, and the intellectual capacity to construct a facility for rockets, but there were many other areas that it lacked in.

Now, let's turn to Lapan Space Center (the name of the now historical site). And for what reason? Well, simple really. For celebrations. Neo was in attendence, along with several bodyguards that were pretending to be guests. The Prime Minister, was as usual, wearing his political trademark in the form of a pair of sunglasses whose glass would not let naked vision reveal the Prime Minister's eyes. It was also a way of making him look significant and stylish, and he liked it. He only took off the frames when he didn't need it for his career.

When the communique from the chief of the expedition was received at the capital, word spread from it all over like wild-fire. Officially, it was stated that the capital would have the information first. In reality, both the capital and the preserved structure would be receiving the news at the same time. (It would later be found out by the guests and the press invited there, but the press would not officially say that it had known it before, it decided to keep it a minor surprise). Now anyway, to the Lapan Space Center, and the festivities.....

Evening, UTC + 8,
Lapan Space Center
Tjulitan, Jawa Barat, Jawa
Union of Southeast Asian Nations


"Excellent." smiled Neo as he poured himself a drink of ice-water into a wine-glass. "All in the name of scientific progress, Leong."

"Cheers." responded a dark-skined East Asian man. That was Senior Deputy Prime Minister Henley Leong. Gold-framed glasses, about six-foot-three tall, and generally tended to wear navy blue or jet black suits. For this event, he was wearing a black suit. The champagne glasses gave off the sound of victory when they clashed, and the men sipped down some of the contents of their drinks (Leong's was red wine).

"I take it that he," Leong spoke, just after taking a small slurp of the contents of his red wine, savoring it then consuming it down, highlighting the word 'he' as to emphasize who it was, "will be here?"

"Ah yes, he will indeed be here." Neo responded, with a tone of slight annoyance. Annoyance not directed at his long-time friend and cabinet colleague, but rather at another individual. His brother.





[OOC Note: Not done, gotta go now]