NationStates Jolt Archive

Introductions

[ooc: I calculated the land matrix for the territories in question:

Chhattisgarh [part] (I don't know which part...) - 135194km2
Delhi - 1483km2
Jharkhand - 79700km2
Manipur - 22327km2
Nagaland - 16579km2

Total - 255283km2

The land matrix says that Saint Lazare [NSpop - 226mil as of today] is allowed a maximum of up to 500000km2, so I think that these claims are valid, save for the fact that Saint Lazare is only a tiny state in the densest part of Europe - but let us make that a tiny rich state...]


Maréchal Charles de Rocquefort was busily calling up friends and managed to overhear the chaos going on in India. Several states already claimed indepedence, while others were absorbed into other states. At this moment, he stopped all calls and relayed out to a dear friend.

"Aksay - how is the situation?"

"Boiling," the general replied. "It is the perfect time to start Operation: Grand Etat [Big State]. Does the Duke know anything of this?"

"Nothing. Not yet at least. I want it to be a surprise for him. On Constitution Day, whenever he decides to get that thing rolling. What is the status of your army?"

"Large and well-supplied. With your funds, we'll be also well-supported. My army will be the only paid force in the field."

"Allegiance to God and State?"

"None but Saint Lazare."

"Hah, that's a good use of semantics. Well, commence Operation: Grand-Etat. May it all be well."

With that, the conversation meekly ended, and Maréchal de Rocquefort called the Bank. He made a private withdrawal from his personal account [the one that he had been hoarding for this very project for so long, such that it amounted to 3bil USD] and began to syphon funds for the operation. He dearly hoped that the investment would be worthwhile, since Askay had the greatest difficulty ahead - unify the states of Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Manipur, and Nagaland and claim them all for the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare.

It all seemed so simple. But again, this was only the beginning...

[ooC: anyone gots stats on Varsola and Lightning Star?]
[OOC: TLS' soldiers are armed with home-made AKs...]

[ooc: due to a reconstruction of the knowledge surrounding the claims in India, my troops are no longer attacking Varsola held territory in Delhi. Instead, they are trying to work with Varsola. Since TLS is the only person I'm attacking at the moment, this makes my job half as easy... therefore, as this is substantial any post referring to the attack on Varsola is hereafter invalidated. In fact, the last post is to be rephrased as below and thence deleted.]

General Aksay Bassingal was a commander in the Indian Army [the former state of Lightning Star]. He had been recruited by de Rocquefort for the longest time, ever since Saint Lazare became an official state. At first, the cordial friendship began slowly, but eventually, the two came to realizing that there was much more at stake than simply their friendship - they had the power to influence world politics. Such was de Rocquefort's intentions in bring India to Saint Lazare. Somehow, chaos would eventually break out from the region, and India's volatile situation would become untenable - it would collapse. And rightly so, it did, and it brought numerous other states along into chaos. In fact, the numbers were so high that they left the condition of India vulnerable to outside attack, and this led General Aksay to worry somewhat. Perhaps de Rocquefort had forgotten... but no, he did not. And the operation was going ahead as planned.

The battle commenced in Jharkhand, where Aksay's forces began to root out former TLS forces. Even as the fighting was intense, the propoganda war was working well to his advantage. "Quit your positions and return home! We are returning peace to India, and anyone who resists our soldiers shall receive no mercy." There were several other similar messages, but they all came to similar conclusions. By the end of the first week, at least 15,000 soldiers had surrendered to Aksay's forces. Where there was the intense firefight was also a burdening logistics battle to sort and organize the POWs, many of whom were as fit and willing to fight for General Aksay as they were to fight against him.

In all of this, General Aksay had the advantage of a clear cut plan - the enemy did not. He might not have had the proper equipment, but his orders were clear, orderly, and his troops were supported very well. The street fighting became intense at times, but the first day was largely successful. Aksay reported back to de Rocquefort - "It all goes well; if only the days went longer and the men did not tire so easily would the city be completely ours by now."

The capital of Jharkhand was under siege, while forces began to rout other TLS remnants. The fighting was extremely one-sided, and despite this, General Aksay was trying to be extremely conservative with his forces. The inflation of his forces led him to a grave crisis - he didn't who or how many was in his force.

He called the General Staff of his provisional command and they discussed the issue in detail.

"General Aksay, this is a ridiculous idea!" Colonel Napur said. "Taking up enemies to join our ranks has led to inflation of our forces, and we're radically taking on enemies that seem to be fighting from within us. We need to get control of our forces and figure who's who. Our squad commanders don't report back, because their units have grown by almost 500%. These are squads, not platoon! How do we manage all of this?"

"We execute them all!" Colonel Yasmin. "They're going to be a burden if we keep them."

"Execute?" - "Never!" - "But we must!" - "The only burden is a dead body!" - "I'm sickened that we're speaking of this!" - "Who said that?"

At that, Aksay slapped his fist on the table. Everyone shook with a cold-tingly feel running down their backs. The innskeeper came by cautiously in the silence to serve out some tea for the General Staff. After he had left, Aksay gave his words.

"We need a concise and reasonable solution to address this inflation. One at a time."

Colonel Napur stood up and gave her ideas. "It is only too evident that our reckless policy to take in free soldiers was bad from the start. The only real way to rectify the problem is to expand the structure of the units."

One of the generals yelled out, "We can't create more units!"

Aksay slammed his fist on the table again, shocking Napur once again. After a while, she continued. "Well... yes. We must create more units. If we continue to operate with... 50 men in a squad, we'll be running into severe problems. Besides that, we want to make certain that all of our units are properly supplied and equipped. We can perform that mission more efficiently if there are more units. Smaller units means smaller quantities to distribute. We'll have more portions, of course - but in the end, every soldier will get their bread and butter."

"Bread and butter are not the only things that matter," General Chatgahsingra retorted, standing on his feet. "We need these troops to fill the ranks of our dead. In the end, it doesn't really matter about how much we give out, but rather how many we can field. If we simply put numbers to our enemy, they'll be discourraged and run. Maybe they'll join us and chase more of their kind out."

"General, that is likely to work until the enemy realizes that we don't have the supply to power that manpower," Napur replied. "If we're going to take them in, we need to reorganize new units and establish new commands. That likely will mean promoting more lower grade officers, but the alternative is to establish extensive POW networks."

"I've got a better idea," Yasmin said. "Kill them all - take no prisoners!"

"If we resort to that, they'll never surrender!" - "Kill our countrymen? You're insane!" - "We must if we are to succeed!" - "Quiet it down! He's going to slam his fist again!" - "Who says they need to surrender? It'll get rid of half the problem!" - "Well, it might work, but then we'd have to make sure that we kill them all!" - "One person speaking!" - "It's not morally correct to kill indiscriminately. And there's a chance we'll lose support if we do that." - "We don't need support!" - "Hell, why don't they surrender? That'll solve all of our problems!" - "What's the question?" - "I thought we were having a good discussion about alternatives, not genocide." - "We ought to kill them all, or at least jail them into camps that are guarded by loyal troops if we want them in the force." - "Why waste our time with them? They don't belong with us if they chose the wrong side to fight on."

Aksay had pulled out his pistol and fired a shot at the ceiling. Instantly, all of the clamor at the table disappeared. The innskeeper froze as he was serving out the bread plates, as did everyone else present. He rested his pistol on the table and said, "This discussion is going no where quickly. I am calling a thirty minute recess to break for lunch and we will come back hopefully too full to argue in such rancorous discord." The General Staf nodded in agreement, and they left to iron out their plans. What began as a simple question has devolved into a shameful waste of time - but Aksay would make up his mind soon enough. He first needed to pull the reins of his authority a little tighter, since his officer cadre did not respect him enough. In the meantime, he dialed up de Rocquefort, to update him on the situation.

Maréchal Charles de Rocquefort was funneling a report through the Ministry of Defense. He had been bogged down with the schematics of his plans in India - the most volatile region at the moment. General Aksay had reported significant progress, but there were still loose ends to tie. He didn't mention that the assimilation would be more difficult, but having gained control of Delhi from rogue forces, with assistance from neighboring governors - all of whom were in the know about these plans and had given their approval in advance - Operation: Grand Etat was shaping up nicely.

The hardest part was yet to come - to persuade the Grand Duke to accept the title of these lands. While Grand Duke Roumillet spent his tiring hours in a convention at the Palais, trying to reorganize the government to fit a democratic society, de Rocquefort tried to court the delegates from India, trying to persuade them that their territories in India were in better protection under the Grand Duchy. But how does one persuade one into doing such a thing? The provinces in question are all landlocked; the populations of the provinces in question heavily outnumber their "parent" country in Europe; and not to mention, there were plenty of other nearby states that were vying for the attention of these provinces. What made Saint Lazare so much better?

That would be the question to come, and its reply due in time.

OOC: Is it public knowledge that you are invading this land or is this still a secret?

OOC: Is it public knowledge that you are invading this land or is this still a secret?

ooc: it's public knowledge that there is an armed conflict. It's only sicly knowledge that elements of the Saint Lazare government are sponsoring this group - that being, the Ottoman Khaif - as they semi-sicly offered "free passage" to consolidate our position - unless I misinterpreted that conversation we had... anyways, the Duke of Saint Lazare doesn't know that he's got elements of his own government sponsoring this group, only because he's busy fixing out the Saint Lazare government... and all of this will come together in the end...

IC:
General Aksay had finally resolved to a prompt solution of the fugitive army crisis that had been plaguing his army for the past two weeks at least. Instead of taking soldiers, unit commanders were ordered to seize their weapons and return them to their homes. After each combatant was questioned for their loyalty, they would be shipped out to secure regions, where they tried to resume whatever life they could afford to livve until the situation had resolved. It provided his own army an ample supply of munitions and those soldiers already present weren't being bogged by the constant addition of troops to their numbers.

Nonetheless, some units disregarded the order, and in time, the General Staff would deal with these insubordinates, but the general crisis had been avoided. With a more concise units, General Aksay commenced a new campaign to secure Chhattisgarh from TLS remnant forces. It seemed ultimately that General Aksay would be finishing this campaign in advance, which would lead to political problems. In fact, de Rocquefort told him to "slow down" and allow political processes to work their part. It was harder to convince the General Staff to slow down, so inevitably, there would come another crisis - to whom do these lands belong?

ooc: it's public knowledge that there is an armed conflict. It's only sicly knowledge that elements of the Saint Lazare government are sponsoring this group - that being, the Ottoman Khaif - as they semi-sicly offered "free passage" to consolidate our position - unless I misinterpreted that conversation we had... anyways, the Duke of Saint Lazare doesn't know that he's got elements of his own government sponsoring this group, only because he's busy fixing out the Saint Lazare government... and all of this will come together in the end...

IC:
General Aksay had finally resolved to a prompt solution of the fugitive army crisis that had been plaguing his army for the past two weeks at least. Instead of taking soldiers, unit commanders were ordered to seize their weapons and return them to their homes. After each combatant was questioned for their loyalty, they would be shipped out to secure regions, where they tried to resume whatever life they could afford to livve until the situation had resolved. It provided his own army an ample supply of munitions and those soldiers already present weren't being bogged by the constant addition of troops to their numbers.

Nonetheless, some units disregarded the order, and in time, the General Staff would deal with these insubordinates, but the general crisis had been avoided. With a more concise units, General Aksay commenced a new campaign to secure Chhattisgarh from TLS remnant forces. It seemed ultimately that General Aksay would be finishing this campaign in advance, which would lead to political problems. In fact, de Rocquefort told him to "slow down" and allow political processes to work their part. It was harder to convince the General Staff to slow down, so inevitably, there would come another crisis - to whom do these lands belong?

OOC: Okay. The Empire would offer support but since it's not public we'll have to reserve that for a late time.

[ooc: I appreciate the offer, but in the spirit of secrecy and government conspiracy, I'll keep this SIC until my MoD decides that it's high-time to go public with thingy. Until you're absolutely desperate and want to help him badly, in which case, come talk to him.]

IC PRESS RELEASE:

Official reports confirmed that Jharkhand is firmly under the control of a Indian General Aksay Singha. Rumors suggest that an outside government is sponsoring General Singha's conquests, although none of the General's personal comments in the press release today determinably state otherwise.

"Our forces are going to bring India to a closer state of harmony, compared to the past twenty years of divisive rule between many rulers and undecided conquerors."

It is uncertain that this means that the entire Indian subcontinent will be plunged into, but for the moment, General Singha has reassured neighboring states that his forces mean no ill to firmly established governments. Likely candidates for the support of Singha's revolution include the Ottoman Khaif, although their spokesmen have officially given no indicationn that they explicitly support the group. In other news, the Grand Duke of Saint Lazare - in the midst of preparing governmental reforms for the ###th year anniversary of his reign - has urged the people in India to remain calm and come to a decisive and peaceful resolution.

General Singha's forces have made significant advances in Jharkhand, leading to today's declaration that the province is firmly in their control. Moreover, Singha's force made similar progress in TLS remnant regions of Chhattisgarh Province. They expect to be done by the end of this month, having assimilated the peoples living there from renagade forces.



===


Maréchal de Rocquefort wasn't entirely pleased to see how much progress had been made in India. He hadn't even broached the Ministries and the Indian representatives from the provinces since the last meeting. It seemed that he would have to spill his beans before the world did it for him.

"Madame Secrétaire, pourriez-vous téléphoner le Grand-duc? Je dois lui parler, avec le cabinet. Il y aura une situation grave qui concernera la politique du Grand-duché." [Secretary, could you call the Grand Duke? I must speak with him and the cabient. There is going to be a serious situation that will likely govern the politics of the Grand Duchy.]

"Bien sur, Monsieur Maréchal. Je lui téléphonerai après que je finis cette déclaration. Y-a d’autre à dire?" [Of course, Marshal. I will call him after I finish this report. Anything else to say?]

"Non. Seulement qu’il est vraiment important." [No. Only that it's very important.]

Roumillet entered the room as all of the Ministers likewise gathered before de Rocquefort. It was an urgent call, and they all knew that de Rocquefort wasted little time trying to manage conferences. They were all settled well in advance of the schedule, and it was less worrisome to de Rocquefort, especially with his fears that the Indian Campaign might be running too quickly.

"Messieurs," he opened. "It is quite apparent to us that there has been recent destruction in India. The former state in Nepal -also known colloquially as TLS - has collapsed and a renegade portion of that force has been unifying territories that have not already been seized by occupying powers. Unbeknownst to us, numerous representatives have come to the Grand Duchy to pledge their allegiance and furthermore to add onto the Grand Duke's title - Roi de la Indie Lazare. In this claims would include the territories of TLS Delhi, Jharkhand, and northern Chhattisgarh, totalling a population in excess of 40 million people and territory encompassing about 150,000 square kilometers."

Roumillet stood from his chair to interrupt. "These people offer us their land? For what reason?"

"They see the Grand Duchy as a stablizing force in the world. A small state that boasts a powerful economy, and likewise an internationally renowned state with diplomatic and political accesses to more prominent powers. They see these connections in sum as a valuable sum."

"I see. But how would we govern them? I mean, the Grand Duchy has barely any army to enforce our laws there."

De Rocquefort nodded. "The representatives have assured me well in advance that their troops are loyal to Saint Lazare, and as such, they have conducted themselves in as orderly a manner as is decreed by the Ministry of Defense protocols - fair and judacious execution of orders, civil treatment of non-combatants, merciful captivity for all surrendered personnel, and proper file of military order. After all, they adopted most of these provisions from their previous government, but from what I have seen, I am personally convinced to say that these provinces to deserve the official support and likewise our acceptance of their offers."

Roumillet seemed a little confused by these affairs. "Logic does not pervade these ideas. I will need some time."

Prematurely, Roumillet left the room, as de Rocquefort tried to keep everyone in place. The one most important man to convince - he was leaving before he had heard it all. He rushed out into the halls and intercepted the Grand Duke. "Duke, I think that you need to hear the whole story."

Roumillet, unconvinced, continued on. He then abruptly stopped and turned back. "Those were all lies."

"I'm sorry?" de Rocquefort asked, somewhat shocked.

"You spoke nothing of the truth in that room. You intended to deceive me?"

De Rocquefort, uncertain how to respond, spoke nothing. Roumillet continued his way, back to his chambers. De Rocquefort realized that there was now a much graver situation. If the Grand Duke completely rebuked the entire operation before it was even done, how could it ever succeed? He had to appeal.

Following Roumillet, de Rocquefort chased him into the Palace Quarters, where Roumillet had spent countless hours discussing constitutional reforms, including the establishment of a legislature and of other governmental additions. There were a few advisors around as the Marshal entered, and Roumillet, sensing the situation's intensity, ordered all others out of the room. De Rocquefort considered this to be a godsend opportunity, and a signal that Roumillet still had his graces.

"Grand Duke, I have sincerely consulted the Indian commanders. They are truly willing to submit to the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare. I do not lie."

Roumillet nodded. "I have been around many people, Maréchal. I know the truth from a lie, especially from someone I trust so much. While you may speak the truth about your military counterparts, I do not believe that these people have been actively seeking our support. It is you who seeks to gain their support. For what reason, may I ask?"

De Rocquefort nodded. "I will say this now, and forever, I hold it to be the absolute truth. I do all that I do in the greatest interest to preserve the Grand Duchy."

Roumillet again nodded. He nodded some more, appreciating some sense of honesty once more. "What can Saint Lazare benefit from ascenting to the foundation of an Indian state in our name?"

"Plenty of opportunities," de Rocquefort replied. "We have the chance to build a state that is in the ideals of the Enlightenment, of the Renaissance, of the True Society that is of God and for the people. India has been plagued by numerous conflicts, and I have consulted with the military commanders - they all desire a peace, and they all agree that only Saint Lazare offers a degree of prosperity and harmony that no other world power can offer. In return for our effects as a state, they will help the Grand Duchy grow more powerful, economically and socially."

"You do realize that these people would require a large decree of autonomy in order for such a system to operate. I cannot rule India and Saint Lazare, or otherwise, I would have two houses to manage."

"I have understood this."

"Then you still have plans to work out? Because as far as I know, these generals have not secured their territory. And as far as I believe, these people would not be so easily convinced that they are better off - even under their own insistance - having a state of union with the Grand Duchy than not."

"I have only concerned myself with placating your own fears," de Rocquefort replied. "I knew that I would have to convince you to accept these claims."

"I accept the claims of the people who direct them to me. If Saint Lazare wishes my abdication, I shall abdicate. But until they say otherwise, I shall rule as they have asked of me, and of my family. Thus, if India - truly - desires my hand, I shall willingly oblige."

"Ah, that is most comforting news."

Roumillet smiled with a darker message behind it: "Know this - I am not easily deceived. If you wish to lie to me again, consider your titles revoked immediately. Only because I have known you to be a valuable commander and a sound strategist, I consider granting this amnesty. But do not test my patience - and do not test my grace."

De Rocquefort nodded, in complete accord and comprehension. While he had under-estimated Roumillet's apprehensions and his naivete, things were still on course to bring India to a greater sense of harmony. Almost nothing could fail now.

With the Grand Duke on the maybe but likely so list, de Rocquefort was at great ease. His last official conflict was to convince local Indian leaders that it was a worthwhile endeavor. General Aksay had recently reported that the last resistance was beginning to subside, and his forces could thus declare that the threats in India had long gone.

In a conference room in the Centre des Etats Internationaux, de Rocquefort began to spill the benefits of joining to the Grand Duchy, although in honesty, he couldn't think of anything that would stand out. They were all pointless, and somewhat hollow. 'We can defend your people' - against what? The SL Armed Forces were insignificant. 'We'll bring prosperity to your people' - how? The two states were to organize their own budgets officially. And more than likely, the Grand Duchy would suffer some losses ini terms of its ability to manage its economic growth. 'We'll bring jobs to India' - more like, take if anything. Saint Lazare was empty on its own native workforce, with much of its needs supplied by loyal foreign workers. What exactly was the benefit?

Just then, Providence rode to him in the words of a delegate there: "We want a nation. We want our identity. India has so long lasted under the rule of multiple leaders, and the Hindus, the Sikhs, the Dravidians, they all are disconcerted. We want a nation that can unify us all into a peaceful and harmonic accord."

De Rocquefort smiled. "That can be arranged."

General Aksay began pulling the last phase of his campaign when he received news from de Rocquefort.

"What is it now? We're almost done. Have the delegate agreed?"

"They have. But I've got some more comforting news as well. Some Lazare citizens have pulled resources to form a new organization - OIS. While I'm quite skeptical, the Grand Duke asked me if there was anyway that our own Armed Forces could help the OIS support Indian operations. And my skepticism remains, but I think we have an opportunity to legitimize our presence in India, beyond the small and secretive talks."

"I'd be glad to have help, but as long as civilians don't get in my way. I've had collateral for one year, and I don't want any more."

"They won't be a problem. I've begun talking with OIS board members, and they all agree that OIS will remain a non-military presence in India, and furthermore that they will only abide in regions under your firm control. We're still working out the details."

"Okay. Be certain that you remind me before they come; otherwise, I might not be prepared to receive them, and some ill might happen."

"They ought to leave by the end of this week, if not before hand."

"Alright. This will be good for now."

Aksay looked at all of the reports, and he was very pleased with them all.

"The Provinces have been pacified."

With that done, Aksay gathered the Generals together and they convened - to celebrate victory, and to celebrate a prosperous peace. OIS personnel had already began to arrive, to help quell any problems in the provinces. They had long established aid and assistance units in Delhi, and with Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand firmly in their control, OIS began to supporting Aksay's forces ini restoring the fragile order that had existed before.

At the end, the Indian delegates had returned from Saint Lazare, convinced that this was the best decision possible - for the creation of an Indian nation. General Aksay was pleased to see that de Rocquefort's powers of persuasion had proven themselves to be formidable. They all convened to discuss the best method to disseminate the news to the world, and they all agreed: television.

They staged a conference room in Delhi about two days later, with the Indian delegates lined in order, and General Singha at the end. In the background was an old Hindi-infused Mogul mosaic, and before them was an elegant teak table, dressed in white cloth, with the seal of the representatives present in the middle. The delegates all elected Dr. Priya Dandewante to speak on their behalf, and thus began their explanation.

"Greetings ladies and gentlemen of the world. We bring great news from India, as forces here have consolidated the loose ends of the Empire of TLS/Nepal. While our people have long sufficed at the hands of foreign governments, it has been a discord among us that there has been no Indian nation. The last Indian nation [TLS] was in fact the remnants of another Empire to the west. As such, we have found it necessary to assert our own national force as a legitimate state in the world.

"But the question might come - how does Indian have one nation where there are many peoples? And we can answer this in principle, that the Indian nation is a nation that seeks to return peace and harmony with the peoples in India. Hindu, Sikh, Dravidian, Bengali; we all live here, and this is our home. This is the Indian nation, and this is our objective.

"So we have answered this question. But then, a nation is only this - how does our nation achieve its state? For this, we have offer our appeals to another government in the West, to sponsor our state here. We have looked at all of the governments, and we have decided that there is only one truly unique government that shares our vision of a harmonious nation - Saint Lazare. We are hereby offering our nation to join the state of the Grand Duchy, to promote our affairs, and mutually support each other. In this spirit, we hope that the Grand Duchy will accept our request, our offer, and our nation.

"At the moment, the provinces of North Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have joined our forces, as well as the formere TLS partition of Delhi. We hope that in time, our Indian brethren and sisters will hear our calls and agree to our principle. Whereas the Indian nation has no ill-wishes for all of our neighbors here, we cannot hold our desires for a place where our children can call our own. As such, we encourage our brethren to be peaceable to our neighbors andd encourage non-violent measures of demonstration for the Indian nation.

"We, the represenatives present here - Dr. Prakash Napur, Dr. Sumati Changashira, Mr. Anand Milikharna, Dr. Jyoti Kaur, General Aksay Singha, and myself, Dr. Priya Dandewante - we all submit our sincere wishes that your people accept the Indian nation, and that furthermore, the recent events that have captivated the Indian world, and perhaps even beyond, will go on as a history of the nation that begins a period of peace for us all."

The Grand Duke received word from his Ministers that some obscure nation of India had requested his affirmation to the ascension of an Indian nation within the state. And for that, he went on television.

"It is with great pleasure that I hear news of peace returning to India. Whereas in regards to their calls for a state, I cannot offer my sincere reply at this time. However, I would invite all of the delegates from India to meet with me in person, this Saturday. At such a time, we can begin discussions on these issues."

The Indian delegation seemed a little uncertain now. General Aksay called the Marshal - "What the hell is going on? I thought youu said that this man would accept!"

"He hasn't stated otherwise," de Rocquefort replied. "My best guess is just to come, because I'm as much in the dark as you are."

"My people are becoming nervous. We need assurances."

"And I don't have any. Just tell them that the Grand Duke will accept, but he just wants to have an excuse to bring them to the Grand Palais. There's supposedly a ball that evening, so tell them that."

"Ah, well - this is much better. I will notify them."

The Indians had arrived and even though they had just visited the Principate within the past month, they were still anxious. They didn't know the exact reason for their presence, other than the the Grand Duke was inviting the entire Realm to some grand ball. They were the only of their kind among the crowd, and they all spoke French. It seemed disheartening to listen to all of these people, and they began to wonder if Saint Lazare truly was the right place for them. After all, no one else spoke their language, no one else was among them in color or appearance, and no one else recognized this nation of India. Aksay was also uncomfortable - de Rocquefort didn't know what the Duke was doing, as did nearly the entire Principate. So why was everyone here?

At 2100, the music ceased and the dancing ended. They all turned to the orchestra, who began to play the Grand Duke's March. At that, Roumillet entered the room to a surprised but rapturous applause. He headed to the front of the stand and sat with the other members of Cabient [minus de Rocquefort who was standing by Aksay]. At the close of the March, the Grand Duke stood once again and bade everyone to sit down in the chairs provided in the dining hall.

"Mesdames et Messieurs! Il est temps pour la création de l’état du Grand Duché ! Deux ans et trois mois du travaille, j’ai fait un long voyage pour créer le meilleur état du duché, et après l'avoir discuté avec mes ministres et mon peuple, j’ai décidé à proposer une constitution pour la formation du gouvernement. Ceci est les dictats ce qu’on trouve l’autorité, le pouvoir, et le droit de faire and de refaire les affaires du Grand Duché. Donc, je vous présente la Constitution !"

[Ladies and Gentlemen! It is temp for the creation of the Grand Duchy! 2 years and 3 months of work, I have finished a long trek to make the best state for the duchy, and having discussed this with my ministers and my people, I have decided to propose a constitution that will form the new government. It is here that the authority, the power, and the right of this goverrnment shall be derived and thus decide the affairs of the Grand Duchy. Thus, I present to you the Constitution!]

The crowd rose in applause, wondering what kind of Constitution this man was talking about. The Indian delegation joined the applause, only to wonder why everyone was cheering. After the crowd settled, Roumillet continued on to describe the Constitution, in which he finished in summary - "If you - the people of the Grand Duchy - agree to these, such shall be the government of the Grand Duchy for the longest time to come."

The crowd rose in applause again. It was a long applause, as the Grand Duke departed with his ministers. De Rocquefort quickly interrupted Roumillet, to discover his purposes with the Indian delegation. After a brief talk, he returned and said to them - "He will speak to you now."

The Indian delegation entered the Grand Duke's quarters, still littered somewhat with drafts and papers. For the most part, it was clean and well-embellished. But they weren't so concerned about the appearance of the room. Why were they there?

Roumillet entered the room, with a guard standing outside the room. He was dressed in his typical black suit, with the adorning crosses and medals. Most of these were medals earned by the Grimaldi family, and of the Roumillet family. At one moment, it seemed pompous to don so many medals, but at another, it seemed honorable to carry the tradition of a long and prosperous family. The Indian delegation wasn't certain if it was right to bow or stand up, but Roumillet showed no obvious concern. In fact, he went straight to his seat, behind his desk.

"As you can see, my desk is well decorated," he remarked, pointing to the numerous scraps of paper. The Indians didn't seem too happy.

"Please pardon my mess. It has been the most inconvenient past three months, trying to figure out how I would finally shape up this government. If anything, I hope this to be my lasting legacy for the Grand Duchy - that the people of Saint Lazare will remember their government and their state."

"We want to know what brings us here," Dandewante asked, acting as the spokesperson for the delegation.

"It is all in order," Roumillet replied. "I have here a draft of the constitution that is set to be put on ballot for the people of the Grand Duchy. As you may know, this is to be the official document that regulates the state of Saint Lazare. My purpose is simple - I run the state. But the people? Theirs is a more cherished and seldom understood purpose. They run themselves. And my state is designed to help them run themselves. In the process, these people make decisions that help them fulfill their purposes, and likewise they modify the state to suit their needs. But of course, they can only modify it so much before the state becomes something else and the people erupt into discontent that the state is not what it used to be - or perhaps more importantly, the way that they would wish it to be. That's what this does; it makes a state that is balanced and stable, and also able to manage the changes that will occur."

"The point?" Dandewante asked again.

"Well..." Roumillet paused, smiling still. "I have brought you here because you had so desired to join the Grand Duchy, as if it were some party or free organization. And I see that you are unwilling to tolerate my presence for a simple ten minutes. How am I to make this as easy as I would want to make it?"

"Pardon me, your Majesty," Dandewante replied. "It is not quite the same manner to invite guests into your house without having given them a proper reason. Of course, I can tolerate your presence, but my colleagues and I are uncertain of your intentions. We only seek to understand what apprehensions you may have."

"I have none," Roumillet replied.

"Well, what prevents you from accepting our request?"

"I've been thinking. What would prompt a collective of territories in India to look to the Grand Duchy? For a state? Why not start your own state? For a government? How much more effective would a government in Saint Lazare than in Delhi? For defense? Again, what prevents India from managing her own defense? For what? I had been thinking this since the idea had been proposed to me - and I have thought deeply about it, without coming to a conclusion. I almost wanted to delay today's ceremony to ponder more, but I figured that since you had already expressed your intentions, I thought that it would be better that your own people could tell me why your people want to become the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare."

Dandewante nodded. "I have felt similar pretensions."

"Why bother asking me? There were other states to ask."

"We wanted a state that embraced our own ideas of a state. A state that represented the nation, and yet was a strong central focus to our identity. India has been divided for too long, and I don't feel that we couldn effectively find any great leader that would pose as much a strong and legitimate leader than a foreigner. Ironically, I might add. We have been deprived of a nation, and we have found a new nation, but we have nothing to build with it."

"You want a nation... I cannot guarantee that."

"But there is a difference - whereas your state cannot guarantee such measures, other state will not guarantee it. This is still an experiment, so to speak, and under the Saint Lazare system, we will have the greatest chance for success."

"I see."

Roumillet nodded and stood from his chair. He looked out the window, to the port as a large freight vessel began dock at the harbor. "The greatest test will be this - if your people assent to my state, they will ratify this constitution."

"We can have this arranged."

"If your people do not ratify my constitution, I cannot accept your people. Such is the way of government, and the state."

"What if your people do not like your state?"

"I know that they like my state," he replied. "They helped me build it. My question is if your people will like it as well. They have until the end of this year to comply and ratify. That is all."

The Indian delegation stood and all bowed slightly, as they made their exit. Purposes unfolded and they realized that the battle was not yet over.

A referandum passed in the Grand Duchy, and it was an overwhelming majority - 87% of the voting population [which was 78% - the remainder being foreign workers and children] approved the constitution. The Indians were more uncertain, as the referandum began in India. They decided to embark on a campaign to make sense of the constitution - to encourage people to vote and furthermore to encourage people to ratify the constitution. They needed a majority of 3/4 to pass the constitution and thus become affiliated with the Grand Duchy.

They also talked with OIS operatives, working to help restablize India, encouraging them to help promote the constitutional referandum. General Aksay had the easiest job - he ordered all of his men to vote in favor of the referandum [as a joke], but owing to their history working with the Defense Minister of Saint Lazare, they all complied. As such, it was certain that the army of India supported the referandum - but there were far more civilians than soldiers, and it didn't look too promising.

It was only after the beginning of the referandum votes that General Aksay had met with the Indian Council. The OIS was nearly flawless in its efforts, saving the manpower that the Indian military would be normally required to commit. As such, he had tens of thousands of soldiers without anything to do. He looked enviously at the southern territories of Varsola, also looking to consolidate their position in Delhi. With this in mind, he presented plans to invade Varsola territories in India [only Chhattisgarh, Delhi, and Orissa], and they all reviewed the plans in awe [if not in fright].

"We cannot afford a war with Varsola!" Milikharna yelled. "We've barely got our state! What's to prevent any other state from invading us? There's no connection; and I'd doubt that Grand Duke Roumillet will like us going out to conquer new territories."

"It's only part of our general plans to restore and establish an Indian nation."

"Plans?" Dandewante asked. "I can't believe that you've had plans for a military scheme! This is a very bad idea, and if this does go out, we could lose support very quickly!"

"On the contrary, I don't think so. The Varsola Confederation is an isolationist society, and it gobbles up a great portion of the world. It's mostly a bunch of businesses running their own property around the world, centered in South America. If we go out to seek our manifest destiny, not too many people would care. In fact, some of the more conniving nations might join us."

Aksay seemed certain about this, but no one else agreed with him. "I'm telling you - a war is ready to erupt there. If we get in soon enough, we'll lose our opportunity to expand our nationalist base. Besides, we have more than enough support to begin campaigns tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow!" Dandewante cried. "You are out of your mind! We haven't even finished the ratifications, and you want to start tomorrow?"

"I'm not saying we should, but you know, it could certainly work in our favor. Our forces are prepared, and I know a few states that would love to join us in our ventures."

The Council didn't the idea any bit, but it seemed that they had no real power to stop Aksay. He had the loyalty of the Army, and it wasn't likely that he would surrender it so easily. In fact, most of their operations have been banked on his support and persuasion. If they didn't give their approval, he would likely go ahead deal with the invasions himself - a worse consequence. They still had to hold enough power to manage the future state in India, and if the military was out to grab the entire subcontinent, they would amount to nothing.

"We will consider the proposal. We cannot say we like the idea, but we can be persuaded. It will take time." Dandewante didn't believe her own words, but the best that she could do was to delay Aksay's actions. And it worked.

"I will await your approval."

The declaration of war from Kreynoria didn't go to well in India. The Council reconvened, having gone through half of the referandum.

"General Singha is now going to be impatient," Dr. Napur said. "I suggest that we make this as limited as we can afford to make this, because a militaristic power will bode well for our security."

"Well, a war is still war."

Dandewante then thought up a plan. "It wouldn't be a war, if our intention was to protect these people from another war. Wouldn't it?"

"If we go in with our army, it's an armed invasion. The Grand Duke will never like that."

Dandewante nodded. "But we all know that General Singha is not going to restrain his forces. There is going to be a war with Varsola, and we want to be certain that the actions of the military are not without checks from the civilian government. If they go without our approval, then we have lost all legitimacy. But if we concede, then we make ourselves to be belligerent nationalists. However, if we join the effort - in order to bring peace to the Indian people - we can skim off the belligerence hype without losing too much of our military autonomy."

Milikharna shook his head. "This is why civilian governments never succeed when the military makes the headways. We need to avoid this war at all costs."

Dandewante didn't feel that this was progressing well, so she decided to put her coup to the test. "Well, this is a democracy. Let the majority decide the best action. I say we offer our assistance to the war against Varsola, pacify General Singha's ambitions, and likewise maintain an honorable face in lieu of these events."

"As do I," echoed the other members, almost hauntingly in unison. Milikharna could feel that his voice was crowded out. "Well, if this is the decision of the Council, then we ought to draft a resolution...But let it be known that I never supported this war from the start."

"None of us did, but for some reason, we can see some merit it," Dandewante replied.

With that, the Indian Council drafted the following resolution:

"It is with a great desire to restore unity and peace to the Indian nation that the provisional Council of the Provinces of North Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and the city of TLS Delhi has declared a state of war upon the state of Varsola, in lieu of recent suspicions and likewise of concerns that a foreign invasion of Varsola territories wowuld be received with much damage to the local Indian population. As such, we will be willing to offer our assistance to those parties who have made it their will to express hostility against Varsola - such that the Indian provinces may be yet spared unnecessary excesses of war. Our forces will begin to attack promptly to begin operations to bring Varsola Indian territories under our rein."

General Singha received the notice, and immediately his artillery positions to commence fire upon Varsola. While away, Roumillet was resting in his quarters, hearing the first news that the to-be-declared new provinces of the Grand Duchy were already at war with another country, without even a formal state of union between the two lands. Lest it be known, he was not pleased to hear these reports.

By a slight majority [.1% over the required 75%], the referandum to ratify the Saint Lazare passes. As such, the people of India have assented to rule by the Grand Duchy. As of the current moment, the Grand Duke must confirm the ratification. It was this that the Indians feared - no formal communication between either the Grand Duchy or their friends in the MoD has left the Indian Council in a semi-state of fear. Their armed forces had yet to commence actual operations, but they needed the support that was due for their war. If the Grand Duch didn't support them, then their cause was almost assuredly lost.

OOC: So is it public yet?

OOC: So is it public yet?

[ooc: not yet... you guys know that there's an act of union going on, but it's not official yet... it ties directly into the Varsola campaign thingy now :p I love versatility... and I have yet to hear from Krey about his India thingy...]

The Grand Duke of Saint Lazare began a televised speech, addressing the recent problems in India:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, people and sovereigns of the world, friends and foes, we welcome you here tonight, as I begin to dictate the future of the Grand Duchy and perhaps of the world itself.

"As we are well aware, India has been the sight of numerous problems, stemming from the dissolution of the territory between numerous states, especially those of foreign origin. Whereas the Grand Duchy does not official condone such activity, we neither condemn it nor expect a justification for the maintenance of these traditions. In recent times, groups of the former TLS territories in India have banded together to begin a process to unify their nation into a single state, an ideal that is most honorable and respected.

"They have requested that the Grand Duchy serve as this state, as they cite its welcome domestic policies and its general aptitude for peaceful relations. I wholeheartedly agree with their citations and given their ready willingness to commit to an act of union, I would consent to their ascension to the Grand Duchy.

"However, even more recent events suggest that another war is looming in India, a war between states. The territories of Varsola have received the brunt of numerous hostile declarations, notably cumulating in a recent declaration by the people in India to invoke protection rights to the peoples inhabiting the Indian subcontinent. They have acted in such a manner - without having first consulted me - to unify portions of India in return for their cooperation in the war against Varsola. Whereas it is the official policy to remain outside conflict, to condemn its unrighteousness, and likewise to avoid inciting it, we have been put to a great test by the people of India, in whom I am not pleased.

"While their actions may be interpreted as hostile or belligerent, nonetheless, their intentions are indeed noble, in part of their quest to restore peace and stability to the India. While I do not support their war, I support their aims for peace and stability. As such, I am formally admitting the Indian provinces into the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare, under the territorial designation of the Viceroyalty of Delhi. As soon as possible, I will be visiting the Indian territories, to review what improvements need to be made and how our government can begin extending its authority into these territories. I have yet to appoint a governor of the viceroyalty, but given the time constraints, I will announce it very soon.

"This declaration is by no measure a declaration of war by the Grand Duchy upon the territories of Varsola - however, Indian forces have been thoroughly convinces of its objectives, and therefore the Grand Duchy shall not inhibit any of its actions, as long as their actions are within reason. In addition, we shall begin discussions with the Council to determine how best to resolve this situation."

The Indian Revelations nears an end; where it shall thence be is left for the future to decide.

Official Communique
To: The Grand Duke of Saint Lazare
Fr: The Emperor of Layarteb
Re: Indian Campaign Success

The Empire would like to publicly acknowledge and congratulate the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare on their victory in India, which not only has led to peace in the region but also allowed a burgeoning and great land to expand. Thrive we hope you shall; the Empire will always be a friend to the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare.

The Emperor

Official Communique
TO: The Grand Duke of Saint Lazare
FROM: Prime Minister Thomas Rothsky of Cotland
SUBJECT: Indian Campaign Success

Dear sir,

Please allow me to convey my congratulations to not only yourself, but also to the entirety of Saint Lazare. This campaign that has just ended in victory to Saint Lazare has ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity for the region, and helped to further stabilize the world. The Realm commends your actions.

As a show of support and friendship, we also offer our assistance in rebuilding and modernizing the Indian territories.
.
Encrypted Communique
Grand Duke's Eyes Only

The Realm is equally concerned with the events transpiring in India with regards to the Varsola incident, and offers clandestine military support for the Viceroyalty of Dehli. We are prepared to send a number of highly specialized advisors from our Special Forces to train and assist whatever military forces you may have in India to be prepared for conflict, should it arrive. We can also send arms and munitions to support your soldiers in India.

Thomas Rothsky

Official Communique
To: The Grand Duke of Saint Lazare
Fr: The Emperor of Layarteb
Re: Indian Campaign Success

The Empire would like to publicly acknowledge and congratulate the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare on their victory in India, which not only has led to peace in the region but also allowed a burgeoning and great land to expand. Thrive we hope you shall; the Empire will always be a friend to the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare.

The Emperor

From the desk of His Serene Highness, the Grand Duke of Saint Lazare:

We welcome the acknowledgement of the advances in India. While I have not yet conclusively decided that a war with Varsola is necessary or even worthwhile, it seems quite adamant that the people in India have decided it for themselves. As such we have heard the news of the Empire's own efforts to limit the stretch of what appears to be a corrupt string of corporations that wish to immobilize the global economy and furthermore incite the world into global war. I don't find Varsola agreeable, but I don't wish to start a war with them. Therefore, along with the wills of my people in India, we wish the best of luck in Varsola, and we hope that the conflict will prove painless and quick.

Albert Roumillet,
Grand-Duc de Saint Lazare, Souverain du Vice-Royaume de Delhi

Official Communique
TO: The Grand Duke of Saint Lazare
FROM: Prime Minister Thomas Rothsky of Cotland
SUBJECT: Indian Campaign Success

Dear sir,

Please allow me to convey my congratulations to not only yourself, but also to the entirety of Saint Lazare. This campaign that has just ended in victory to Saint Lazare has ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity for the region, and helped to further stabilize the world. The Realm commends your actions.

As a show of support and friendship, we also offer our assistance in rebuilding and modernizing the Indian territories.

The Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare welcomes these acknowledgements from our devoted ally. While the victory was not of Lazare, per se, the resolve of the people of India has proven that they are worthy subjects of the Grand Duchy and their efforts to rebuild their land will not be in vain. However, we can always have assistance, and any help would be most welcome.

Encrypted Communique
Grand Duke's Eyes Only

The Realm is equally concerned with the events transpiring in India with regards to the Varsola incident, and offers clandestine military support for the Viceroyalty of Dehli. We are prepared to send a number of highly specialized advisors from our Special Forces to train and assist whatever military forces you may have in India to be prepared for conflict, should it arrive. We can also send arms and munitions to support your soldiers in India.

Thomas Rothsky

SIC reply:

I have discussed this issue with my Ministry of Defense, and furthermore with those presiding in the Provisional Indian Council. They have unanimously consented to this proposal, and as such, we welcome any Cottish assistance that the Realm is willing to offer. Although the conflict is a distance away, we would encourage your government to continue its dealing with the central goverrnment in Saint Lazare, rather than the provisional government in Delhi, as they neither have the legitimacy nor the authority to deal with foreign policies. We appreciate this, and hope that all operations will be successful with limited bloodshed.

Albert Roumillet,
Grand-Duc de Saint Lazare, Souverain du Vice-Royaume de Delhi

The following fax was sent to the Grand Duke, with markings signalling to anyone that the information was for the eyes of the Grand Duke only.

DEFENSE MINISTRY, REALM OF COTLAND
ENCRYPTION YELLOW-4
EYES ONLY
Expeditionary Task Force 'Farris'

Role: Train and assist soldiers of the Saint Lazare Army in India in conventional and unconventional warfare (hereunder weaponry, tactics, etc).
Mandate: Memorandum of Understanding between the Realm of Cotland and the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare.

Ground Detachment
2. Company, 2. Battalion, 4. Special Operations Group
Personnel (Op.Det.A): 72
Personnel (Op.Det.B): 12
3. Company, 2. Battalion, 4. Special Operations Group
Personnel (Op.Det.A): 72
Personnel (Op.Det.B): 12
Detachment, 2., 3., 5. Department, FO/E
Personnel: 50
Vehicles
M15A4 DPV: 24
M36A1 Nidaros APC: 8
M38A1 CTLAV: 48
M100 MTV: 24
Air Detachment
Special Operations Helicopter Squadrons 6 and 12
Personnel: 888
H-40/J Little Bird: 12
H-43/T Pave Hawk: 36
Special Operations Aviation Squadrons 4 and 12
Personnel: 432
MC-60/A Combat Talon III: 8
MA-61/A Spooky: 4
MC-62/A Combat Shadow II: 4
C-12/J Super Hercules: 6

The aircraft carrying the first teams that would form the Expeditionary Task Force codenamed Farris touched down at the airbase in Chattisgahr province that the Cottish special forces were going to use as their base of operations for the duration of the mission. Inside the four Combat Talon IIIs, the men were cramped in between crates and pallets of all kinds of equipment and supplies required to sustain operations here. Until recently, this area was a warzone, so the Cots took no chances, having their carbines handily slinged on their backs as they exited the aircraft and into the heat that was India. The men were all dressed in desert-style uniforms, having deployed from Egypt, something which clashed with the green surroundings. Fortunately, they could get more appropriate uniforms airlifted in as time went on. The two hundred men were put to work quickly, establishing a perimeter in what the men already called the Cottish corner. Five large hangars and a number of smaller buildings were available, of which three of the hangars would be turned into barracks for the 1,538 men that would make up Farris. A perimeter was established, and a patrol cycle made. The five hangars and the massive tarmac available for the Cots was more than sufficient for now, but they would have to conduct a few reconnaissance patrols to find a suitable area for shooting practice, etc. That could wait though. For now, the Cots had to establish the camp. It would be operational by the end of the week, at which time the force should be fully assembled and operational. They hoped to start training Indian soldiers on Monday.

Encrypted Communique
To: Grand Duke of Saint Lazare
Fr: The Emperor of Layarteb
Re: Arms

The Empire of Layarteb is concerned that rebels in India will be able to effectively fight Saint Lazarian forces. After a war, especially one such as this, an invading army is its most vulnerable. In order to maintain the status quo, the Empire will allocate arms shipments to the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare if they are needed.

The Emperor of Layarteb

SIC reply:

The Indian delegation has reviewed this proposals and has accepted them. As such, I authorize your government to send arms and supplies to the Indian army. We hope that these efforts are aimed at making peace in India than to militarize the region, but we will not question your genuine generosity.

Albert Roumillet,
Grand-Duc de Saint Lazare, Souverain du Vice-Royaume de Delhi



SIC advances: With Cottish aid, soldiers began to construct a make-shift airbase, from which both Cottish and Indian aerial operations could then commence.

And the Indians patiently await word from the fronts...

News coming from the two provinces:

Mumbai - Firefights erupting from Safehaven loyalists and Indian Nationalists erupted to little surprise today. In the city, a number of roads were blocked by loyalist forces, seeking maintain authority in the city, although the Nationalists were increasingly gaining ground. Taking the example of the newly established republican Viceroyalty of Delhi, the citizens of Mumbai took to arms, hoping to get support from Delhi. Casualty reports have been somewhat under-reported, but figures place Loyalists at 3000 dead, and Nationalists at 2500 dead.

Andhra Pradesh - Similar stories came this province, although Safehaven Loyalists were more in control, owing to the disorganized nature of the National Forces. The Loyalists have urged the government in Delhi to stay out of their affairs, while threatening to turn the situation into full-fledged war. The Indian Council has yet to comment on these events.

The Indian Council - still awaiting word on the Varsola campaign - has given General Singha approval to intercede on the behalf of the Nationalists in Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh. A force of 100,000 has been prepared to join efforts in Mumbai, albeit by long means. The Loyalist Forces have subsequently frowned upon the Council's actions and thereby declared a state of war between their forces and the Viceroyalty of Delhi.

The news reached the Grand Duke in Saint Lazare, who most unsatisfactorily declared the following sentiments:

"Whereas the Grand Duchy cannot accept the full brunt of responsibility of the actions of our Indian territories, we cannot tolerate the declaration of war by a rogue faction, however prominent it may be or may have been, upon our people. Henceforth, the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare finds herself at war with the Remnant forces of Safehaven."

The declaration was well received in Delhi, where continuing campaigns elsewhere were overwhelming the current state of affairs in India.

A survey of forces currently involved in Mumbai/Andhra Pradesh:

35,000 local militia forces in Mumbai
65,000 local militia forces in Andhra Pradesh

100,000 pledged troops from The Viceroyalty of Delhi [not yet engaged]

Opposed by 250,000 Safehaven forces, split between the two territories.

Success in Mumbai has come a relatively little cost, owing to the relative superiority of Nationalist forces. However, Loyalist forces in Andhra Pradesh have successfully forced Nationalist forces to vacate into hiding and guerilla warfare. While the Grand Duchy had formally declared war upon the Safehaven remnants, there was little that either the GD or the Indians could do at this point, as Andhra Pradesh was isolated and the GD navy wasn't equipped to handle a long distance battle. Nonetheless, it seemed quite apparent that Safehaven remnants would not be able to make a long stand in Mumbai, which would cut off the majority of their economic strength - already their political strength was unable to handle the domestic situation. In due time, the Indians could make their demands, but General Singha felt that the best solution was to bomb the hell out of their forces - "A state without an army cannot negotiate with another state that has one."

The developments were turning out to be very nice for the Indian Council - the Eurasian Republics had generously ceded a massive chunk of autonomous territory to the Viceroyalty, strengthening their position and their likewise friendly relations. There was already so much that the Eurasians had already done for the fledging government - the on-going territorial rights to travel across Eurasian territory, in addition to tacit military support for their operations.

However, no matter how much the Eurasian Government could help, there was little hope for the Nationalists in Andhra Pradesh, especially at this point. The only viable option would be to cross wide expanses of hostile territory or by ships, which would prove to be equally difficult, owing to the small size of the Ducal Fleet. Nonetheless, it would seem that the effort was without much hope, save in one form...

The Indian Council convened to discuss the current situation, surrounding the defacto President of the Council - Priya Dandewante. They discussed the situation overall, including the impasse with the Eurasian Republics and General Singha's increasing autonomy as a military commander. They resolved on a few things:

"Having gained control of Mumbai from Safehaven Forces, we will begin coordinated air strikes against the renegade positions in Andhra Pradesh. Our forces have been driven underground by the Loyalist Forces there, and while our efforts are likely to pass successfully, we cannot tolerate a long conflict with the Loyalist forces. Already the declaration of war by the Grand Duchy shows their commitment to the preservation of the Indian Nation - however, they can do very little. It seems that we need to recruit the aid of the world to help our forces in Andhra Pradesh. Either that, we must commence our attack on Varsolan Chhatisgarh Province and link up with them. Until then, we ought to call to the Duchy to press their allies to offer something in the way of military support in Andhra Pradesh or otherwise risk to elongate this conflict more than necessary."

"We can contact the Realm of Cotland - they already have a military force established here, helping to establish an air force base and other things critical to our self-defense."

"Cotland is a viable option - do we agree to contact their government?"

A unanimous aye resounded...

Dandewante nodded and noted it in her records. She turned to the advisors and then asked them collectively about Singha: "What can we do to curtail his growing authority? He is already popular with the soldiers, and besides that, dismissing him would be removing a man of valuable strategic knowledge. But we cannot allow him to continue ruling the military the way that he has already done so in recent actions."

"I say we wait until after this is all over to dispose of him."

"We cannot do that," Dandewante replied. "He is a valuable man, and such an action is not meritorious. Besides, killing him will give his presence more legitimacy and we might have a graver crisis on our hands."

Just then, Dr. Kaur stuck out an idea: "The thing we need is to separate him from the army and the people - if we can manage to convince him to go to Saint Lazare as part of our military liaison detachment, we could accomplish all of our necessary objectives and keep him at the same time. I think that this idea is the best solution since it clearly doesn't dispute his authority, and it is something that we can convince the Grand Duke to concede."

"That is a very good idea - all those in favor of that idea."

Nearly unanimous - but the majority was clearly present and the Indian Council proceeded on its way with its other affairs...

Military Review on the Status of the Viceroyalty of Delhi

Submitted by Request to Grand Duke Albert Roumillet

The largest armed contingent involved in the pacification of Indian territories is primarily settled in Chhattisgarh Province, where the majority of the Provisional Government is situated. Troops numbering at about 50,000 are currently engaged in Varsolan Delhi, in an effort to both controlling rioting and seize the city from Varsolan control. Around 10,000 are currently stationed in Mumbai, to patrol the city and secure it from Safehaven "Loyalist" Forces. Everywhere else is at calm, with a notable exception in Andhra Pradesh, which while officially asserted to be a Crown Province of the Viceroyalty, remains largely under Safehaven control.

The majority of the armed forces in India are militia troops, numbering at about 250,000. None of these troops are officially recruited members of the Armed Forces of the Grand Duchy and are of little concern to strategy and command. However, owing to the nature of militias, it may be in our best interest to manage and control these militias, which spontaneously organize and disband at the wills of those who serve in these units. While often a valuable source of support and reserves, militia are unpredictable and have on numerous occasions threatened the security of our armed forces operating, both those of the Viceroyalty's forces and those of the Sovereign Forces. The Forces of the Viceroyalty, under the nominal command of General Aksay Singha, number at about 120,000 troops. While not the top-class of military personnel, these troops have much experience and discipline and countless records of outstanding performance in combat. Their small size also allows their forces to remain well-furnished and supplied. Our principal problem with the Viceroyalty's forces is that the only method of supply and resupply must pass through Eurasian territory - which has been gracious enough to allow our forces limited free passage over their territory. There have been some incidents, but none of these have caused much alarm in either the Eurasian Republic or in India. For that reason, the Grand Duchy should focus its attention in consolidating its territories in India, to make its domestic transportation networks more self-sufficient. In addition, we strongly suggest a revision of the Grand Duchy's armed forces, among other revisions to occur once the conflict in India settles to a more pleasant status.

As of the current moment, the status of our affiliated forces ["Nationalists"] in Andhra Pradesh cannot be made readily available, owing to the conflict in the Province. Estimates suggest that our forces number at 20,000, dispersed across the entire province, opposed to the Safehaven forces numbering at about 150,000. Once we received official aid from Cotland, we will be able to commence operations there.

Ministre de Defence Maréchal Charles de Rocquefort

This report was reviewed, and the Grand Duke continued his consultations with his aides. Despite being on vacation, this war would let him rest, and as such, he felt sorrowful to leave his newly-wed alone while he dealt with the war.

General Aksay has ordered the commencement of military combat operations into Varsolan Indian, with fighting still continuing in Delhi. As of this present moment, ground combat operations have commenced against Orissa and South Chhatisggarh, to bring these territories under the reign of the Viceroyalty. His extensive campaign includes a break-out into Andhra Pradesh, which has since the Safehaven collapse been operating under loyalist forces. There were speculative plans to attack Maharashtra as well, but Singha was given specific orders to leave this province out until further notice.

After steady artillery bombardments for the past months, the ground attack was quick to seize an advantage and using its current stockpile of armaments, it was making progress despite the modernized Varsolan force. The enemy forces lacked a clear sense of military order, although each unit was equally capable of sustaining and inflicting heavy damage. The advance on the provincial capital of Raipur was swift, almost unexpected.

Casualties for the Indian side in the assault range from 1500 to 2500, mostly in Delhi. The majority of these are fatalities and/or unlikely to return to battle soon.

Off the coast of the Indian port specified by the Lazares, several large grey steel hulls steamed at near to twenty knots, escorted by a substantial escort force of more than thirty escort vessels in the cruiser, destroyer and frigate classes, and supported by several fleet auxiliaries, two battlecruisers with mightly 203mm cannons, an aircraft carrier in the Odin-I class with more than one hundred and twenty combat aircraft aboard, and the most impressive piece of naval engineering, the Ormen Lange class battleship. This 457+ meter behemoth of a battleship was brizzling with mightly 510mm primary cannons, 155mm secondary cannons and a wide array of missiles, torpedoes and what-not. The twelve 510mm cannons could bring more than 125 tons of munitions over the enemy target in a minue, and were more than sufficient to destroy even the most heavily fortified position with a salvo. All of the vessels were manned by Cottish sailors, and the ships were operating under the Cottish colors, something which would make people think twice before attacking them. Not that an attack was likely to be successful though, with the amount of CIWS and defensive armament and armour the small armada bolstered.

The Royal Cottish Navy's 24. Amphibious Task Force which operated out of Kerala Province on the other side of India had arrived and in force!

Off the coast of the Indian port specified by the Lazares, several large grey steel hulls steamed at near to twenty knots, escorted by a substantial escort force of more than thirty escort vessels in the cruiser, destroyer and frigate classes, and supported by several fleet auxiliaries, two battlecruisers with mightly 203mm cannons, an aircraft carrier in the Odin-I class with more than one hundred and twenty combat aircraft aboard, and the most impressive piece of naval engineering, the Ormen Lange class battleship. This 457+ meter behemoth of a battleship was brizzling with mightly 510mm primary cannons, 155mm secondary cannons and a wide array of missiles, torpedoes and what-not. The twelve 510mm cannons could bring more than 125 tons of munitions over the enemy target in a minue, and were more than sufficient to destroy even the most heavily fortified position with a salvo. All of the vessels were manned by Cottish sailors, and the ships were operating under the Cottish colors, something which would make people think twice before attacking them. Not that an attack was likely to be successful though, with the amount of CIWS and defensive armament and armour the small armada bolstered.

The Royal Cottish Navy's 24. Amphibious Task Force which operated out of Kerala Province on the other side of India had arrived and in force!

The arrival of Cottish support in India was welcome, even if war with Varsola was already around the bend. General Singha's forces began to make radio contact with Cottish forces in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, hoping that the combined ground and naval offensives will effectively disable the resistance of both Safehaven Loyalist forces and those of Varsolan renegades. The Grand Duchy was mobilizing its own naval flotilla, based in Saint Lazare, expected to arrive through Cottish free territory in Suez by the week's end. It would a familiar sight for Cottish soldiers, as the entirety of the Grand Duchy's fleet was built in Cotland. But nonetheless, as the Saint Lazare was fully mobilized and set for action, their already present support from Cotland would likely be the lasting memory for this campaign, as Indian regular forces began to seize towns in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, as well as Orissa. Raipur was firmly under their control, and the road networks were likewise patrolled by Saint Lazare forces. In conjunction with these efforts, OIS forces helped the Grand Duchy recover humanitarian andd welfarre services to those who endured the occupation, the hostility, and the scourge of enemy forces.

The sum of these efforts was helping to ease the assimilation of enemy territory in India. An estimate rated the effective control of the Grand Duchy to be about 54% in South Chhattisgarh, 23% in Andhra Pradesh, and 38% in Orissa. The campaign in Delhi was also proceeding very well, although progress there was much more difficult. Varsolan resistance was intense at times, but Saint Lazare forces would manage the challenges, as the siege was proving to wear Varsolan forces - in due time, they would surrender.

Operations status:

Delhi - recovered and under occupation - resistance is stiff in parts, but none of the factions are united or coordinated

South Chattisgarh - mostly occupied; major roads and population centers are secured, although the western frontier with Maharashtra remains open to Varsolan troops.

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad has fallen to Indian forces, in a forceful drive by Singha's personal army; portions of the country of the province are likewise secured by Indian forces - Cottish forces have secured the majority of the coastline and are making in-roads to advance farther into the interior - Nationalist militias in hiding have come out to join the war effort against Safehaven Loyalists.

Orissa - Effectively, the province is occupied, as Indian and Cottish troops have frequently crossed lines, isolating several pockets of Varsolan resistance forces.


Chairperson of the Indian Council Priya Dandewante has announced intentions to open the Viceroyalty to plebscite elections and decide the future government of the Viceroyalty, as promised to the Grand Duke a few years ago. While speaking of these intentions, elements of the Grand Duke's Fleet arrived in Mumbai, to support Cottish operations in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

Optimistic conclusions suggest that the conflict can be over by the end of the year, although nearly all agree that the assimilation of these provinces will prove to be the largest gamble at the moment.

The territory in question was taking longer than expected to rein under control. Of course, the terrain was inhibiting, but nonetheless, it was more the lackadaisical response by encroaching Indian forces. With Delhi under control, more time was being devoted to securing political control of the Council, and General Singha seemed very much in the fight. He wasn't out to coup the civilian government, but he wanted as much authority in managing its affairs, because he did not want to lose out the sovereignty of this land for which I he had striven for much of his lifetime. He would not let pacificism rule his country.

As such, local militias were beginning to spring up in his name, and the Indian Council grew increasingly weary of his influence. They decided that he might need to be removed more quickly than was anticipated - and they direly needed him to finish his campaigns. Perhaps it was part of his move to gain control of the Council. Use it as a bargaining chip - after all, the true question was not if the Indians would prevail, but rather when. South Chattisgarh was still heavily contested on its border with Maharashtra [although news of a Kreynorian invasion helped to relieve the tensions there]. Andhra Pradesh wass nearly occupied, and Orissa was entirely pacified. In a sum, the military objectives were complete - but the civilian project had yet to begin.

Operations status:

Delhi - nearly completely assimilated.

South Chattisgarh - The province is still heavily contested in the western corridor, which is acting as a safe haven for SafeHaven troops.

Andhra Pradesh - The province is still heavily contested in the western corridor, which is acting as a safe haven for SafeHaven troops; the remainder is strongly within Saint Lazare authority.

Orissa - Saint Lazare Forces, in conjunction with Cottish Royal Marines, effectively control this province.

Dandewante reviewed the status reports, some with anxiety, others with pleasure. The longer that Singha stayed in India, the more likely he was going to garner enough support to maintain his authoritative presence even in absentia. Singha was becoming the new threat - a threat that she knew would compromise the progress thusfar made. Of course, she knew that Singha only means well with his militaristic ambitions. He wants a unified Indian state, the same goal that the majority of Indians have likewise sought. However, she maintains a base of pragmatism - India will not become a unified state in their lifetime. But they have sown the seeds, and it will eventually see one ruler. In the meantime, she could acquiesce to having multiple stable leaders in India. Singha was completely opposite - he wanted one leader now.

No doubt, even as she pondered how to get him back to Saint Lazare in time, he was plotting to utilize the resources available to him to plan the conquest of India. Some part of her felt that General Singha was intentionally delaying the war in India, just to gain support on the ground. He was immensely popular - he probably still could hold some leeway in the Capital, but nonetheless, it was necessary to get the man from home. If he remained, a new war would break out, and it would not benefit anyone. It was awkward to think that the threat could become an internal threat. But nonetheless, she realized that it was more real than it could have ever been imagined. Singha was a commanding person. Given the opportunity, he would lead the unification of India by force, and more than likely he would appoint himself the ruler of India by some virtue of his charismatic character. He was Caesar; and if things kept to this way, she realized that she would need to become faithful Brutus.

General Singha pondered his options. His advisors suggested that the civilian government in Delhi was planning a civilian coup. How? He didn't know. But it still remained - the two allies now were opposed to the other. It wasn't as if he didn't expect resistance to his methodology, but he hadn't anticipated a stronger and perhaps more intelligent reply to his methods.

Nonetheless, he was proceeding in India as he had planned. The delays on all fronts were cementing his popularity with the population, and it would soon be politically impossible to remove him - by force or otherwise.

The Indian Council decided to convene to discuss the problem with General Singha.

"We must declare that the situation in India is resolved, and get Singha out of here," declared Anand Milikharna.

"Let's stop arguing about that - we've already set upon that course of action," Dandewante said. "How will we convince General Singha to get out of India?"

"Doesn't he have a job waiting for him back in Saint Lazare?"

"That's not going to convince him too much. Besides that, he probably has found himself a replacement to take charge of the Indian forces when he leaves this place. So we will still need to deal with his presence in India. The question is how."

"Well, for a person who says that we've already decided on an action, it seems we're still just as stuck with the same question. Why not kill him and be done with his silent antics?"

"Kill him and we make him a martyr," Dandewante replied. "We need a hero, not a saint. But this is what we must decide, because by the end of this week, I will stand in front of the world and tell them that India is in peace once again - I do not want to choke my words once Singha starts a military conquest of some other territory. Is this understood?"

The Council rose uniformly and agreed. With those simple words, they left for their personal quarters to ponder on the best mode of action.

***PUBLIC DECLARATION FROM THE INDIAN COUNCIL IN DELHI***

"I, interim President of the Indian Council - Priya Dandewante - hereby declare the efforts of the armed forces of Saint Lazare, of the Viceroyalty of Delhi, and of the Realm of Cotland to be complete in the provinces of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and the city of Delhi to be complete and thorough. The combined efforts of these three forces have led to a massive improvement in the living standards for millions of Indians, and this standard shall be the foundation from which we build the future of India. Our forces are continuing to monitor the situation in unmonitored areas for the last remaining survivors, to maintain this peace we have won. We must commend the efforts of General Aksay Singha for his comprehension of the efforts required to rein in the enemy forces. In part to his tactical skill, we have seen a rapid advance in our position, from a mere civilian collective set against the tyrannies of Nepalese forces to an internationally recognized government that receives the respect of every reputable state in the world, and has the respect of its people. We have a well organized force that is set to defend us from further aggression, in part of our new mutual relationship with the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare.

"On behalf of the Indian Council, I come to declare this to the world, and affirm that India is in capable hands once again, and that we have begun a new age, with its ideals set in peace and prosperity. We have every confidence that the world will support us in our objectives and we wish all of our friends a very great new year!"

===


Off the camera, she returned to the Council, in anticipation of their reaction. They all seemed pleased. "As always, you managed the crowds with a suave."

Dandewante nodded. "Then let us hope that our little ploy works against Singha."

In the weeks since the declaration was effected, a letter came to General Singha indicating a request by the Grand Duchy to have his services better placed in Europe than in India. His mind knew the plot, but he couldn't comprehend how they had managed to convince the Ministry of Defense to authorize the relocation.

In their place, the Indian Council celebrated the last steps Singha made to his plane as it prepared for Saint Lazare. But only Dandewante could comprehend that there was more to this game than simply India. The board was larger now, and the threat equally present. She turned to her confidents - what would they think?

"Is India ready for democracy?"

"It is, of course! We must uphold our values and get our minds to settle on the priceless freedom that we have won."

"Singha will still remain a threat. If democracy is our way, that is," Dandewante replied.

"What do mean, President?"

"Give it ten years - Singha will retire, and his years of service in Saint Lazare will be over. And after that, he will form a party, and rouse the nationalist sentiments. We have not removed Singha from power; we have only delayed it, and perhaps we sweeten the deal a little bit. He will certainly learned the ethics of politics in Europe, and he will return a seasoned man. And with that on my mind, India is not safe while he is alive."

"India is never safe, my Lady. Why should it change if he is dead?"

"True..."

In the Saint Lazare-held India, the Cottish forces that had been deployed to assist the Lazare allies of the Realm were transitioning into a peacekeeping force. The unit that had operated in Saint Lazare was the 18. Marine Division, totalling a total of 8,877 Royal Marines. These soldiers were now being transitioned into camps throughout the area, each housing one of the eight infantry battalions with a large main base housing the support element and command element, providing logistical support for the Royal Marines, and secretly serving as the base of operations for the Cottish special forces that had been deployed to the area. The location of these bases were being closely discussed and agreed upon with the Lazare authorities, with the Cottish abiding by the Lazare requests as far as it didn't go against the safety of the battle-hardened Royal Marines.

Singha walked on the plane, set to leave Delhi for Saint Lazare. It was a forlorn celebration - he knew why he was going, and he didn't like it at all. Of course, he could always manage contingency plans from his new base of operations. Unlike civilians, military commands were especially mobile, and thus he was just as effective reigning military control from Saint Lazare, as he was from Delhi.

But seeing this moment, he came to realize an inadvertent opportunity, and decided to submit to it - it was a better contingency plan than what he was originally planning, and it would achieve the same goals.


Dandewante watched the plane leave India, pondering whose move was next in this game. With luck, she would be able to make it before Singha could start up again.

General Singha began his first day work, as an attaché to the Ministry of Defense for the Affairs of the forces of the Viceroyalty of Delhi. He exercised very little power in the way of manipulating the government, but having worked with the Minister of Defense, he found that it would be easier to control the Indian armed forces. But that wouldn't be all to do - after all, he was at the center of the government. He had much more authority oozing from it, and it was begging for his intervention.

[ooc: I'm waiting for an opportune moment to actually do something with this, but rest assured!!! This will become more interesting than the waiting game I'm making this out to be...]

General Singha was pleased to see that his efforts in India were starting to come to fruition. With the recent decree to bring personnel from India back to Saint Lazare, his plans could be better organized from the Grand Duchy itself, and likewise, his ultimate objective would be finally accomplished. He had spent the greater portion of his stay in Saint Lazare, cementing new allies and finding support for his cause [conveniently unknown to those who assented to his decisions]. And very soon, the hegemony that he had won would get him his best chance to liberating the whole of India.


Meanwhile, in Delhi, Dandewante was struggling with the concepts of the new democracy in India. Having implemented the policies, she was debating whether opening the political process in India was appropriate, despite Singha's outstanding reputation still. She consulted her colleagues, and finally gave a due date.

"Elections will commence in one week. At the end of the month, we will have collected all votes and will open Lazare India to democratic regency."

And even as she spoke these things, doubt lingered in her mind.

As promised, the elections began on the dial within a week, and Dandewante was keen to run as the primary candidate. Fortunately for her, Singha was a career military officer - he could not run for office without first retiring. And the list of opponents was limited and uncontentious. And besides all of the disadvantages that others possessed, Dandewante had clear indications of being someone could who lead India in the right direction. It was more a matter of how many people would vote than how many would vote for her.

The campaign to get votes was extending far out and wide, when Dandewante received word from one of her advisors. "General Singha is making too many friends in the capital."

"How so?"

"He seems to be a magnet of friendship in Saint Lazare. Just recently, the Ministry of Defense held its annual ball, and he was the keynote speaker. That alone might not be much, but his speech detailed his ambitions to make India safer - and for us, that means aggrandizement. Either no one seemed to notice his twist or no one cared enough to concern with his words. And if that wasn't the worst of it, his policies for Indian defense are adopting as principal policy for the Ministry of Defense - all of these aim to bring war to unify India under one banner."

"General Singha is really trying to make war, isn't he?"

"That may be only part of the story," the advisor said. "Rumors - and only rumors - have begun to surface concerning a coup plot. No one knows who started, and no one knows if it's just a good idea or if it's sincere. In any case, people suspect that the coup talks began in the MoD."

"Singha," Dandewante replied. "Only he would conceive of such a thing."

"Well, he's the only person of whom we know, and while I personally wouldn't take it as a far stride from his ambitions, I can't find any evidence to support his claims. Nonetheless, I'd bet to find him on the wagon."

"We have to take of him before he becomes a worse problem. An accident."

"I've been thinking about how to make it a legal intersection - if we can connect General Singha to the coup plot, we'd have him in a grind, without risking less volatile methods."

"We will still need a back-up plan, but continue with that. If it's clean, we'll do it. But if he becomes too powerful even in Saint Lazare, then he will threaten the security of both the Grand Duchy and the Viceroyalty. We cannot allow that to happen."

"Yes, Madame President."

"I'm not yet President..."

"Well, don't delude yourself - you are the only candidate worthy to becoming President of Delhi."

With that remark, the advisor made his way back, leaving Dandewante somewhat more assured of the political situation in India, but ever more so concerned about Singha's growing threat from the capital. They would need to take action sooner than anticipated.

Silence had befallen the situation in India - reconstruction had been largely smooth although slow. The wealth of the Grand Duchy had been tapped and its extreme threshold was nearing. Dandewante had other fears though - for the longest time, the General Singha had amassed friends from all sorts of places in Saint Lazare, and it was becoming obvious that he was still a danger to India, even so far away. But the method was beyond all perception - would he strike for a political swipe? Would he be brash? How would he reply?

Since her election, she had worked to making India forget Singha as the hero and more as the ends to the means.


And all the more important - the Grand Duke had announced his intention to visit India. Singha would likely tag along - it was his home, and the Grand Duke had enough advisors to trust the affairs of the Grand Duchy to Singha, especially when it came to India. Perhaps, she needed to play the cards.

"Madame President, what is it that you need?"

"Call a meeting with the Ministers of the Viceroyalty. I need to find a person to go to Saint Lazare."

The Grand Duke was making his visit to the Viceroyalty of Delhi - by the end of this week. Dandewante had convened with her comrades from the Revolutions in the Civilian Council. They had already met to decide if to send anyone to Saint Lazare - the strategy decided was "Let Singha make the first move."

It didn't go too well with Dandewante, but there were merits to that strategy. What if Singha had indeed lost all ambition to win control over India? After all, the royal itinerary for the Grand Duke's visit was without General Singha or his knnown allies in the government. Perhaps, there was more to General Singha's plot than simply India.

"Gentlemen, we must decide what to do about General Singha," Dandewante announced. "He is a wily character, and there have arisen doubts of his true ambitions in India."

"I don't doubt it any one bit," yelled another man.

"Well, we must decide in Council if his threat is large enough to pose any reason for a deterrence against him."

"While his influence might have diminished, his threat remains large enough to consider," Milikharna said. "Let us remember that he started the Varsola war. He has been impatient before, but the tests of time have made him patient again - we must not let that go by so easily."

"True," Dandewante said, acknowledging his comments. "What threats does Singha present? He is no longer in command of the army. India continues to grow more prosperous. In fact, we are about ready to commence domestic production of crops and light industries. If he tries to instill an aggressive war, he will become unpopular."

"He has waited too long. We are in control and there is no war that will convince anyone to follow Singha."

"Again - Singha has matured to bigger and better prospects." A large looming man stood from the back of the table and tossed papers onto the table. On it were the contents of 720 signatures and a declaration of intent to commit a coup. Singha's name was upon it.

"Singha has joined a coup to overthrow the government in Saint Lazare?" Dandewante asked, certain that she already knew the answer.

"Correction: Singha is the coup."

News of the coup reached throughout the government in Saint Lazare. The aged Roumillet looked at the incriminating document, viewing a list of some of the most honored Lazare officials in the realm. He eyed it with disbelief.

"We are certain of this?" he said, with an aged glare upon it.

"We are, your Majesty."

"What are we to do about this?"

"We must call them to justice - either recant their call to coup or charge them with treason."

"I want to know their grievances first, send them to me individually."

"Yes, your Majesty."

The Grand Duke had reviewed all of the persons, except for one - General Akshay Singha. He was the only person to come directly from the Viceroyalty, and it seemed that he was at the source of these ideas for a coup. The General entered the room, clean and well-arranged. He sat comfortably at the head of the desk and waited for the Grand Duke to speak.

"General," the Grand Duke said with a firm and resolute voice of many years. "I have received notice that you are among those that seek to overturn my reign. Is this true?"

"It is."

"You admit it without any fear?"

"I do."

"Why?" Roumillet spoke, wondering what conviction had grasped the General.

"Ambition. That is the simplest word I can offer."

"There is nothing with me then? Only that I stand in your way to achieve power in the Duchy?"

"Perhaps. My true ambition is India, but the Viceroyalty ousted me. As Napoleon left his homeland in Corsica to make France his new home, so shall I do the same."

"Napoleon's coup was bloodless. Should I have anticipated much the same from you?"

"Yes. But things have changed. You know and I know that you know. This is not good for us, because I cannot continue the same plan as was anticipated before."

Roumillet sat there shocked to hear these words. "You organized the coup? You are the one at the root of all of this?"

"Of course. Whose loyalty do you not command if not mine? I am Indian, and my home is India. I aim for India, not for Saint Lazare."

"Perhaps it was a mistake to grant India protection?"

"For you it was," Singha replied. "But we shall continue the plan, and it will be successful. You shall know for yourself before it is done."

"And how shall it end for the both of us?" Roumillet asked.

"You shall be dead, and I commanding your realm."

With that, the General pulled out his pistol and shot a straight shot at the Grand Duke's head. Outside, conspirators joined him as they took the body out to the courtyard and they burned the body. Indeed, Singha's coup was already unfolding.

The coup firmly in power; President Dandewante grew somewhat anxious at the sudden loss of news from the capital. She sent messages repeatedly, asking for an arrival date for the Grand Duke into Delhi. For weeks, no reply came.

One day, while in conference with the Indian Council, an aide entered the room and whispered three fateful words to her: "He is dead." Dandewante didn't need any cue as to who "he" was - the Grand Duke Albert Roumillet was dead, and the madman of India was in power over the country. But how long ago? Why? Where? She broadcast the news to the rest of the Council, informing them of the tragedy and the crisis. "We have one great leader in the one of a corrupt and manic man. We must act."

The Council unanimously agreed to keep the death a secret until General Singha confirmed the death. In the meantime, the Indian Council also decided to assume direct control over the army. The worst thing that could happen is that General Singha take control of the army and the state.

In addition, they decided to patch a secret message to the Layarteb Empire, the Eurasian Government, the Cottish Realm - both which had signed alliances with the Grand Duchy to inform them of the planned coup and likewise a very important sub-note: "If you receive any note from Saint Lazare that does not indicate the Grand Duke's presence in the decision, please disregard the message and do not intervene should the military coup ask your foreign military to quell the rebellion in India. General Singha - if in power - will immediately engage in a great war to conquest in India, instead of settling for a prosperous peace. We stand for the right and peace in India and in Saint Lazare; but until we have confirmed the death of the Grand Duke, please make no action for any side. We hope that your government will consider our side in any decisions concerning a restoration of power to the Roumillet family or to the removal of General Singha. We hope that these are the worst of our fears and that they will remain so."

The messages went unanswered... maybe they were lost?

Dandewante sent the messages again nonetheless:

If you receive any note from Saint Lazare that does not indicate the Grand Duke's presence in the decision, please disregard the message and do not intervene should the military coup ask your foreign military to quell the rebellion in India. General Singha - if in power - will immediately engage in a great war to conquest in India, instead of settling for a prosperous peace. We stand for the right and peace in India and in Saint Lazare; but until we have confirmed the death of the Grand Duke, please make no action for any side. We hope that your government will consider our side in any decisions concerning a restoration of power to the Roumillet family or to the removal of General Singha. We hope that these are the worst of our fears and that they will remain so.

She signed the notes again, as they went to Cotland, Eurasia, and Layarteb, hoping that Singha wouldn't do anything stupid...




Saint Lazare

The Grand Duchy was being held up. The International Airport was closed "for repairs" all the while, the borders were being sealed up. Anyone with reasonable intelligence would have known that the Duchy was turning despotic, but unless they received Dandewante's message, they wouldn't have known that the Grand Duke was in fact dead, his body cremated on the spot. The Royal Family has been kept in control and comfortable for the moment, as Josephine continues to worry for her husband, wondering why he was turning for the worse.

General Singha, in his new fortress, made final plans. He began to rearrange the system, and sought out a new way to view India - his own. The first to go? This damned viceroyalty that sat in the middle of it all. "The citizens of the Grand Duchy will fall, and I have no doubts that we , asSaint Lazare, will assume total control of its territories, and we will begin the unification of the Indian continent once again!"

The crowd listened to his plans, nodding with tacit approval. They were themselves powerless to stop him, even as some among them disapproved of the methods employed. If many more knew that he killed the Grand Duke himself, they might have had more reason to stop him. But Singha worked in secrecy, hiding the crucial elements of truth to make his success more apparently glorious and inevitable. The truth - of course - was suicide. Saint Lazare boasted no real military capability to "reconquer" India, either on its own or with another ally. The military power rested in Delhi, where his next opponents remained in control. The contest for him was to win it all without having to fight the war, and with his popularity already on high, he simply expected that the Indian people would join him, unseat the civilian authority in Delhi, and march to victory. The fewer that died, the more soldiers he had to field. It was a sick and perhaps closer to truth vision.

The Foreign Ministry had received the first message from Saint Lazare, but it left them confused and curious as to what was happening in Saint Lazare. There had been continuous communication between the Embassy in Saint Lazare and the Ministry, and the intelligence officers attached to the Embassy had gotten their sources and informants to keep their eyes and ears open and report back anything they might hear, but so far very little information was being received. The closure of Saint Lazare International came abruptly, and reports were coming in from the Embassy and the North Germanians that the Lazares had closed their borders with the Fourth Reich, their sole neighbour in Europe, weren’t promising. So, when the exact same message was received the second time, stating the exact same thing, the dried up old bureaucrats at the Foreign Ministry finally had a bright idea and handed it over to the Inteligence Agency to see what they could glean from the message.

An hour later, a dry memo was sent back, suggesting to the bureaucrats that the analysts at the European Desk believed that the Grand Duke had been assassinated by someone, and that this General Singha – a familiar character for the Cottish due to his involvement in India – was likely to be the assassin. The memo also dryly informed the bureaucrats that Singha’s powerbase was in India, that he was likely to oppose the Realm, and that the Cottish territories were very conveniently placed for a strike. A footnote in the end stated that the memo had been forwarded to the Defense Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office as well.

The news of the assassination of the Grand Duke, who was the head of state in a nation allied to the Realm, was more than sufficient for the Defense Ministry to take action. Immediately, all Cottish forces in India were placed on heightened alert, just in case, with the Border Guard started more vigilant patrols along the border, military aircraft conducting increased Combat Air Patrols in the border regions, and cancellation of all leaves.

That wasn’t all. The Prime Minister, upon hearing of this, called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the news and its consequences. In the cabinet meeting, which started some two hours after the news was received, it was decided that the Defense Ministry’s actions concerning the heightened readiness was sound and in the best interests of the Safety and Security of the Realm, as it so eloquently was named, and the measures should stand. Additionally, the peacekeeping force in Saint Lazare India was placed on heightened alert as well, with the soldiers being ordered back to their bases and being issued live ammo, just in case. Finally, it was decided to show the Realm’s interest by moving a Light Carrier Battle Group to within one hundred kilometres of Monaco. The Light Carrier Battle Group was the smallest surface combatant unit the Realm could muster, with a mere eighteen warships (of which one light carrier, one cruiser and two submarines) and sixteen fighter jets, albeit hypermodern ones, but it would be sufficient to take out any defenses the Saint Lazares had if they had to move in to rescue the Cottish diplomatic legation, or move in to assist the Cottish-friendly Lazares who had sent the message. For now though, they’d just keep a hundred kilometres away and show the Realm’s interest, not to conduct any gunboat diplomacy...yet.

If the crap hit the fan, the Royal Cottish Navy could have an Amphibious Battle Group of some sixty-eight warships, a lot more aircraft and a full Amphibious Division of 11,943 Royal Marines in the vicinity within two days to do a repeat of the successful invasions of Monaco in 1979 and 1993. This might be the third time the Cottish would have to invade this little enclave of 30,000 inhabitants.

OOC: Yeah, the Foreign Ministry's a bit slow these days... Summer vacation, so they brought out the old geezers from retirement to fill in while the competent and un-senile ones are on the beach...

Saint Lazare

It has been a long time since the coup was effected, and having clamped control over the territory, General Singha was ready to allay the fears of the world by providing a broadcast:

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the world, it is my true and sincere dismay to announce the death of the Royal Prince, the Grand Duke Albert Roumillet of the Grand Duchy of Saint Lazare. His death several weeks was the result of an attempted coup by members of the reactionary forces of India, who are seeking to destroy the peace and stability that currently surrounds the territory. I - General Aksay Singha - have been charged by the Defense Ministry to lead an emergency government to prevent the reactionary forces from creating chaos. For this reason, it was necessary for us to hide this information until the proper time was settled and peace was assured in Saint Lazare.

But for our reactionaries in India, headed by the present Indian Council and its President Dandewante, we have plans to restore order and exact the revenge of the late Grand Duke's murder. I am hereby calling upon our allies to help us restore the way of peace in India, by removing the civilian Council and ensuring that the vile murderers receive their justice due to them.

I am also appealing the sensible people of India, to avoid the wages of war and pain by succombing to these people - the reactionaries of the Council and President Dandewante. They have made lies to you about their promises; all that they want to bring war and oppression to all peoples of India. And indeed, are they the sort of people you want to be running your country? Indeed not! Rise up, India! For the sake of the Grand Duke!"

===

Delhi

"That's the biggest piece of $%!@ I've heard in a long time," Dandewante said, her anger being especially vocal at this point. The other members of the Council were silent. "How on earth do we stand against this sort of thing?"

"We are the legitimate voice of India, though. General Singha is the man who killed the Grand Duke."

"Well, no one else knows that. The media only know that we ordered it. Now we're criminals, the scapegoat of his crimes!"

"We've received contact from our Cottish allies - they seem to believe our story."

"Well, the Cottish forces are our allies, but I'm more concerned about the Indian people - will they believe this $%!@? I mean, I don't care if Cotland believes him or not; but if our people don't believe us, what then?"

"We need to make a press statement telling the truth."

Dandewante nodded. "The question is who will believe it. He's already labeled us as the scapegoats. We'll just sound like a bunch of crazy idiots trying to cover ourselves."

Just then, a knock came to the door. The Council glanced over, wondering who on earth would be arriving at this time. "I believe that I may be of assistance."
...

The official announcement from Saint Lazare which was made several weeks after the Foreign Ministry first heard that the Grand Duke was most likely assassinated served to confirm the suspicions of the Intelligence Service. Operatives and informants had been quietly snooping around for the past weeks, trying to find any information about the whereabouts of the Grand Duke, the motives of General Singha, and assessing the general mood in Saint Lazare. So far, very little information had been received. Either very few people knew what was happening, or Singha had taught his men well when it came to OpSec (Operational Security).

Back in Oslo, the announcement made by Singha pretty much matched what the secret communiqué which had been received weeks earlier said, and it worried the Realm. Deep below the city, in a leadership bunker designed to withstand a direct nuclear hit, the High Command had discussed the situation previously and kept a close eye on things. Not happy with the development, the generals and admirals were debating how to best handle this situation. There were an estimated one thousand citizens inside Saint Lazare itself, a city which had been blocked off from outside traffic since the suspected assassination of the Grand Duke had taken place. The citizens were being attended to by the embassy staff, with the embassy paying for hotel rooms for all those who didn’t have their own accommodations until the situation could be resolved. The location of all the citizens were known to the embassy, in case they got a chance to evacuate. All attempts to get permission to do that through diplomatic channels had so far received no reply, and the situation was starting to look grim.

The carrier group off Saint Lazare had been replaced long ago by another group, namely Task Force 48, consisting of an Amphibious Group with a Destroyer Group for escort. Consisting of a nineteen ships, Task Force 48 was more than capable of completely and utterly devastating Saint Lazare if necessary, something they didn’t think that it was. Task Force 48 was stationed a mere 364 kilometers from Saint Lazare, well within range of the many warplanes stationed aboard. The Task Force had been present in its position for the better part of three weeks, and the crews were starting to grow into the routine of holding their current position. It was an unworthy job, they thought, wishing they were sailing the seven seas, or better yet, in port on shore leave. The Amphibious Group was transporting an Expeditionary Brigade of 8 301 Royal Marines, complete with everything needed to assault and capture a well fortified beachhead. If the orders came, it would be these men who would carry them out. Among them were seventy-two specially trained Royal Marines of the Brigade’s three Marine Recon Platoons. These Marines were trained in stealthy infiltration and long-range reconnaissance, and could do a lot of damage and inflict a lot of hurt if unleashed upon an enemy. If the orders came, these men would be the first ones into Saint Lazare.

Back in Oslo, the generals and admirals finally reached a verdict. It was decided to recommend for the National Command Authority – the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister and the Foreign Minister, and His Majesty the King – to maintain the increased military readiness in South India, to maintain the amphibious group off Saint Lazare, and most surprisingly, to recommend clandestine assistance to the Lazare Government in India, who the Cottish knew were lawfully elected, in comparison to Singha, who the Cottish believed had gotten to power in a less than legal fashion. It was recommended that the Realm appear neutral though, to prevent any reprisals against Cottish citizens in Saint Lazare. When it came to the citizens in Saint Lazare, it had been decided to give diplomacy one final try before the Cottish would go through with an evacuation of its citizens, with or without the approval of Singha.

This was presented to the National Command Authority, who reviewed the plans carefully and asked several questions to the Major General from the Air Force who gave the briefing before the approval was given to go through with the plan.

A few hours later, a few encrypted communiqués were dispatched from the Foreign Ministry through an encrypted channel.

To: General Singha
From: The Realm of Cotland
Subject: Evacuation of Cottish Citizens in Saint Lazare
Priority: High
Encryption: 64-bit

While we position ourselves as neutral in the ongoing internal feud in Saint Lazare, the Realm sees with great displeasure on the fact that Cottish citizens are not allowed to leave Saint Lazare, and that whoever is in charge in Saint Lazare proper has ignored our repeated attempts at communication for the past several weeks. Still, we are willing to give you a final chance to prove that you are not interested in provoking the Realm any further.

In exactly twenty-four hours, a Cottish vessel shall sail into Saint Lazare harbor with the single purpose of evacuating all Cottish citizens who wish to be evacuated from Saint Lazare. It shall have with it no escorts into the harbor, but if the vessel is attacked, the appropriate measures will be taken to protect the vessel and punish the attackers.

We are informing you of this as a show of good faith. What we require from you, within these twenty-four hours, is your solemn vow that our vessel will not be attacked, and that the Cottish citizens will be allowed to be evacuated. If we do not receive this assurance within twenty hours, we will have no choice than to assume that you are hostile towards the Realm, and act accordingly.

We urge you to allow the evacuation to go forth, and to show that you remain close friends with the Realm. The consequences if you decide otherwise will not be favorable.

[signed]
The Realm of Cotland



To: President Dandewante
From: The Realm of Cotland
Subject: Offer of Assistance
Priority: High
Encryption: 1024-bit

Madam President,

The Realm has received your communiqué, and first of all we would like to offer our heartfelt condolences concerning the loss of Grand Duke Roumillet. He was a great man, a glorious leader and a good friend to the Realm. His loss will be felt.

That said, the death of the Grand Duke angers the Realm, who has reason to believe that it was indeed Singha who was responsible. For that reason, the Realm is interested in assisting you if we can in order for you to punish Singha for his crime. However, due to political reasons, the Realm’s involvement cannot be known, at least not at this time, and for that reason, we will be unable to offer any military forces to your aide. The Cottish borders with Saint Lazare India will be closed, and visa applications from Lazare citizens frozen until further notice. However, we can provide clandestine assistance in the form of Special Forces “advisors” and small-arms so you can arm your forces.

We have dispatched a communiqué to Singha which we hope will force him to reveal his true agenda. If he reacts unfavorably to the communiqué, the Realm will have a sufficiently good reason to officially announce our support to you Madam President, and provide further military forces. If this happens, we have forces in positions where they are able to quickly capture and secure Saint Lazare, and hopefully capture Singha before he can do any further harm.

We shall await your reply to this communiqué, and must insist that you employ the same level of encryption in order to keep our current involvement and intent a secret. This is of paramount importance to the Realm.

Good luck to you Madam, and may your reply be swift and positive.

[signed]
The King of Cotland

OOC: Wow did I miss that one or what? Sorry. So what's the date of these happenings?

The message came through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs just moments after it was sent. Decoding it took another few minutes and authentication took a little longer but it didn't take too much longer. There wasn't any added delay and the fate of the Grand Duke, now in question, pushed the message quickly through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The situation was fragile, especially when the Grand Duchy closed itself up to the outside world. It was a tough situation to make sense of and they had to send out an alert. The Layartebian embassy and consulates in the Grand Duchy were immediately informed to be as alert as possible. The high alert wasn't sent over known or public channels either, they were sent over the most secure networks available to the Empire, networks that were used to communicate with the various October Alliance member-states. Unfortunately, without actual ground verification, there was no way to tell if the message was a hoax, a ploy, or something real. The Grand Duchy was a strong ally of the Empire and vice versa and, with that, there were several intelligence agents within the country, more to keep a talley on things, to ensure that the Grand Duchy wasn't falling apart. Now it seemed that could be true.

Without a confirmation of the Grand Duke's death, there was really no way to valid the cable. Without the support of the Grand Duke, the Empire had little other places to turn. India was its largest segment and, by itself, it was fully capable of holding out against any coup in Monaco. All of the military power rested in India and, according to the communique, they were not on board with whatever was being planned there. Everything was tossed up in the air in just minutes as the Grand Duchy sealed itself off from the outside world.

The bigger question now was whether or not the Empire played ball with the communique. If something did happen to the Grand Duke and it was foul play, the Empire would be fully pleased with any solution to bringing the murderers to justice. If General Singha, who seemingly was taking power, had anything to do with it, he would become the number one enemy of the Empire but that was a hard fact to prove. Without any hard, real evidence, namely a confession of sorts or undeniable, concrete evidence, there was no way to verify if he was responsible or not. At the same time, there was, as of yet, no way to know if President Dandewante was trustworthy either.

For now, they would have to maintain a status quo. They would have to wait it out and see what changed. When General Singha confirmed the death of the Grand Duke it was an even bigger enigma. The Empire had intelligence assets in the Grand Duchy but they did not have anything within the Grand Duke's cabinet nor did they have many dealings with General Singha. When the Cottish shot to action, the Empire did so as well, although differently. Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were in a striking position to India and, for Monaco, the Empire had Ireland and the Azores at their disposal. Naval and air assets at all of these locations could provide protection for the true governace of Saint Lazare and they could provide support for the Cottish.

With the news of the death of the Grand Duke confirmed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent out a communique to its embassies to hunker down. All citizens living inside of the Grand Duchy were advised to check-in, immediately, with the embassies and consulates where they would be further advised to leave the country until stability could be had. The Empire didn't know where to turn and, to play it safe, they weren't putting too much to either side. They would have to consult with the Cottish more than anyone else but, based on the happenings, they had a strong idea of what was going on, just no confirmation if it was the right idea. Evacuations would take place shortly thereafter via helicopter and V/STOVL transport. The Imperial Layartebian Marines would be able to hold the embassy and consul grounds for now and reinforcements could be sent immediately if needed.

They would wait on communiques to either party, until a more proper assessment could be had.

General Singha read the requests, and seeing which situations would move to his best advantage, he decided to take the most conservative approach. No one else knew that he was the true assassin, except those closest to him, and even their hands are stained with his blood, the man burned in the Palace Court. An empty tomb stands on the ground bearing his name, and while the Royal Family has been locked away, to prevent them from spreading the news, even they know nothing of what has happened.

What would make the average citizen of the Duchy know any better?

@_@_@_@
Emergency Defense Council

Encrypted Reply: TO COTTISH EMBASSY
The EDC has decided that with the publication of these events and the safety and security of the Duchy assured, there is no more reason to deter foreign nationals from departing the country. Aircraft are free to return to the airport, and if a naval evacuation is necessary, the Grand Duchy is open to such a move to assure the safety of your nationals. We strongly urge your government to recover your citizens from India in particular, where the threat of civil conflict remains high as the treasonous members of the Indian Council remain at large. If your esteemed government can provide assistance in this endeavor, we would most appreciate it.

In the meantime, we apologize for the black-out - we hope that you will understand the necessity to ensure the security of our citizens and the state, and apologize further for th inconvenience of learning the death of the beloved Grand Duke. In honor of the Grand Duke, we will hold a ceremonial funeral in Saint Lazare later, although it is rather disappointing that the rascals who committed this murder mutilated the body so greatly that an immediate burial was required, to preserve the sanctity and integrity of the man's physical body. A priest was present to witness the internment, making it an official, albeit extremely sad ceremony. Hopefully, the second funeral, with the presence of many of the world's greatest leaders, can provide some closure.

General Aksay Singha
Presiding Head of the Emergency Defense Council
@_@_@_@

General Singha looked at the communication and approved it, thinking that he had won a political coup. He sent a similar message to the Empire of Layarteb, and the Eurasian Government - the two strongest allies of the Grand Duchy besides the Cottish Realm.

===

Delhi

"We've received word from Cotland - they support us."

Dandewante blew a sigh of relief. "It's one less thing to worry about."

"We've also received word from Layarteb."

Dandewante was pleased to see things working her way. She then turned her attention to this new person. Jason - his name was supposedly - had come during the last meeting, claiming to have some plan to win back India. He wasn't Indian, but for a regular person, he seemed to have a lot of knowledge about the coup situation.

"So what do you know about General Singha?" Dandewante asked.

"Singha - ah too pleasant of a personality. At least, if you get on his bad side. He's definitely a man from Hyderabad. He's organized this coup from the start."

"How do you know this?"

"I have sources that tell me good things. Occasionally bad things too, but good things mostly."

"What nationality are you?"

"It's not important. The point is that we have a mutual objective at hand. I want him dead, and you want him gone. What more can I say?"

Dandewante paused to think about what was being said. This person was apparently an assassin of some sort, offering his services to her. But why? Perhaps it was a trick. Singha wanted Jason to come to root out Dandewante and prove to the world that she does plan to overthrow the government in Saint Lazare. But why would Singha be content to blackmail her? Why not just kill her? Maybe Jason wasn't a real assassin, and was just here to blackmail her and the Indian Council into agreeing with this plan...

"You're thinking, my dear," Jason said, noting the long silence. "What don't you believe about me? That I'm sincere about our ambitions? Or maybe you don't want to kill Singha? I don't know. I thought I would be a good Samaritan and offer some help."

"Wait..." Dandewante was hesitant to finish her sentence. "We do want help. I'm not sure if we want this kind of help though. We will need to have some time to think about it."

"Well be my guest. It's your time that being killed, not mine."

Dandewante smiled and left the room to return to the Council. As she went back, she stopped by the communications office to tell them to send a highly encrypted message back to Cotland:

To Realm of Cotland:

We have received your reply, and are thoroughly glad that you can see through the lies. Hopefully, the Indian people will see the same though. We will nonetheless look forward to any future cooperation to removing Singha from power. We urge you further to ignore any of his statements concerning the assassination of the Grand Duke, as he is merely playing with the world perception that we are the reactionary Indians, when it is he who he is truly describing. And one can only hope that this ends soon, with some sort of restoration possible, if the Royal Family is indeed unharmed.

Priya Dandewante
President of the Indian Council

The vessel chartered by the Government to evacuate the Cottish citizens was the civilian luxury liner SS “Empress of the Seas”, a cruise liner operated by the Royal Mediterranean Cruise Line, a Cottish cruise operator that operated mainly out from Haifa in Israel. The “Empress of the Seas” had been built in the early 1990s, and part of the cost had been paid by the Government in exchange for the placement of the “Empress of the Seas” into the civilian Merchant Marine, which could be mobilized for national service by a Royal Resolution and placed at the disposition of the Royal Cottish Military. That was exactly what had happened, with the military commander in Israel delivering the document he had received from Oslo personally to the CEO of RMCL in his office in Haifa. The CEO had been caught completely by surprise, and he had objected mildly, but eventually accepted the order and placed the “Empress of the Seas” at the disposal of the Royal Cottish Navy. The cruise liner had been in port in Marseilles when the new orders had been received, and had immediately left port, heading for the rendezvous with Task Force 48.

http://www.cruiseserver.net/images/ships/rc_empre.jpg

The “Empress of the Seas” was a 211 meter long, 30.5 meter wide cruise liner with eleven decks, weighing 48 563 tons, and capable of carrying 1 600 passengers comfortably in 800 cabins of various standards. She had a cruising speed of 19.5 knots, and usually went in traffic on the Mediterranean tour which started and ended in Haifa. Thankfully for RMCL, the “Empress of the Seas” had been in Marseilles and just completed offloading a group of Germanian citizens that had chartered the vessel for a special cruise, leaving her vacant for when she was ordered into national service.

The cruise liner met up with her escort, the Cottish Indefatigable class guided missile destroyer HMS D 226 fifteen nautical miles outside Marseilles, and together, the two vessels steamed for Saint Lazare. In the early hours of the morning of 25 September, three TH-12A Super Stallion II transport helicopters arrived on the scene, carrying among others the forty-eight members from two of the three Marine Recon Platoons, a small group of naval officers who would brief the crew of the “Empress of the Seas” and be on hand to take over command if necessary, and a group of medics and doctors that would be ready to provide any assistance that the citizens might need. In all, an extra one hundred persons and a lot of extra supplies came aboard the “Empress of the Seas”, leaving room for 1 500 persons.

In the latest tally that the embassy made, some 885 of the 1 026 Cottish citizens in Saint Lazare asked to be evacuated, which along with 115 members of the embassy staff and their families meant that there were still room for 500 people aboard the “Empress of the Seas”. Therefore, an offer of assistance was dispatched to the embassies of TOA nations with embassies in Saint Lazare, which were Layarteb, Soviet Bloc and Hawdawg, the previous evening, offering transport for those of their citizens that wished to be evacuated. If accepted, the embassy needed a list of the people wishing transport and for them to be present in the docks area of the International Island in Saint Lazare at 1100 hours local time, with passports and one piece of luggage.

At 0950 hours, the “Empress of the Seas” and D 226 was approaching Saint Lazare waters, and it was time for the two ships to part. The ANDOSS Mk.I sensor suite mounted in the top of D 226’s main mast was scanning the area intensively, and detected no shipping that could be of threat to the “Empress of the Seas”. Still, D 226 locked its four BBM.21B Voodo and sixteen BBM.30B AMESM missiles on the eight contacts that were large enough to be warships – Saint Lazare maintained one destroyer, two frigates and five fast patrol boats, all of them constructed by Laksevåg Naval Shipyards – and kept its 155mm main gun ready to start lobbing live rounds, just in case. Satisfied that there existed no immediate threat to the cruise liner, the captain of the destroyer notified the cruise liner that the coast was relatively clear and wished her luck. The two vessels would remain in constant communication contact until the cruise liner was back out in international waters. At the same time, the aircraft carrier further out to sea had sent a flight of ten JA-23B Demon fighters to the skies, loaded with air to air and air to ground munitions, ready to cruise at supersonic speeds to Saint Lazare at the first sign of trouble. The remainder of the carrier air wing’s fifty-eight front-line combat aircraft remained on hot alert, ready to be launched in case of trouble.

Aboard the “Empress of the Seas”, the crew prepared to receive the evacuees while the naval officers stayed in constant communication with Task Force 48, and the Royal Marines prepared themselves. One platoon would disembark the vessel and maintain protection for the ship on the dock as well as making sure that only those on the list came aboard, while the other platoon would remain aboard, maintaining defensive positions and providing a police force of sorts in case of trouble aboard. All the Royal Marines were armed and ready for anything, but they would stay back and let the people from the embassy staff handle all contact with the civilians, choosing instead to be a Quick Reaction Force, ready to respond to any situation that might arise.

Meanwhile, while the people aboard prepared, the “Empress of the Seas” notified the Saint Lazare harbormaster that she had entered their waters while she steamed towards Saint Lazare and International Island Harbor at a hastily sixteen knots. She would, when she entered Saint Lazare, pass on the northern side of the International Island, making sure that those embassies located facing that side, which included the Cottish and Layartebian embassies, would get a good look at her.

Singha watched from the Palace overlooking the entire community as the Cottish cruise liner came in approach. He was wary that the Cottish would be so quick to pull out their citizens, but he couldn't do much other than to let them come. They had to perceive the illusion that all was well in Saint Lazare; what he had to convince them was that the problem lie overseas, in India. He needed to prompt some action there.

Suddenly, the phone rang and Singha answered it.

"Much apologies, we need to talk."

"Not on the phone. Too many conspirators working against us," Singha replied. "Is the Indian Council giving into our demands?"

"They aren't; they're playing with other countries. You should watch out, because they might try to start a war with us."

"Noted. We'll talk in person."

War was on the horizon - the question was where and how.

The meeting went on, and after Singha was assured that no one was near by to snoop on them, he began the formalities.

"So how are the plans coming out?"

"General, I've managed to organized several militias. They're about 50,000 strong. If things go as planned, they'll be set to invade the Cottish territories within 3 days. They'll approach on foot, through thick terrain. Once they emerge in force, they'll have plenty of time to start killing the civilians. If anything works, that will certainly evoke some response from the Cottish authorities, and they'll be forced to make action against the Indian Council."

"The militias - for whom do they work?"

"Well, they believe that the Indian Council is giving orders. Officially, the commanders are afraid that the death of the Grand Duke will encourage the Cottish forces to attempt to seize control over India. So the attack is a pre-emptive strike on Cottish India. They're probably all distracted in the north, with problems from Nerotika, so they won't be as inclined to attack back - so they think. They think that they're invading in full force, about 500,000 soldiers fully equipped. By the time the Cottish forces actually do anything about it, they'll be shuffling their forces left and right trying to stop an invasion from India. And we'll have our way with India, once Delhi gets wiped off the map."

"Good. I want you to make haste for India. Make sure that things go according to plan."

"I assure you, they will. The attack starts in one week."

"Well, just be there. If anything goes wrong, at least you will be there to fix it."

"Very well, General. I cannot argue with you about this. I will do my best to bring us a positive result."

"Very well."

As the militia commander moved out, another man came forward with a black note. It was a simple note, with one word: "Roumillet."

"What about it?" Singha asked.

"They attempted an escape last night. One of the children escaped successfully. We have reason to believe the child is in the International City."

"Which one was it?"

"Renaud."

Singha clinched his fists. "Well, find him. Dammit, I won't have this coup run down to the pits just because you let a stupid boy away!"

"Yes General."

Singha shook his head as he contemplated his next move. "Bring me the Duchess. We'll have to prepare a statement to the world."

Port of Saint Lazare
The “Empress of the Seas” docked without incident, and the evacuation started shortly thereafter, with the Royal Marines and the agents from the Diplomatic Protection Corps providing protection in addition to the few Saint Lazare police officers that were present. The Royal Marines were well armed, but they maintained a non-hostile stance, with the soft-caps on instead of the combat helmets. At the gangway, the Cottish citizens were assembling in a queue, presenting their passports to the diplomats handling the check-in before moving further into the ship and being assigned quarters aboard. The whole operation took a few hours, during which the Royal Marines and DPC agents made sure there were no incidents. There were some potential situations, but the presence of two Royal Marines calmed those situations down effectively.

Three hours later, the “Empress of the Seas” had embarked all her passengers and was casting off again, the Royal Marines maintaining security while they were in port. She steamed out from port, and rendezvoused with D 226 in international waters. The presence of the Cottish destroyer made the people aboard finally feel that they were free to do whatever they wanted again, a feeling that wasn’t reduced by the treatment they got aboard the “Empress of the Seas”. The non-alcoholic beverages were free of charge, the crew informed the passengers, as was the meals, and the alcohol was sold at reduced prices due to the special situation. It didn’t matter how much the rulers of Saint Lazare claimed otherwise – the Cottish had experienced the long weeks in Saint Lazare as involuntary captivity.

The next stop would be Marseilles, where three chartered A380 passenger jets were waiting to transport the Cottish citizens back to their homes.

Kanhagad City, Kasaragod District
Territory of Kerala, Province of South India
One week later
It was going to be a wet day again, Ravi Mechanedensar though as he looked out the window from his apartment in the northern city of Kanhangad, which was located in the district of Kasaragod in Kerala, near the border with Lazare India. Shaking his head, he picked up the equipment belt that every police officer carried and put it on before unlocking the closet and retrieving his service pistol, a L122A4 Storm, and the four clips. Slipping one into the Storm, he cocked the pistol, forcing one of the twelve .45 APC rounds into the chamber before decocking it and putting the safety on before he placed it firmly into the holster in the belt.

With that done, he put on the overcoat and retrieved the hat for his uniform before returning to the kitchen where his wife was already up, preparing breakfast for the couple’s three children. It was only 6.40 AM, but the day started early here in India.

Kissing his wife goodbye, Ravi left the apartment and fetched his bicycle from the bicycle stand outside – the low crime level here meant that there was no problem leaving the bike unlocked overnight – and headed for work. His route to the police station took him through the market and the beachfront, past the imposing Bekal Fort that still defended the city, almost four hundred and fifty years after it was first built. A small garrison of soldiers reinforced by a detachment from the Internal Security Forces complemented the city’s police force of 600, which policed the city’s population of 65 500 and the thousands of tourists that came here annually.

Reaching the police station, Ravi left his bicycle in the parking lot before entering the building, greeting the officer sitting in the reception while he took off the drenched overcoat. Hanging it up to dry in the locker room, he signed off on the duty roster to show that he had shown up for work, and headed for the briefing room for the 7 o’clock morning briefing before the shift started.

It was going to be another normal day at work.

Marseilles

Cottish authorities would be surprised an adolescent - about 14 to 15 years of age - on board the ship. Who he was would remain unknown until the shocked child decided to speak; in the time intervening he remained as a stowaway abroad the Empress of the Seas.

Jungles of Southern India

The operation had begun; it was officially classified as a suicide mission, known only to those who would be dying fighting it. The majority of the soldiers had been told that their invasion was a coordinated attack against Cottish forces in Southern India. It would be in this manner that they would deceive the Cottish forces into believe that the Indian Council was attacking them, and prompt them to topple the Indian Council for General Singha.

They crossed the border at night time, and by daylight, nearly all of those committed to the front were on the Cottish side, waiting for orders to attack at daylight. Fortunately, they had managed to miss the guards patrolling the border, but given the past friendship between India and Cotland, there was no sensible reason why to defend every single stretch - at least not until after today. So it was their only chance to make things work in their favor. Ideally, the Cottish forces would react with a counter-invasion, seize the Indian Council and promptly execute them for sponsoring terrorist activities against the Cottish realm. General Singha would thank the Cottish authoritiess and promptly have India returned to him. Of course - that would be the tricky part too. But Singha had been working on getting the Cottish ejected for a long time - perhaps their continental allies in the Eurasian Government, but there was yet no ample time to receive a reply or even time to send the request. If all worked out well, they perhaps wouldn't be bothered to help.

It was the break of dawn, and the town was coming alive once again, when the whistles blew out along the entire front. The confused and dazed people looked about them and saw that they were under attack. And the Indians - taking their orders seriously - began to attack the "enemy fortification" with extreme brutality. Albeit with no covering support from artillery or helicopters; it was a simple firefight against the underpowered town, after which the Cottish forces would simply come around to their senses and destroy the evidence that has aligned General Singha against them.

Unless by an act of God...

Marseilles
A week ago
The discovery of the young stowaway aboard the “Empress of the Seas” had caused a little headache for the Royal Marines. The boy appeared to be in a state of shock, too disturbed to even be able to speak, and most certainly not in a state that warranted him just being kicked off on the dock in Marseilles. Not sure what to do with him, the Royal Marines decided to bring him back with them to the HMS Devestator, the Odin-II class amphibious assault carrier that was the flagship of the Task Force.

The moment the helicopter touched down on the ship, the kapteinløytnant commanding the Royal Marines brought the lad up through the maze of corridors and hallways in the ship, past sailors and Royal Marines who were confused to see a kid being escorted through the ship, and up onto the bridge where the Task Force commander, an aging kontreadmiral was sitting in the leather flychair. Turning when the kapteinløytnant entered, he was about to ask how the mission went when he spotted the boy.

”Hva i…” [What the…]

”Beklager admiral, men vi fant ham ombord etter passasjerene hadde gått av. Sani’en min sier at han er i sjokk, så jeg følte at vi ikke bare kunne kaste han av.” [My appologies Admiral, but we found him aboard after the passengers had disembarked. My medic says that he’s in shock, so I felt that we couldn’t just toss him off the boat.]

The admiral got up from his seat and came closer to the boy, inspecting him thurroughly before looking up at the kapteinløytnant again, this time with a concerned expression on his face.

”Vet du hvem dette er?” [Do you know who this is?]

”Nei herr admiral.” [No sir.]

”Dette er prins Reunard Roumillet, sønn av avdøde storhertug Albert Roumillet.” [This is prince Reunard Roumillet, son of the late Grand Duke Albert Roumillet.] The admiral said, having remembered the face from the intelligence dossier. If the orders came through, one of the Royal Marines’ tasks was to secure the family of the Grand Duke.

”Han skal behandles i henhold til sin kongelige status. Sørg for at doktor Røed tar seg av ham.” [He is to be treated in accordance with his royal status. Make sure doctor Røed takes care of him.] He said to the ship’s executive officer before turning to the communications officer. ”Skaff meg Overkommandoen med en eneste gang. Høyeste prioritet. Kapteinløytnant, vi tar debriefingen etterpå. Tre av.” [Get me the High Command on the line immediately. Highest priority. Lieutenant, we’ll take the debriefing later. Dismissed.]

The kapteinløytnant snapped to attention before leaving the bridge. Meanwhile, as the communications officer began starting an encrypted call to the High Command in Oslo, the Devestator’s executive officer took the boy down into the bowels of the ship to sickbay, where the boy would be treated for his shock. Hopefully, he would soon be in good enough shape to answer some questions.

Kanhagad Area Emergency Services Call Central
Downtown Police Station, Kanhagad
07:38 [Local] – 1 November, 2007

”Emergency Services, how may I help you?”

“You’ve got to help us! They’re killing people! My God, they’re killing everyone!”

The operator immediately started scribbling down on a note while waving her left hand to get the attention of her supervisor, letting him read the few words on the note while speaking with the hysterical caller.

“Madam, please calm down. Who are killing people? Where are you?”

“I’m at the market in Kanhagad! There’s a group of people there, they’re just shooting people! They’re everywhere! They’re...Argh!”

The operator listened intensely, trying to get back in contact with the caller, but she heard nothing, save for the dying sounds of the caller in Kanhagad market. Ending the call, the operator turned to face the supervisor.

“She said that there’s a bunch of people killing randomly in the market before she stopped talking. There was a lot of gunfire in the background… I think she was killed.”

Just then did it hit the operator. Someone had died while talking to her. She fell silent, her eyes watering with tears as reality hit home. The supervisor, an old police officer placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her while raising his walkie-talkie.

“We have multiple murders taking place in the market area. Alert all available officers, and contact the Internal Security Forces.”

After that, things started happening.

Market Area, Kanhagad
07:47 [Local] – 1 November, 2007
The police officers were forced to abandon their vehicles two blocks down from the market due to the extreme crowds of people fleeing the area and proceed towards the market on foot. Ten minutes behind them, the ISF-troopers were being mobilized and prepared for deployment into the streets, increasing the number of responders to just over three hundred, most being ISF-troopers.

The police officers were lightly armed, with their pistols, UMP submachine guns and tactical shotguns as their only lethal armament. The police officers were well trained with these weapons, of course, but many still desired for some of the heavier weaponry they had played around with in the military. Still, the rules of engagement were clear. Anyone carrying weapons were to be detained, and resistance or threatening behavior would be cracked down upon swiftly and without mercy.

As they entered the market, the police officers were met with a hail of bullets, fired from a lot of Indians dressed in roughly the same kind of clothing, with the same kind of weaponry. The first contact cost the police officers two men downed as they scrambled for cover far enough into the market to provide at least some cover for the few living civilians still in the market, just like they had been trained to in both the military and the police academy, and returned fire.

The average Cottish police officer, regardless of where in the Realm he was stationed, was required to qualify on weapons monthly if he or she was to serve anywhere other than behind a desk. Thus, the police officers did their best, taking aim like they had learned and rehearsed through countless hours in the firing range, doing their best to shoot only well-aimed shots. This was a successful, yet costly tactic. Another six of the twenty-odd police officers responding fell, two of them with mortal wounds, while taking down an estimated twelve of the criminals.

The situation quickly degenerated to a stalemate, with the police officers being successful in bogging down the criminals, but with themselves being bogged down as well.

Six minutes into the firefight, the Kanhagad Police District’s K9 unit arrived on the scene with two police dogs and their handlers, giving the operational leader on the ground another option. The dogs had been trained in apprehending armed suspects, but the situation was too dangerous right now to release them. Instead, the forty-three year old police sergeant decided to wait with this trumph card until the tactical situation was more favorable.

Eleven minutes after being notified, the trucks carrying the one hundred fifty Internal Security Forces troopers assigned to Kanhagad arrived at the scene, allowing for the operational commander to plan a more offensive posture instead of the defensive posture his men were currently in.

The tactical situation was grim. He had a confirmed nine men dead, with another sixteen wounded, with the rest of his sixty-three police officers bogged down inside and around the market, going up against an estimated fifty hostiles armed with heavy weaponry and a blatant disregard for their own lives. The rest of the police officers were in the process of surrounding the area, trying to encircle the hostiles to prevent them from escaping. Once this had been accomplished, the police would move in and deliver the final blow. With the arrival of the ISF-troopers, who were heavily armed with assault rifles, sniper rifles, light machine guns and grenades, the situation was becoming more and more favorable.

The civilians in the area were being evacuated, with paramedics and firefighters doing what they could to help those who had been wounded. The city’s four hospitals had already gone to Code Black, which was the code for a catastrophic event that required all hands on deck, and wounded were flowing in.

With the ISF-troopers present and being deployed to the perimeter to provide assistance to the police officers, the operational commander decided it was time to start tighten the noose and stop the criminals once and for all. It had been thirty-three minutes since the first call came through to the Emergency Services Call Center.

Land Command South India
Trivandum, Kerala, Province of South India
08:11 AM [Local] – 1 November, 2007
It was about this same time that word of the attack on Kanhagad reached the command center for Land Command South India, a deeply buried bunker complex underneath the province capital of Trivandum, joining the reports from seventeen other cities and towns near the border with Saint Lazare India.

The first thought that went through the minds of the officers in the command center was that they had a full-blown insurgency on their hands, but it didn’t add up. There had been no reports of civil unrest in South India for years, quite the contrary. The populace had been nothing but pleased with the situation since the Cottish took over control of the territories at the behest of the local leadership. Thus, an insurgency was ruled out.

What became increasingly clearer was that this was an attack of some sort from across the border, originating in the Saint Lazare India. It fit the profile perfectly, and there were evidences to support such claims. Cottish operatives inside the neighboring Indian territories had reported unrest ever since the Grand Duke disappeared, and the intelligence estimates and reports from both the intelligence office in Sector E of the complex and those from Oslo warned the Land Command of the possibility of hostilities from Saint Lazare India. Steps had been taken to counter such aggression, but the generals had counted on the Lazares to use conventional methods in the event of aggression, and thus moved forces to the border and stepped up patrols of the border. They certainly hadn’t expected the Lazares to use insurgency methods such as this.

A consensus was reached at 08:20 hours that the uprisings in the various border cities, villages and towns were the result of an enemy attack originating in Saint Lazare India, and that the Realm had effectively been attacked by an enemy armed force. That was sufficient cause to warrant increasing the military readiness in South India from the peacetime setting of BERSTAT-5 to the limited war level of BERSTAT-2 without needing authorization from Oslo. While the commander in chief for the Cottish Forces in South India started calling first the Governor of South India, then Oslo to inform them of the situation, the other generals started putting things into motion.

Vayanad Army Base
Vayanad, Kerala
08:55 AM (Local) – 1 November, 2007
The five hundred men of 110. Special Forces Battalion, Unit HJK had just gone out to do the day’s duties when the hoarse sound of the general alarm started bellowing its moaning cry out over the base, causing every man to drop whatever it was he was doing and sprint as quickly as he could to where he was supposed to be. Vayanad was one of the few cities along the border that hadn’t been attacked, probably because it housed a substantial army base, complete with its own airstrip so it could accept cargo aircraft and helicopters. Thus, the news that a large-scale attack on the Cottish border territories was underway came as news to the soldiers, who were ordered to suit up and prepare for immediate deployment. The helicopters were underway, they were told.

Orders also went out for all fifty Home Guard Brigade Groups in South India, totaling two hundred eighty thousand men, were to be mobilized immediately to support the five Divisions and single Para Brigade that the regular Army had in South India. Along with the Special Forces Brigade in South India, with a total of nine Special Forces Battalions or 4 500 special forces soldiers, the Cottish could mobilize a ground force of three hundred seventy thousand soldiers under arms in less than four hours. It was exactly this that was being done.

In the air, aircraft were being scrambled and started spreading out from their main bases to secondary bases in the paranoid fear that someone might attack the airbases – it was highly unlikely, but mobilization plans demanded it – while those few aircraft that had been equipped with air to ground weaponry were dispatched to the border area to do what they could to counter the invasion. In the meanwhile, helicopters from both the Army and the Air Force’s Special Operations Groups were moving to the army and Special Forces bases to pick up troops and get them to the fighting areas.

Market Area, Kanhagad
08:57 [Local] – 1 November, 2007
Back in Kanhagad, the combined police and ISF force had launched its counter-attack on the beleaguered criminals (by now they had been branded as terrorists) and were quickly accomplishing their objective. The heavy weaponry and ruthless tactics of the ISF-troopers, who were leading the assault, really made a difference as they advanced, their potent body armor protecting them to a greater degree while they fired loose with their DR-89 assault rifles and DMG-83 light machine guns, sending deadly and accurate sprays of 6.7x53mm rounds into the terrorists.

There were an estimated nine terrorists left alive, all of whom had taken refuge in an adjacent building and barricaded themselves. They had no hostages, since the police had evacuated all civilians, so it would be a relatively clean storming. However, it needed some planning, and the increased influx of reporters and journalists that defied the warnings and obvious danger didn’t help things out.

Fortunately, the ISF-troopers and police officers were keeping the terrorists well away from the windows, keeping up a relentless suppressing fire against the windows and doors of the concrete building, not allowing the terrorists to shoot back without themselves being shot. This suppressing fire allowed paramedics to venture into the blood-soaked killing field that was the market for the first time to try to do their jobs. Amazingly enough, they managed to find six people who were still alive, albeit barely, and evacuate them to the nearest hospital.

The operational commander on the ground looked at the latest casualty figures. He had a total of twenty-four officers and five ISF-troopers killed, another sixty officers and fifteen ISF-troopers wounded, an estimated one hundred twenty civilians killed and three hundred plus wounded, against an estimated forty to forty-five terrorists killed. Three terrorists had been captured though. They were wounded, having gotten their shoulders or kneecaps shot out, but were still alive and in the hospital under the vigilant supervision of the police. They would receive emergency treatment for their wounds before their journey continued to the concrete cells of Downtown Police Station.

He was about to order the ISF-troopers to assault the building when he received orders to have his forces stop their advance and take up defensive positions that would keep the enemy contained. When he questioned the orders and demanded to know on whose authority, the answer was simple:

“Martial law’s been declared. Army units are on their way to handle the situation from here.”

General Singha was standing at the helm of the Palace, overlooking the bay. The sun was rising, and it was clearly apparent that things had started - things that would set the course of the coup into motion internationally. He received the morning news details from India - "It is finished."

He was pleased to read this. Soon, Cottish Royal Forces would be swarming over India, removing the meddlers from their seat of power and restoring the mantle to him. But yet, there was work to be done. Rumors had spread that the Prince Renard had managed to leave the Grand Duchy - something had to be done in order to assure the boy's mouth didn't get in the way of progress.

"Captain, is the Grand Duchess well?"

"Yes, General."

"Good. We must have lunch sometime - shall we meet this afternoon? We have so much to discuss."

"Very well, General. Any other members of the Royal Family?"

"No. We'll have to dispose of them some other way."

"Dispose?"

"Well, the terrorists in India will be responsible for this anyway - but yes, dispose."

General Singha dismissed his officers, as the official news was still pouring out from India - the massacre of an entire Indian Division and more.

===

Delhi

Dandewante was on the phone all morning.

"... Hell no! Why on earth would I do that?"

The commanders were all assembled before the war room - the first time in a very long time. All of the veterans of the Liberation campaign, so long ago; they had come from everywhere to fend off the newest threat to Indian sovereignty.

"Hell no! Who gave those orders?"

Dandewante stood at the helm, waiting for a reply. In her mind, she already knew who ordered the Army to advance into Cottish South India, but she wanted it so desperately not to be. After waiting for a while, it seemed so.

"It is evidently the work of a madman. We must send the Cottish authorities our sincere apologies, and our sincere and adamant support for their troops. After that, we are going to purge the army - if they support Singha, they're out. We can't afford to have any more antics by that crazed general. I mean no one sensible enough to do that would consider launching an invasion of another country. I mean - consider this! If we were in control, wouldn't we invade the entire country?"

Shocked gasps rang through the crowd. Dandewante tried to revise her statement: "Not that we'd want to invade in the first place, but if we were going to attack, we'd do it more sensibly than he did. And that said, we're not interested in invading the Cottish Realm. There's too much going around already, so we don't need any more attention to this than we need to have."

At that, a messenger came into the room - "I'm afraid that it's already bigger than what we'd want to have it be."

"What do you mean?"

"The Grand Duchess is making a statement on television."

"What?!?"

Instantly, the television came on and the Grand Duchess Josephine Roumillet filled the screen, in what appeared to be a private broadcast message:

"...and whoever had taken my child, I wish that you would not do them any harm, because their health is of my utmost concern. I understand that General Singha has instituted change in the Grand Duchy since the murder of my beloved husband, but in these times, terrorists remain at large. The Indian Council in particular has been troublesome for all of us. I applaud the efforts of General Singha and his Emergency Defense Council to restore order to the Grand Duchy and to my family. Thank you for your time, and I wish you all well."

And just at the end of the message, the Grand Duchess uncovered her dress, revealing a small portion of her breast, on which was written a small extract of text - "Mio figlio è libero. Liberi me!" [My son is free. Free me!] The text was so small that only the most clever of eyes could determine that anything was written at all - which made the message particularly effective to those who had the capability to read it.

Dandewante, having seen the message, buried her head into her hands. "This just never ends." After a little while longer, she turned to the next officer, saying, "Contact the Cottish Governor - we need to be talking right now."

"Yes, madam."

Akershus Fortress
Oslo, Norway

In the third sub-basement of Akershus fortress which had safeguarded the Cottish capital for more than nine hundred years, a team of intelligence analysts had carefully monitored the statements made by Singha and the Duchess, looking for any hidden messages, codes or other things that might reveal something interesting. Still, with all their training and experience, it was a junior member of the team who detected something abnormal on the Duchess’ breast. At first, the older members had smirked and told him to pay attention to his job and not the woman’s better parts, but after a short exchange of words, he had convinced the rest to freeze the frame (the Cottish had taped the entire speech) and blow it up. After some digital enhancement of the frame, the text appeared clear enough for the analysts to read.

After cross-checking the text with a Cottish-Lazare/Lazare-Cottish dictionary, the analysts knew what Dandewante had already figured out. The Duchess was probably acting under duress and thus her harsh words had to be ignored.

Quickly, they started typing up a flash message with the highest priority, which meant that it had to be in the hands of the King, Prime Minister and the Joint Chiefs within fifteen minutes of sending the message.


Royal Palace
Oslo, Norway
Just shy of an hour later

”Så hva vet vi egentlig?” [So what do we really know?] The King asked, looking across his desk to the men and women assembled.

The King’s office was rather full at the moment, with Prime Minister Rothsky, Defense Minister Alvheim, Foreign Minister Jensen, Commanding General of the Military marskalk Diesen, Commanding Admiral of the Navy admiral Finseth, Commanding General of the Special Forces generalløytnant Mood and the Director for the Intelligence Agency present. The officers stood straight, almost in attention, not saying a word, while the politicians sat straight in the chairs. Only the Director was relatively casual, standing near the wall in the back, just observing like the spymaster that he was.

It was Foreign Minister Jensen, one of the most recent additions to the current Council that answered first.

”En del, Deres Majestet. Vi vet at storhertugen ble myrdet. Vi vet at hans familie blir holdt i fangenskap, og vi vet at soldater fra Lazare-India har angrepet Riket. President Dandewante har allerede benektet enhver innblanding fra deres side og bedt om et krisemøte med guvernøren i Sør-India. Bortsett fra det vet vi lite. [Quite a bit Your Majesty. We know that the Grand Duke was murdered. We know that his family is being held in capitivity, and we know that soldiers from Lazare India have attacked the Realm. President Dandewante has already denied any involvement from their side, and has requested an emergency meeting with the Governor of South India. Apart from that, we know very little.]

”Herre Konge,” [My King,] admiral Finseth said, bowing his head slightly as the King focused his attention on the commander of the Cottish Navy. ”Kampgruppe førtiåtte har lokalisert et medlem av storhertugens familie. Prins Renaurd. Han er for øyeblikket i trygg forvaring ombord på HMS Devestator. Sjef kampgruppe førtiåtte informerer at hans avdeling er klar til innsats.” [Task Force forty-eight has located a member of the Grand Duke’s family. Prince Renaurd. He is currently safe under Cottish supervision aboard HMS Devestator. Task Force forty-eight’s commander maintains that his unit is ready and able to carry out operations.]

The politicians immediately reacted.

”Hvorfor har ikke regjeringen blitt informert om dette tidligere?!” [Why haven’t the Council been informed of this before now?!] the Prime Minister demanded. The answer came from a most unexpected source.

”Fordi,” The Director replied from the back of the room, his low, calm voice immediately attracting everyone’s attention. ”Det er en opplysning som er meget sensitiv, og vi har ikke råd til at den kommer ut før det er på tide. For å være helt ærlig, vi stoler ikke helt på dere.” [It’s a piece of information that is very sensitive, and we can’t afford it to be revealed before it’s time. To be quite honest, we don’t really trust you.]

The politicians were about to retort when the King took the word again.

”Ro dere ned, alle sammen. Det vi gjør nå er at vi konsentrer oss om situasjonen her og nå. Så vi vet at storhertugen ble myrdet. Mest sannsynligvis av Singha. Vi vet at hans familie blir holdt som gisler, og at de mest sannsynlig er i konstant livsfare. Singha har vært ett mysterium for oss i mange måneder. Det ser ut som om han nå er i ferd med å vise sitt sanne ansikt til verden. Spørsmålet er, kan vi gjøre noe med det?” [Everybody calm down. What we’re going to do now is to consentrate on the current situation. So, we know that the Grand Duke was murdered. Most likely by Singha. We know that his family is being held hostages, and that they’re most likely in constant danger. Singha has been a mystery to us for many months now. Now, it appears that he’s about to reveal his true colors to the world. The question is, can we do anything about it?]

”Monaco-pakten.” [The Treaty of Monaco.] Defense Minister Alvheim immediately said. ”Den forplikter oss til å forsvare Sankt Lazare dersom de kommer under angrep. Jeg mener det er rimelig å påstå at Sankt Lazare er under angrep fra Singha.” [It commits us to defend Saint Lazare if they are attacked. I believe it is reasonable to claim that Saint Lazare is under attack from Singha.]

”Ikke i det hele tatt! Paragraf to bokstav c forbyr oss fra å gjøre det. Ved å invadere Sankt Lazare vil vi i praksis gjøre bystaten om til et cottisk protektorat!” [Not in the slighest! Paragraph two letter c forbids us from doing so. By invading Saint Lazare, we’ll effectively turn the city-state into a Cottish protectorate!]

”Ved å invadere vil vi returnere makten til de rettmessige herskerne. Dersom vi ikke gjør noe vil ikke Sankt Lazare ha sin suverenitet lenger. Dersom vi handler, vil deres suverenitet bli gjenopprettet.” [By invading, we’ll return power to the rightful rulers. If we don’t do anything, Saint Lazare won’t have its sovereignty back. If on the other hand we do act, their sovereignty will be restored.]

It evolved to a five minute bickering where arguments for and against were tossed back and forth, until finally the King had had enough and asked the politicians to step outside for a moment. With them finally outside, the King looked at the Director and the officers who remained.

”Hvilke styrker kan vi sette inn?” [What forces can we deploy?]

”Vi har en ekspedisjonsbrigade embarkert hos kampgruppe førtiåtte. Litt over seks tusen marinesoldater, med panser, artilleri og luftstøtte. I tillegg har vi et kompani fra MJK embarkert der.” [We’ve got an expeditionary brigade embarked on Task Force forty-eight. Just over six thousand Royal Marines, with armor, artillery and air support. Additionally, we have a company from MJK embarked there as well.]

The Director spoke.

”Jeg anbefaler at vi først setter inn en gruppe fra TITAN. Fire topptrente menn, utdannet i etterretningsoperasjoner og andre svarte operasjoner. De kan utføre operasjoner som MJK ikke kan, samt at de offisielt ikke eksisterer. Vi setter dem inn via ubåt, og de forsvinner i mengden. Plausibel benektelse er en fin ting.” [I recommend that we first deploy a team from TITAN. Four top-trained men, educated in intelligence operations and other black operations. They can do things MJK can’t, plus that they don’t officially exist. They are deployed via submarine, and they disappear into the crowd. Plausible deniability is a nice thing.] He said with a smile.

The King pondered this for a moment before he spoke again.

”Send inn gruppen. Men de gjør ingenting uten min personlige ordre. For øyeblikket er det bare rekognisering. Forstått?” [Send in your team. But they do nothing without my personal order. For the time being, it’s reconnaissance only. Understood?]

”Helt og holdent Deres Majestet.” [Completely, Majesty.]

”Godt. Admiral Finseth, sett kampgruppe førtiåtte i høynet beredskap. Hvor raskt vil det ta å få de først e marinesoldatene på bakken etter ordren om invasjon er gitt?” [Good. Admiral Finseth, place Task Force forty-eight on heightened alert. How long will it take to get the first Royal Marines on the ground after the order to invade is given?]

”Majestet, det vil ta cirka ti til tjue minutter. De første styrkene vil være rekogniseringssoldatene, som vil bli satt inn med helikopter og klarere landingssoner. Ti minutter senere vil geværkompanier bli satt inn med helikoptre for å sikre de viktigste målene. Radio og fjernsynsstasjoner, offentlige kontorer, flyplassen. Innen den første timen vil vi ha sikret et brohode og ha kontroll over den offentlige kommunikasjonen, samt å ha de første tunge enhetene på bakken. Vi vil utvise ekstrem forsiktighet og satser på at befolkningen ikke vil gjøre aktiv motstand.

Vi risikerer å gå opp mot fem tusen godt trente fiendtlige soldater, heldigvis bare lett infanteri med begrenset panserstøtte og ingen artilleristøtte, støttet av to tusen fem hundre relativt dårlig trente lettinfanterister fra marinen og luftforsvaret, og muligens og av fem tusen politifolk. De har tretti panservogner som vil bli slått ut av våre helikoptre og fly så fort som mulig, og åtte krigsskip som og må uskadeliggjøres. Dette vil skje enten ved hjelp av missiler eller, og dette er å foretrekke, ved at de blir bordet av spesialstyrker og sikret. Dette gjelder spesielt for jageren de har i Devlin-klassen, da denne har en atomreaktor som kan skape en del økologiske problemer. Vi vil helst unngå dette. Fienden har ingen kampfly eller bakke-luft-missiler som vi kjenner til, så vi vil raskt kunne opprette totalt luftherredømme over byen.

Majestet, fra et fagmilitært standpunkt vil jeg i det sterkeste anbefale at vi gjennomfører denne operasjonen kun ved hjelp av spesialstyrker. Den raskeste måten å ende dette på vil være ved og enten kidnappe eller, mer sannsynlig, drepe Singha, og å befri storhertugens familie. Dette kan gjøres med de åtti spesialsoldatene og fire hemmelige soldatene vi har til disposisjon.”

Majesty, it will take approximately ten to twenty minutes. The first troops will be the reconnaissance Marines, who will be deployed with helicopter and clear landing zones. Ten minutes later, rifle companies will be deployed with helicopters to secure the primary targets. Radio and television networks, public buildings, the airport. Within the first hour, we’ll have secured a bridgehead and control public communications, as well as having the first heavy units on the ground. We will exercise extreme caution and hope that the population won’t actively resist.

We’re risking going up against five thousand well trained hostile soldiers, fortunately only light infantry with limited armored support and no artillery support, supported by two thousand five hundred relatively poorly trained light infantry from their Navy and Air Force, and possibly an additional five thousand police officers. They have thirty tanks that will be knocked out by our helicopters and aircraft as quickly as possible, and eight warships that also needs to be disabled. This will happen either with missiles or, and this is preferable, by boarding actions taken by the special forces. This is especially true for the destroyer in the Devlin class, as it has a nuclear reactor that can cause some ecological problems. We’d rather avoid this if possible. The enemy has no combat aircraft of surface to air missiles that we know of, so we’ll quickly be able to establish total air superiority over the city.

Majesty, from a professional military position, I strongly recommend that we carry out this operation solely through the use of special operations forces. The fastest way of ending this is to kidnap or, more likely, assassinate Singha, and to free the Grand Duke’s family. This can be done with the eighty special forces and four secret soldiers we have at our disposal.]

The King nodded in agreement. The fewer Cottish soldiers on the ground, the lower any potential losses would be.

”Bra. Vi kommer nok til å gå for det siste alternativet ditt admiral, men jeg vil ha marinesoldatene i beredskap i tilfelle. Send ut forberedelsesordrene. Endelig ordre vil foreligge innen tjuefire timer. Det er alt.” [Good. We’ll probably go for the last option Admiral, but I want the Royal Marines in readiness just in case. Issue the preparation orders. Final go-no go will be given within twenty-four hours. Dismissed.]

The officers all snapped to attention and said as if in one voice, ”Javel herre konge.” [Yes my King.] Before respectfully stepping out of the King’s office, careful not to turn their backs to their sovereign.


Province of South India
16:00 hours (Local) – 1 November, 2007

The situation in India was still hairy, but it was slowly coming back under Cottish control. For the better part of the day, the Cottish police officers, ISF-troopers and the Army had been fighting the terrorists with every weapon in their arsenal, fighting bitter house-to-house battles. The Cottish had inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists, but not without sustaining heavy casualties themselves. From what the latest casualty reports said, almost two thousand police officers, three thousand ISF-troopers and two thousand soldiers had been killed with two to three times that amount wounded. The enemy casualties on the other hand were calculated to be somewhere around thirty to forty thousand.

Still, they didn’t compare to the civilian casualties. Upwards of sixty thousand civilians had been killed with more than two hundred thousand wounded. It was a disaster for sure, and the hospitals and medical centers were swamped with casualties. Emergency field hospitals were being set up away from the fighting area, but even they were being flooded with wounded and dying people. The Home Guard had been mobilized along with the Civil Defense Corps, and together, the two organizations did what they could to help the wounded. Fortunately, the Cottish, notorious planners for every contingency, had a plan for this one as well, and it was in the process of being implemented. Makeshift field hospitals were being established with every medically trained personnel being drafted to help out.

Still, despite the efforts and hard work of the emergency services and mobilized personnel, it was a gigantic undertaking. So, at 4:20 PM local time on the first of November, a plea for help was sent out for humanitarian aid to help handle the flood of wounded. Already, international journalists were in the area, taking pictures of the suffering and sending back breaking news reports. TV reporters clad in blue Kevlar vests and helmets marked with “TV” were sending live feeds from India. In the background, wounded people were lying on cots and stretchers, being helped by the few doctors, nurses and medics.

One particularly moving scene was a Home Guardsman dressed in BDUs covered in blood and dirt, walking through the crowd in a field hospital to a doctor with a bloodstained little girl, probably not much older than four or five, in his arms. The doctor placed his fingers on the little girl’s throat as the guardsman placed the girl on the makeshift operating table in front of the doctor before just shaking his head, tears rolling down his cheek. A pair of Civil Defense men immediately came over and placed the girl in a rubber bodybag and carried her away to a constantly growing pile of bodybags, clearing the operating table for the next patient. The focus returned to the reporter who reiterated the need for help, and that it was needed now!

At the border, the Cottish armored units hadn’t moved over the border, but they were prepared to do so at any moment, just as the artillery and aircraft were ready to pummel the Lazare defenses to dust if President Dandewante didn’t have anything constructive to offer the Governor, who had agreed to a meeting. Dandewante or an envoy of hers was invited to Trivandum as quickly as possible to meet with the Governor and the generaloberst in command of the military forces in South India to find a solution to the current problem.

[[b]OOC: It took me three hours to write this, including adding all the HTML. I'm thinking that the TITAN team will assassinate Singha if you want them to. Basically, they're a black operations unit on line with Lay's BOF teams (Force Falcon, etc).]

[ooc: well... I think we're all in for a surprise here]

Delhi - 2000, Delhi [01NOV2007]

Dandewante received a message back from the Cottish command, indicating that a meeting will only occur in Trivandum. She quickly replied with a flurry of action to the nearest door, yelling, "Get me there now!"

She rode up onto a helicopter in Delhi, as one of the doctors came with her, showing some good news. "Well, President, we've got some great news and some horrible news."

"Well, cheer me up first. I don't feel well now."

"It seems that Singha killed off most of this loyal subordinates in that weird melee against the Cottish forces. A force around 50,000 men. That's a little over 10% of the standing active forces, but I mean, we aren't in any serious problem. Now, if any more of them start running across the border... we'll have a hell to sort through."

Dandewante sighed, wiping her head from the perspiration. "That wasn't so good. What's the bad news?"

"Well... from early reports, it seems that we've not only got a military crisis on hand, but also a humanitarian crisis. Singha didn't order his men to attack the Cottish forces. He ordered them to attack the people."

"You're shitting me."

"If I were, I'd be laughing now."

"And you're not laughing."

"Take a look at the report yourself."

She swiped the data from the doctor, almost falling out from her seat. "You can't be serious? 100,000 thousand dead?"

"That's only estimates. Official reports suggest only 60,000. But Singha is a madman. There's no telling what damage he caused. And you do know who's going to have to pay for this."

"I know... I'm only hoping that the Cottish Governor doesn't vent his anger to me, who happens to be the only convenient national leader within a hundred kilometers partially responsible for this calamity."

"You can't blame yourself entirely. Singha is the madman, not you."

"We should have ended this a long time ago, when Singha wasn't a serious threat. He is now a worse threat than we could have ever imagined. And he's killed the Grand Duke, holding the Royal Family hostage, and I can only wonder how the people in Saint Lazare are holding." Dandewante held her breath for focus. "But now India is our priority. We must secure India, to ensure that Singha can't do anything else. And once he's completely isolated from the world, we can take him down. And hopefully only him."

"Let us remember that there are dead Cottish citizens to address."

"I know," Dandewante said. "But the Cottish government would have to be idiots to believe Singha's claims. They all know that the Duchess was under stress, probably under pain of her children to speak against us. I can only imagine how they are now."

"India today, Saint Lazare tomorrow."

Dandewante again nodded. "Yes. Today, and if we had the time, I'd do it all now."

"But we don't have that time."

"This will have to do." She looked abroad, as the helicopter began to pass into the frontier, nearing the border with Cottish Kerala, and into Trivandrum where she expected a long discussion on the future of India and Saint Lazare.

[ooc: man, this happened so long ago...]

bumping for Cotland's attention... shall we have the meeting/kill Singha? Because I've got a list of people that want to give it a try. BTW, anyone wanting to kill Singha should post an introduction here and then we'll carry on.

While the Cottish in South India prepared to receive Dandewante, four anonymous-looking men equipped with Cottish diplomatic passports made their way quickly through the customs at the Saint Lazare International Airport, retrieving their suitcases which were clearly labelled as diplomatic baggage and therefore not to even be looked at, let alone scanned. Just to make sure, a thin layer of lead, just enough to prevent x-rays from seeing what was inside, was inserted into all sides of the suitcases, and securely locked with lockpads. Each man had two suitcases like this, and after retrieving their baggage, the men made their way to the Cottish embassy.

The four-man GOLF team from the highly classified TITAN unit had a very important mission here in Saint Lazare: Assassinate General Singha. For this purpose, they had several options available to them, but the primary method would be to snipe the deranged general from a distance with a 7.62x51mm sniper rifle, which was disassembled inside one of the suitcases along with Match ammunition and assorted equipment that went with the rifle. Alternate methods included a car bomb, poison or guiding a laser-guided bomb through Singha's bedroom window (although the latter was undesired due to the potential collateral damages).

A secondary task for the team was liberating and extracting the Lazare royal family to the safety of the embassy, alternately the Cottish battlegroup that still remained offshore. For this task, the team would have to get closer and find out exactly where the royal family was being held, and then make their way in - preferably covertly - and extract them. For this purpose, the team was equipped with small-arms - a .45 ACP pistol equipped with a silencer and a P90 submachine gun with a silencer each - and enough equipment to be able to take on a small army and win. It was likely that this would be the job in case the assassination attempt on Singha went sour.

For now though, two men went out towards the palace to do some reconnaissance. They were armed lightly, having only their compact .45 ACP pistols concealed under their jackets and their diplomatic passports handy in case someone started asking questions. However, their clothes were Lazare in origin and the men had been well trained and briefed. They would blend in with the locals as they discreetly gathered information necessary to carry out the mission. Such things as location and number of guards, possible methods of entry into the palace, potential counter-espionage and counter-sniper teams, good sniping locations, palace defenses, et cetera.

General Singha was alerted to the change in status of any persons in Saint Lazare. He was mildly surprised to learn that 4 Cottish diplomats had joined the embassy. Perhaps this was the prelude to some discussions with him? Perhaps about their recent struggle in India? If so, this was the perfect opportunity to launch a diplomatic coup to restore India to himself and return peace and order to a trouble Grand Duchy. He sent the following communication to the embassy:

"I am fully aware of the circumstances governing the chaos and tragedy in India these days, and it gives me great pain to know that the Council has gone completely mad. I sincerely offer my condolences to the people murdered by these terrorists and it is my sincere hope likewise that an end to this conflict be arranged. If you have time permitting, I feel that a conference between our two peoples must be in order at this time, to discuss how to topple the Indian Council and end their rule of terror upon the free peoples of India."



And while Singha was patching this message, Dandewante finally arrived at the Cottish Governor's Residence in Trivandrum. Stepping off the helicopter, she was immediately greeted by the Governor's guards.

[ooc: I'm just plopping her right into the meeting area so we can get things over. You're welcome to make up a small conversation with her, as long as she doesn't commit suicide or anything like that - just to get the two sides acquainted.]

Governor's Residence
Trivandum, Kerala
Province of South India

The flight from the Lazare regional capital in India to Trivandum had been a relatively uneventful one for Dandewante and the four Cottish special forces soldiers sent to escort-slash-guard her in the HH-17A Lord medium transport helicopter. As they flew over the Cottish countryside, especially near the border, Dandewante could see the might of the Royal Cottish Army mobilizing. Tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces were moving towards the border and the border towns and cities, military aircraft were flying around in the skies above, and green-clad soldiers could be seen everywhere. It was obvious that the Cottish were mobilizing for war.

When the helicopter landed in the heavily fortified residence of the Governor, Dandewante was greeted by a civilian man in his forties, a native of India, who looked very uncomfortable.

“Madam President,” He said in accented English. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to the Governor and the general.”

Without more conversation, he turned and walked up to the large residence. The colonial-style mansion – there was no better word for it – was three stories high, with several wings, all of them dressed in red brick, with elaborate marble pillars and tiles in the walkway. The mansion had been built a hundred and thirty years ago, and had served as the local leader’s mansion since the 1920s.

Dandewante was escorted through the large double French doors that constituted the main entrance of the residence and through a large and delicately decorated hall, up a set of stairs to the second floor and down another long corridor. The corridors weren’t over-decorated, but the few decorations and paintings that were placed there symbolized the wealth and grandeur of the Realm of Cotland and the Province of South India.

The man stopped in front of a polished oaken door and knocked twice before opening it and sticking his head in.

“President Dandewante sir.”

A voice on the inside replied something Dandewante couldn’t quite catch, but it was obviously an order to let her in, since the man stepped aside and allowed Dandewante to enter.

The room was a large meeting room located in the eastern wing. The walls were painted in a soothing apricot color with large windows overlooking the Indian Ocean four hundred meters away, beyond the large walls that encircled the residence. A wooden table made of polished birchwood with room for twenty people to sit around it comfortably sat in the center of the room, with comfortable-looking leather chairs positioned around it. Mounted to the far wall, a projector was located, allowing for presentations and films to be shown on the other far wall. Along the long wall opposite the windowed wall, a buffet stood with plenty of room for refreshments and food to be placed. Right now, it had a selection of soft-drinks, bottled water and a silver pot of coffee. Several glasses and simple white china cups were placed on the buffet next to the beverages.

At the table, two men sat. The man sitting at the head of the table was the Governor of South India, a skinny ethnic Indian man in his sixties with a receeding hairline and a rather long beard (sans the moustache), dressed in a gray suit with a silk tie and white cotton shirt. The other man was an ethnic Cot in his late fifties with graying hair and a no-nonsense look - Cottish officers, and generals in particular, were known not to have much tolerance for bullshit or dragging things out. The officer was dressed in the khaki uniform that the Royal Cottish Army issued to its officers in tropical areas, which included a short-sleeved shirt, khaki pants, black leather belt, black leather pistol holster and black shoes. From the look of the four large golden stars on a golden background on the shoulder pads and the five and a half rows of “salad” on the left side of the man’s chest, Dandewante was in the same room as the Colonel General in command of the Royal Cottish Military in South India. The General remained sitting, observing Dandewante with piercing blue eyes as the Governor got up from his seat.

“President Dandewante, welcome to Trivandum. I understand you wanted to talk?” The Governor said with an inviting voice, motioning for Dandewante to have a seat.

“You better have a damned good excuse for the bullshit your people pulled on us today,” The General pitched in. “We’ve got close to seventy-five thousand dead, including sixty-nine thousand civilians, and your wanting to have a chat is the only reason why we haven’t bombed Lazare India back to the stone ages yet.”

“General, please! Let the poor woman have a seat before we start throwing threats around.” The Governor said sharply. “My apologies Mrs Dandewante. Now, you were saying?”

Before Dandewante could reply, the General pitched in again, “Martial law has been declared, which gives me overruling authority over the Governor. I’ve got a hundred thousand men supported by aircraft, armor and artillery ready to move over the border at my command, which I will give if I’m not satisfied with the outcome of this conversation. Keep this in mind as you chose your words.”

The General then sat back in his chair to listen to what Dandewante had to say, maintaining his hard intimidating stare at Dandewante. The Governor also sat back down in his chair with an apologetic look on his face as he too listened to what Dandewante had to say.


Saint Lazare

In the embassy, the communiqué from Singha had been received and forwarded to the proper authorities – the Ambassador, the military attaché and Team GOLF, where a new plan was starting to take form. If Singha wanted to make himself so available for the Cottish, why deny him the opportunity? As GOLF started preparing themselves, a reply was issued to Singha.

Diplomatic Communiqué to General Singha
Dear General,

We are very happy with having received your message, and we share your desire to meet to have a conversation regarding the India situation. It would be an honor for us to serve as hosts to you here at the Embassy so we may reach a mutually agreeable resolution to the unfortunate situation in India.

[signed]
His Majesty’s Representative to Saint Lazare

Trivandum

Dandewante sat there with sweat racing down her face. But she remained composed about the situation. "I'm aware of the loss suffered by your people in the wake of this attack. I can give you no assurances that Singha won't try a similar tactic again, but I have some small token of good news to share. We've reviewed the status of our armed forces, and it seems that the majority of those forces committed to the attack on Cottish India were those most loyal to Singha. I have reason to believe that we have no further plans to subdue the Indian Council's authority in India, besides this last attack."

She paused as she reflected on the new numbers that had come to her. 75,000 dead people. This man should be taken to the gallows and torn to as many pieces. Singha probably would deserve it at the end of the day. Not to mention that there were as many as 50,000 Indian troops involved in the attack - easily over 100,000 dead people lie in his wake.

"I have to admit that the Indian Council should pay for some of the responsibility, as it was our decision to oust the General to Saint Lazare, where he has somehow managed many times more damage than what he could have managed from just India alone. I think that it's fair to offer to pay for the reconstruction in Cottish India, to include building repairs, compensation to lost loved ones, and repairing lost trade and commerce. I hope that this offer can help repair also the trust between Cottish India and Lazare India, that we can continue our relationships in due time, even after Singha is gone. Because I have the hope that people will realize what sort of madman he is and finally we all agree to get rid of him before he unleashes this similar pain upon the people in Europe."

===

Saint Lazare

"General Singha. The Cottish embassy has suggested that the meeting take place at their embassy."

"No reason to go all of the way there. We have the Parliament building on this side. Invite them there."

"They really insisted that the meeting take place at their embassy, General."

Singha shook his head. "Have the meeting in the Parliament building, or not at all. I'm not going to risk my head, crossing into the International Island for nothing."

The reply was sent back.

To Cottish Embassy
From Emergency Defense Council

General Singha wishes to move the meeting location to the Parliament building on the Mainland. The Parliament building shall adequate facilities to host the dialogue, although the invitation is much appreciated nonetheless.

EDC

Trivandum

The General was unaffected by Dandewante’s statement.

”“You’re damned right you’re going to pay for the mess your people created here." The gruff response from the General came before the Governor got a chance to speak.

“General, please. Let’s at least try to remain civil.” He said to the General before facing Dandewante. “Madam President, this is an acceptable gesture to the Realm, and a good display of good faith. I do believe that there is a way for us to find a mutually acceptable way of coming from this incident that doesn’t involve the General bombing your beautiful territories. Am I not correct General?”

The General scowled at the politician, frowning as he reluctantly replied, “There may be such a way, yes. But it will have to be a pretty damned generous one! For starters, I want it in writing that the Indian Council will commit to pay for all damages caused by your citizens – I don’t give a damn who in Saint Lazare they owed their allegiance to, they’re all your citizens as far as we are concerned. You’ll also commit to paying compensation for all those whose lives were lost, in writing, and agree to not ask for the repatriation of whomever of the attackers may survive. I admit that this last bit is unlikely, but out of somewhere around thirty thousand terrorists, there’s bound to be one or two who survives.”

Suddenly, the muffled sound of a ringing telephone broke the uneasy silence left after the General’s latest statement. Reaching into his trouser pocket, the General retrieved a cellphone and answered it, listening intensely for fifteen seconds before saying something in Cottish before he hung up the phone. Placing the phone on the desk, the General sat back with a small smile – the first of the day – on his lips.

“That was Oslo. Your little problem in Saint Lazare may be solved sooner than you thought.”

Saint Lazare

The message was received in the embassy and read. It seemed that Singha was smarter than the TITAN operators had first believed, but that’s why they never relied completely on plan A. It was time to change to plan B. If Singha wouldn’t come to them, they’d come to Singha.

The Cottish team planned on Singha observing international diplomatic protocols and procedures. This meant that they could be relatively safe from search and premature discovery, since the GOLF team was operating under the guise of being diplomats, complete with diplomatic immunity. That meant that the Lazares couldn’t search them, question them or even look at them the wrong way, lest they wanted to start an international incident. Therefore, the secondary plan involved a straight and simple up-front-and-personal assassination. Nothing fancy. They’d just shoot him dead.

Of course, doing so would create a one hell of a ruckus, which was why Task Force 48 received highly encrypted, priority one orders shortly after the decision was made. In the assault ships, the companies of Royal Marines assembled and were given briefings on the job that was to be done. They had gone over the situation constantly over the past few weeks, and now the die was finally cast.

The battle plan, codenamed Swift Breeze, required the first Royal Marines to set down in Saint Lazare and secure the primary objectives – the Parliament, the Royal Palace and the entrance to the Lazare military base – no later than ten minutes after Singha was dead. That meant that the Royal Marines had to be in their helicopters and airborne before the diplomats arrived at the Parliament, and hold positions just over the horizon to avoid detection. Considering the Lazare early warning systems (or lack thereof), that wouldn’t be a problem. The primary objectives for the Royal Marines would be to secure the Royal Family, which intelligence placed in the Royal Palace, and the Parliament. Following the successful rescue of the Royal Family, the Cottish had to get the Grand Duchess on the television and radio as quickly as possible to get her to order the Lazare military forces and police not to fight against the Royal Marines, who would display extreme care in the use of force. They would be acting on orders not to open fire unless fired upon. The hope was that there wouldn’t be any more shots fired than the ones GOLF would use to kill Singha.

Of course, there was the risk that Singha would find out about the assassination plot and be able to escape that, in which case the intelligence officers stationed in the embassy would be waiting in the vicinity with a laser marker and a radio connecting them to a flight of fighters armed with laser-guided bombs. They’d reduce the Parliament to nothing but rubble (or Singha’s car if he managed to escape), after which Swift Breeze would proceed as earlier planned with the partial occupation of Saint Lazare. That was plan C.

Everything was meticulously planned and prepared in advance, so it took less than an hour from the Lazare reply was received to a Cottish reply to the Lazare reply was issued from the Embassy.

Diplomatic Communiqué to General Singha

Dear General,

This is acceptable for us. As we are sure you are aware, the diplomatic staff at the embassy was reinforced yesterday. His Majesty’s Special Envoy wish to meet you in person in order to discuss and hopefully find a mutually acceptable resolution to the extraordinary situation in India, and hope that we can meet as quickly as possible.

We await your reply.

[signed]
His Majesty’s Representative to Saint Lazare

Trivandum

Dandewante was thinking in her mind about the General's demands. He was a pretty grouchy person to command any respect, but she also realized that her respect made the balance of power - if she showed any inclination to make the General upset might be the end of India. But ironically she wanted to make him upset, so he could perhaps die of some heart attack from all of that unnecessary stress that he was putting on everyone else. But she turned her attention to the Governor, whose courtesy was in contrast to the General's attitude.

"What do you mean by 'your little problem may be solved sooner than you thought'?" she asked.

Saint Lazare

Singha soon received the message, within the hour. He was pleased. "Perhaps intentions are harder to read than what it appears. Tell them to meet me at Parlement in an hour, if possible."

The staff looked at him in a somewhat crazed manner. He was becoming more and more unpredictable, and it started to make his subordinates uncomfortable. Uncomfortable to the brink of planning against the man who planned a Golden Age for Saint Lazare.

They sent the message: "General Singha requests your presence at Parlement in 60 minutes."


In the meantime, there was one active dissident among the Lazare commanders. Colonel Sébastien Delacroix was an avid royalist, and supported the Grand Duke. While he had no idea what had happened to the Grand Duke [that is, that Singha murdered him], he was faintly aware of the situation involving the Royal Family, and made an endeavor to plan a coup against Singha, to restore the Royalty - somehow that is.

He sent a message to the Cottish Embassy, once he realized that Singha might be working with the Cottish Embassy.

To the Cottish Ambassador:

I am aware of certain discussions between your embassy and the General [Singha]. I would urge you to reconsider this option in favor of more hostile relations with the man. I am not certain of the circumstances surrounding his rise to power, but as a firm and avid supporter of the late Royal Family, I am begging you to reconsider.

I was in command of the guard unit, protecting the Royal Family until news of the Prince Renaud had surfaced. In outrage, Singha reprimanded my action - I did not believe that the boy would be a serious threat, and I wanted him to have more freedom during the emergency period - and replaced me with a more harsh commander. I have now learned that this commander had recently ordered the execution of the remaining Royal Family to prevent another escape, soon after the Grand Duchess made her confessions on mass media. I cannot imagine any man in charge of the CDU [Emergency Defense Council - otherwise known as Conseils de Défense Urgent] who would condemn such an action now, and it seems apparent to me that Singha is using the late Grand Duke's death as an excuse to seize power If you are convinced by this evidence, please call me once you receive this message.

Colonel Duchat

He signed using a pseudonym, in case the Cottish embassy was secretly working to subvert the Saint Lazare state...

Trivandum

The Governor shook his head.

“I’m as in the dark as you are madam President. Perhaps you could enlighten us General?”

The General gave the two other people in the room a small smile as he explained the conversation.

”Oslo’s decided that Singha was responsible for the assassination of the Grand Duke, who was a close friend and ally of the Realm. Therefore, they’ve decided to remove Singha from power and restore the rightful rulers of Saint Lazare to power, courtesy of the Royal Marines. Singha should be dead within a few hours according to Oslo. Until we’ve got confirmation that he’s dead, I’m afraid we cannot allow you to warn your cronies in Saint Lazare about the assassination plan. It would be a shame if we had to add another few hundred Cottish lives to the already lengthy casualty list that you people are responsible for.”

The Governor looked shocked at the news, to say the least. He certainly hadn’t expected that the central government to try something this audacious and risky!

“Madam President, I swear to almighty Krishna himself, I had no knowledge of this...” The Governor pleaded Dandewante before a sharp bark from the General shut him up.

“Oh stop crying your ass off!” The General demanded. ”These are orders directly from the King himself, and they are in accordance with the Treaty of Monaco. Singha is an enemy of both the Realm and Saint Lazare, on the same lines with say a Russian invasion force, and he will be killed just like a Russian invasion force. The Realm honors its word. Do you?”

The question was directed directly to Dandewante, and it was clear that the General didn’t quite believe her just yet.

Saint Lazare

The Embassy received the message immediately, and immediately they started checking their files after the file on a certain Colonel Duchat. Saint Lazare was a small country with a military of less than eight thousand, and the embassy’s intelligence officers had spent the last couple of years secretly and systematically cataloguing all officers above the rank of Captain (or its equivalent). They had a file on each and every one of them, so it was a surprise to the intelligence officers when they didn’t find a match to a Colonel Duchat. Puzzled, they checked another database, which was an overview of Lazare military units. Pulling up the file on the Royal Protection Guard, the intelligence officers found out that the last known commander of said unit was one Colonel S. Delacriox, who they did have a file on. Checking it, they found out what little information there was, including that he was assessed to be a staunch supporter of the Royal Family, and thus a likely threat to Singha.

Armed with this knowledge, the intelligence officers could formulate a recommendation to the station chief, military attaché and the ambassador for what to do next. They recommended he be used to gain valuable information on the precise whereabouts of the Royal Family and the forces protecting them. Of course, it could be an attempt by Singha to provoke the Cottish into doing something stupid, so they strongly recommended that he not be shown the big picture of things.

It was decided to follow the advice from the intelligence officers.

Encrypted Communiqué

Colonel Duchat,

We need to talk. Be at the University Café in thirty minutes. I will be wearing a brown hat.

[signed]
A friend at the Cottish embassy

With that sorted, the Ambassador and the four-man GOLF team had dressed up in their finest business suits and gotten into the black Mercedes-Benz stretch limousine, escorted by two black Mercedes-Benz S550 sedans carrying two armed Diplomatic Protection Officers each, to go to the Lazare Parliament. It was just a quick drive over the bridge connecting the International Island and the mainland, but it was enough time for them to go over the plan one more time before it was show-time. The four men in GOLF checked their weapons one last time, making sure that they were loaded with .45 hollow-point bullets in their pistols and the silencers were firmly attached before they concealed them underneath the designer suit jackets they wore. Two of the men were armed with small MP7A1 personal defense weapons, hidden underneath the jackets.

These men were so well trained in the art of concealing weapons and equipment that not even Singha or his personal guard couldn’t tell that they were carrying weapons. Still, despite the weapons being well concealed, it would take the men less than a second to have the weapons out and firing. It would take a patting down of the men to find the weapons, and that would be out of the question. If Singha’s people tried, they would be stopped with a strong verbal warning that this was unheard of and that it would be a violation of the diplomatic immunity that the diplomats enjoyed, not to mention a personal insult aimed at His Majesty the King of Cotland, and that wars had started for lesser reasons. Thus, if the Lazares wanted to avoid invoking the wrath of the Realm, the men would say, they’d better keep their hands and metal detectors well away from His Majesty’s Envoys.

As the three cars pulled up to the Parliament, less than ninety kilometers away, thirty grey hulls were steaming towards Saint Lazare in a tight formation. On four of them, heavily armed men dressed in the battle uniform of the Cottish Royal Marines were jogging into waiting helicopters while VTOL fighters flew overhead in a tight combat air patrol.

The hour of reckoning was fast approaching.

Trivandum

On another day, Dandewante would have been outraged. She would have been enticed to slap the General. But it was not that day. She was... happy.

"I'm actually surprised to say this, but I'm glad that Cottish King has decided to believe us than to believe him. I'm not to pleased about the manner, but if it removed Singha as a threat, I'm certain that it's going to be alright."

She looked to the Governor. "It's alright. I'm not harboring any ill will against the Cottish realm. It should be you holding the grudge. We've watched 50,000 of our soldiers kill your people... But once Singha is gone, we'll have a restoration to the ways before, and we can at peace again. And no doubt, we will make arrangements about the payment and compensation for everything."

She gazed out the window, watching the clouds suddenly peel away and let the beautiful sunset shine in. She couldn't imagine that it was going to be over in a few hours.

Saint Lazare

Colonel Duchat received the email, wondering why they sent an encrypted communiqué. Of course, it was probably the only thing that they had available at their disposal, so it was a logical choice. Still, it made him uneasy. He left his office immediately, telling his secretary that he would be out for some coffee, asking her if she wanted any.

It was a perfect alibi at least. He walked the long way to the University Café, looking for a man wearing a brown. To his dismay, everyone was a wearing a brown hat. The brown chapeau, the brown beret, the brown shawl, the brown turban, the brown cap, the brown fez, the brown helmet, even the brown ushanka. It was a hopeless case. He decided to take a seat by the window, ordering a café express.

[ooc: OOF! Saint Lazare is no bigger then 2 km, and you're making them drive 90 km?]

Meanwhile, Singha waited for the diplomats to arrive at Parlement. Guards of the EDC were all around to guard his presence, but when they saw the Cottish 'diplomats' arrive, they let them through without checking their bags. To them, the threat was still outside. There would only be one chance to get Singha. The truth was that Parlement had been redone in recent years so that the Grand Duke could walk through a secret passage to Parlement in the event his presence was needed, and Singha knew the ways through it. If the Cottish agents messed up [hopefully, they wouldn't...], he'd make the dash to the Palais and stay locked up in his fortress. In any case, his days were numbered.

Abroad HMS Devestator

[ooc: only because I don't know where else he would be...]

The Prince Renaud Roumillet was still shaken by the events that had transpired, but he was strong enough now to tell the story of what happened.

"I was walking out of the Palais for a quick moment, because I wanted to the Casino and walk at the beach. I had been stuck in my room for a long time, and I begged the man watching over us to let me go. He let me go, but almost immediately, some other guards starting to chase. I thought they were playing... But then... they started pulling out their guns and I got scared. I ran away from the Palais, and they were still chasing me. I fell down the old fort walls, but they continue to chase me. Then they started to shoot! Shoot! I thought they wanted to play with me, but they wanted to kill me!"

Renaud paused for a short moment.

"They wanted to kill me. So I ran to the only place I knew was safe. The International City. A lot of people there. I thought at least. I followed the crowds, hoping that they'd go away. And I... don't know what happened after that. They were gone, but I kept running, because there were a lot of people. I kept walking until some man tapped me on the shoulder, asking for a ticket. I thought he was going to kill me. I didn't have a ticket. But he let me stay on board the ship. And... that's all I can say for now. But they wanted to kill me. Why would they want to kill me?"

[OOC: Post coming later/tomorrow. If you read the sentence, you'd find out that it is Task Force 48 which is ninety kilometers away from Saint Lazare (in the Mediterranian), not the three cars. And Renaud would be aboard HMS Devestator, not Empress of the Seas.]

[OOC: Post coming later/tomorrow. If you read the sentence, you'd find out that it is Task Force 48 which is ninety kilometers away from Saint Lazare (in the Mediterranian), not the three cars. And Renaud would be aboard HMS Devestator, not Empress of the Seas.]

[Okay - edited relevant information.]

[OOC: Would you mind terribly if I had Singha executed in my post?]

[OOC: Would you mind terribly if I had Singha executed in my post?]

[ooc: I've got plans for his death to occur at the same place where he killed the Grand Duke - so that means he has to escape back to the Palais. But following him shouldn't be too hard. After all, it is one tunnel, and it leads to the same place anyway.]

The Parliament, Saint Lazare

The arrival went off without a hitch, and the Cottish delegation was escorted to the meeting room where Singha awaited their arrival. Entering the room, the Ambassador led the procession and greeted Singha while one of the GOLF operatives discreetly pressed a button on a small PDA-like device he held concealed in his left hand, sending a signal via a Cottish military communications satellite orbiting somewhere above Europe to two recipients: High Command in Oslo, and Task Force 48 which was steaming towards Saint Lazare at twenty-three knots.

The message was highly encrypted and on its way within one eight of a second, yet it contained a very simple message: EXECUTING PHASE ONE. The message was received both places a little over a second later, starting an unstoppable chain of events.

The Ambassador considered himself blessed with a good poker face which had helped him win many a hand of Texas Hold'em over the years. None of those games had contained as big stakes as the one in the game he played now. Regardless of the outcome, lives were going to be lost. If things went good, only a few lives would be lost. If things went bad, many lives would be lost. He had to put thoughts like this out of his mind right now though. With his poker face on, the Ambassador smiled graciously to the man who in a minute's time would hopefully be dead as he shook his hand.

"General Singha, it is good to meet you again. Please, allow me to present the envoys His Majesty have sent to solve the Indian crisis." He said, gesturing to the lead operator, who looked very much like a diplomat, dressed in a tailor-made expensive suit and with a friendly smile on his face as he extended his hand.

At the same time, just within Singha's line of sight, one of the "envoys" reaching in between his jacket...

University Café, Saint Lazare

The intelligence officer wearing the brown baseball cap, t-shirt and jeans saw Colonel Duchat, a.k.a. Colonel Sébastien Delacroix of the Lazare L'Armée de Terre enter the café and sit down. Grabbing his backpack, the intelligence officer walked over to the table and sat down, wearing a friendly smile on his lips.

"Bonjour Colonel Duchat, or should I say, Colonel Delacroix?"

18 meters above the Mediterranian Sea, moving quickly towards Saint Lazare

FOXFIRE flight consisted of eight TH-12A Super Stallion II heavy transport helicopters, ten HH-14B Merlin utility helicopters and two AH-11B Reaper gunships, carrying a full battalion of Royal Marines - five hundred and sixty-three well-trained, well-equipped elite infantrymen - towards their objectives. The Royal Marines would deploy to four initial locations.

The primary location would be the Royal Palace, where a full company of one hundred sevety-four men would move quickly through the floors of the Palace, locate and secure the Royal Family, and neutralize any resistance they might encounter from Singha-loyal troops. The other locations were the Parliament, where a command post would be established, the only road connecting Fontvielle Military Installation with the rest of Saint Lazare, to halt or at least delay any reinforcements to the Parliament or Royal Palace, and to the Radio Monaco, to take control over the communications systems they would have to use to get the Grand Duchess to order the Lazare troops and Gendarmerie to work alongside the Cottish Royal Marines.

FOXFIRE was supported by a flight of six JA-22A Savage II VTOL fighters, armed with air to ground munitions and jamming pods to create confusion in the event the Lazares wanted to fight. This fighter force, which was codenamed YARA, would not release their weapons or start the jamming until they had some sort of confirmation that the Lazares wanted to fight.

The battalion of Royal Marines would feet dry in four and a half minutes, and would be reinforced within twenty minutes of setting foot on Lazare soil by another battalion, which would have grown to a full regiment within two hours. If the Lazares were dead-set on fighting, that force would consist of the full Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the warships anchored off shore within range of the 130mm dual-purpose cannons on the frigates, destroyers and cruisers within nightfall.

Saint Lazare
Parlement

Singha remained the naive and gullible fool as he extended his hand to meet the Cottish Ambassador. "It's a great tragedy what's happened in India recently." Just then, the Cottish ambassador was introducing his personnel when he caught a man reaching into his coat pocket. His guards were tipsy, ready to fire. But he gave no order, as he watched fearfully as the man pulled out an inhaler. He gave a silent sigh of relief.

"I assure you that justice will be served to every person responsible in this action."

The Cottish Ambassador nodded. [I hope you don't mind the liberty I'm taking to get Singha to the Palace right now...] "It certainly is a tragedy. It's why we made every endeavor to come here to discuss a way to resolve the crisis before it escalates. As you know, we are holding back our full might in respect for our previous treaties. It would be... bad to dishonor them, wouldn't you say?"

Singha nodded. "But where are my manners? I hope that our hospitality in the Grand Duchy has not been wasted in rounding up terrorists. Monseigneur! Please bring us some coffee!"

The choice seemed random. But the Cottish ambassador was quick to ask, "And might I inquire on the health of the late Grand Duke's family? I had last heard of a... kidnapping of one of the Royals?"

Singha nodded. "Well, we're taking preventive measures to assure their absolute safety. I'm afraid a visit won't be possible."

The ambassador nodded his head, coughing lightly himself . "It is a tragedy that it had come to that."

Instantly, the same envoy reached into his jacket - Singha thinking he was asthmatic discounted it - and pulled out a pistol. He fired twice. His first shot went into Singha's shoulder, but the second one missed as the next few seconds saw the entire room turn into a gunfight. Singha, bleeding now and realizing how foolish he had been, began to rush through the Parlement to achieve his perfect escape. The Cottish ambassador was yelling at the envoys in Cottish, "Go kill him quickly and quietly!"

A number of the hit team ran after Singha, while the rest remained to incapacitate the guards. Singha was easy to follow, with an indelible blood trail leading to the tunnel that led to Singha's place of refuge. The fool, in his haste, forgot to close the door...

Saint Lazare
University Café

Immediately, Delacroix shushed him. "Be careful with names. Singha listens to everything."

To be honest, he wasn't surprised that the man knew his real name. But he nonetheless wished to maintain a good cover. "Duchat is fine for now."

[ooc: just to spoil the ending, except Renaud, who is sitting on the HMS [I]Devestator, the entire Royal family is now dead - so Madame la Duchesse cannot make your announcement...but someone else can...]

Parliament, Saint Lazare

The assassination had gone wrong, thanks to the zealous bodyguard who had jumped the Cottish assassin just as he pulled the trigger, changing a death-delivering headshot into a mere wounding shoulder wound. That bodyguard had met his maker a few seconds later as the room erupted into gunfire, with the four GOLF members making mincemeat out of the General's bodyguards with their silenced pistols and MP7A1s. Two of the assassins, one armed with a pistol and the other one with a MP7A1, ran after Singha while the other two remained in the room, taking up blocking positions to protect the ambassador until relief arrived.

Making their way through the tunnel quickly but silently, the two operators found to their positive surprise that the door that Singha had fled through was unlocked. They estimated that this door led to the Palace, where Singha's forces stood strong, and that the chances of success had just decreased significantly. By now, Singha was probably alerting his security contingient that assassins were hot on his tail. That meant that whatever hid itself behind the door could be a death trap waiting for the operators to walk into it. Still, the operators weren't paid to play it safe. Pulling out a flashbang grenade from his jacket pocket, the pistol-carrying operator pulled out the safety pin and motioned for the man with the MP7A1 to wait until after it had detonated before they pounced. Nodding that he understood, the two men took up position on either side of the door.

Whoever waited on the other side of the door would see that the door opened and that a small cylindrical object came in through the open door before their world would erupt into a blinding white light and a deafening boom, rendering them blind and deaf. It would be the last thing they ever experienced, as the two men who rushed through the door instantly after the flashbang had detonated would kill anyone carrying a weapon or looking threatening before following the bloodtrails.

University Café, Saint Lazare

"No problem. You can call me Adam," The intelligence officer said, offering his hand as a gesture of sincerety and friendly intents. Of course, Adam wasn't his real name, but Delacroix didn't have to know that.

"So what's on your mind Colonel Duchat? From your message, it sounded urgent."

Saint Lazare
Grand Palais

General Singha had retired to the Grand Duke's office, the only room in the Palace that was "bomb-proof". He alerted his guards immediately that Cottish officials were hostile, and to kill all Cottish personnel in Saint Lazare. The honest truth was that there were few who wanted to fight against the Cottish after what happened in India. The majority of the forces in Fontvielle chose not to follow the orders, expecting Cotland to seize and acquire the Grand Duchy - you wouldn't want to fight against your future captors. Of course, it was this "surrender" mode that would make it easy to pacify the population.

But there were a number of fanatical soldiers that made a defensive stand. A company of soldiers [100 men roughly] were guarding the Grand Palais, but their positions were spread out. One platoon [20] guarded the access to Parlement. Another guarded the door to the Grand Duke's office. The other three guard various accesses - the main entrance, the courtyard, and the helipad.

The Cottish assassins made their way and arrived at the first room in the Palace, where 10 soldiers were waiting expectedly. The flashbang took out most of them, as the blindness soon faded to the rushing sounds of gunfire. The remainder of the platoon went crashing into the room, but the assassins were well-positioned and dispatched most of them. The few that weren't dead were considerably incapacitated and wouldn't bother them for the duration of their quest.

[ooc: if you want, you can kill Singha in the next post, as everything is set for action. Have him plead, have him commit suicide, have him piss himself, have all of the above... just have fun with it :D]

Saint Lazare
University Café

Delacroix didn't believe his name was Adam, but in the circumstances, he played with it anyway. Recent experience told him to trust people sparingly.

"I have reason to believe that Singha has gone mad."

Adam nodded, as if to say, 'Yeah. So what?' Delacroix continued to explain. "I did mention that a guard managed to kill off the Royal Family. I tried to mention this to Singha, but he seemed unaffected by this. He turned to me and said, 'The fewer people I have to watch, the better.' I looked at him and thought, 'Maybe I'm next.'

"I had hoped for some better situation to meet you, but with your ambassador meeting Singha, I felt that the truth had to be told. I don't have any evidence to support it, but I now believe that Singha arranged for the Grand Duke's death, just so he could get into power. Because ever since he created the EDC, he's been running the entire country. People aren't allowed to enter or leave - except for foreigners. People who speak ill of their circumstances disappear. People who speak favorably are promoted. And I have a good suspicion that Singha wants to expand his rule elsewhere. But I haven't any idea yet."

Adam continued to listen silently. Delacroix felt compelled to ask, "You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

Royal Palace

The two assassins had discovered that there were a lot more people guarding that entrance than they had expected, but pressed on. A quick firefight later, and they had stopped the enemy with no friendly casualties. Reloading as they ran up the stairs, the men followed the bloodtrails up to one of the upper floors, shooting dead any armed personnel they encountered on their way.

After bursting through several doors and finding no Singha, the two men finally broke through the last set of double doors to find their target. General Singha stood in front of the Grand Duke's desk, unarmed, and looked straight at the two suit-clad operators. He looked petrified, something he had every reason to be. The two Cots were aiming their weapons at Singha, smiling slightly when they realized that they had him.

"You are a very slippery fish, General. But we gotcha." One of the assassins said in perfect English, changing his footing slightly to get a steadier aim at Singha's head. "Get down on your fucking knees."

The General hesitated a second too long, making the operator shift his aim and shoot him in the knee. The caliber .45 hollow-point bullet destroyed his kneecap immediately and sent intense shots of pain up the nervous system, making the already uncomfortable soon-to-be ex-dictator fall to his knees in extreme pain. The two men moved a bit closer to Singha.

"That's better." The same man said, continuing as he repositioned himself behind Singha and placed the muzzle of the silenced pistol to the back of Singha's head. "This is for South India."

Singha obviously understood what was to come, because the blood seeping into expensive carpet he kneeled on suddenly mixed with the General's urine. That became the last thing General Singha ever did, as at that very second, the operator pressed the trigger. The caliber .45 hollow-point bullet pierced through the back of his skull at a speed of 360 meters per second, expanded as it turned his brain into a liquid slimy goo and caused his forehead to explode into a silver dollar-shaped hole, with blood, brain matter and bone fragments splattering across the carpet and nearby wall, causing a mess that it would take some time and effort to clean up.

With Singha confirmed dead - no human being survives having his brain blown out of his skull - the operative pulled out his PDA and took a picture of the deceased General before he speed-dialled the correct number and spoke.

"Mother Hen, this is Black Shadow. Mission accomplished. I repeat, mission accomplished."

University Café

"So what you're saying," Adam said quietly, leaning over the table and looking Delacroix in the eyes, "Is that the Royal Family is dead?"

"Yes." Was the simple reply the Lazare colonel had to offer. Adam managed to keep his facial expression completely neutral, but within him, his thoughts were racing around and his gut suddenly felt icy. The plan was FUBAR'd and had to be altered. After a few seconds, Adam continued, his voice sounding a little different.

"No, I don't believe you're crazy. I believe you're confirming something we've believed for quite some time now. At least the Royal line hasn't died out completely."

Adam rose from the table. "Follow me please Colonel."

Delacroix hesitated for a few seconds before following Adam outside to the plaza and over to the fence overlooking Saint Lazare. Leaning on the fence, Adam studied the sky for a few seconds before pointing to Delacroix.

"See there?" He said, pointing to a group of tiny dots on the horizon, growing larger for every passing second. "As you can see, we have no intention of letting Singha continue his charade."

A few seconds later, the group of dots split up into four smaller groups, each heading in a different direction. By now, Delacroix, who was a trained military officer, could recognize the larger of the dots as TH-12As, the Cottish model of the Layartebian CH-53N Super Stallion II heavy transport helicopters, which were operated by the Royal Marines.

Adam turned back to Delacroix and said in a quiet, calm voice, "We need your help Colonel. Nay, Saint Lazare needs your help, if the Duchy is to survive. We need you to tell the people of Saint Lazare what you just told me. You have to tell them the truth and let them know what kind of a dictator Singha was."

Adam used the past tense in the last sentence, believing that Singha had been successfully assassinated by the four mysterious men who had arrived in the embassy a few days ago.

FOXFIRE 1-1

"ETA to target, fifteen seconds."

"Copy that, fifteen seconds." The crew chief in the passenger cabin of the lumbering TH-12A said, taking a look outside the starboard doorway where his Minigun was mounted to see if he got a visual on Landing Zone Alpha, also known as the Royal Palace's rooftop. "Hey, I've got people on the LZ... holy shit they're shooting!"

The outburst from the crew chief was complemented by the metalling sound of bullets hitting the armored underbelly of the helicopter.

"Copy that. I'm gonna swing her around for a strafing run. Starboard gunner, stand by." The pilot said, breaking off the landing attempt and increasing speed while decending slightly and moving his helicopter to the port to allow the M134A2 Minigun mounted in the starboard door a good field of fire while the co-pilot contacted the rest of FOXFIRE flight and informed them of the slight change of plan.

The crew chief had turned on the power to the electrically operated Minigun a few minutes earlier, while they were over the ocean, so it was just for him to man the gun and aim it at the rooftop where there were about twenty men assembled with assault rifles, shotguns, submachine guns and pistols, shooting at the large helicopter. Fortunately, the helicopter was armored to resist heavy machine gun bullets, meaning that the many bullets fired at the helicopter bounced off harmlessly. Smiling slightly, the twenty-four year old crew chief aimed at the largest gathering of enemies and pulled the trigger.

A few milliseconds later, the Minigun started spewing out 7.62mm bullets from its rotating six barrels at a rate of fire of 2000 rounds per minute - the other setting was 4000 - from the helicopter and into the group of enemies four hundred meters away. Burning hot spent bullet casings rained down on the city below, scaring the living daylights out of the civilian population below even more than the angry sound of the Minigun firing or the flapping sound of the helicopter's rotor blades.

Six seconds and two hundred rounds of ammunition later, the number of enemies had been reduced to a mere six, who were more scattered. The crew chief fired again, sweeping the helipad for another few seconds until nothing else moved before releasing the trigger.

"Landing Zone clear." He stated content into the intercom, allowing the pilot to make another attempt at landing. This time, there was no resistance in the form of shooting from the blood-soaked helipad, and fifteen seconds later, the helicopter came to a hover half a meter over the helipad - the pilots were following standard combat practice by hovering and not landing, plus that they didn't want their tires soaked in blood from the thurroughly punctured corpses that lay on the helicopter pad, some still clutching their Cottish-made rifles - allowing the fifty-five combat-ready Royal Marines carried inside to make the short jump out of the helicopter and fan out to secure their LZ.

With all fifty-five men out of the helicopter, FOXFIRE 1-1 climbed and took up a circling pattern over the Royal Palace, it's three Miniguns providing overwatch for the Royal Marines while FOXFIRE 1-2 disembarked its load of Royal Marines like 1-1 had just done.

A few of the enemies were still alive, but they were quickly dispatched with headshots from the Royal Marines' DR-83M assault rifles while the Royal Marines split up into sections and began entering the Royal Palace, pouncing through the corridors, rooms and halls, quickly and mercilessly eliminating any armed resistance they encountered.

Fontvielle Military Base

A hundred meters from the main gate to Fontvielle, four HH-17A Lord medium-sized transport helicopters preformed a similar manouver to the one the Super Stallion IIs had preformed at the Royal Palace, decending to a quick hover half a meter above the ground to allow its load of sixteen Royal Marines to disembark and deploy into their eight-man sections. Seven rifle sections and one machine gun section was being deployed as a blocking force to keep the forces at Fontvielle from deploying out from their base.

The men spread out the moment they hit the ground, covering the gate with their DMG-83 light machine guns and FN MAG general purpose machine guns to keep anyone from using this way to get out of the base. While the men did that, one of the group's two officers advanced towards the gate with one of his riflemen as an escort, holding his weapon in a non-threatening manner which still allowed him to bring it to bear within a second. The two Royal Marines looked fearsome in their digital camouflage uniforms and protective gear.

Approaching the guard at the gate, who looked pretty damned nervous, the Cottish officer - he was a Lieutenant Commander - said in French, "I am Lieutenant Commander Hansen of His Majesty's Royal Marines, and I need to speak with your commanding officer at once. Can you kindly get him down here?"

International Island Causeway

At the causeway to the International Island, two HH-17 Lord helicopters had deployed sixteen Royal Marines while a third had offloaded a few rolls of cortentina wire and some wooden roadblocks, which the Royal Marines immediately streched out over the way, blocking all but one lane of road. Setting up defensive positions on either side, the Royal Marines stopped whatever there was of cars, ordering them to return to where they came from, and that they were carrying out orders issued by the Lazare authorities. The Royal Marines behaved in a polite and correct but firm manner. Fortunately, the Lazare people knew better than to argue with men with loaded guns.

Radio Monaco

A platoon from the Royal Marines deployed from their TH-12A helicopter directly onto the parking lot to Radio Monaco, and immediately rushed into the building. The building had been designed by a Cottish architect firm, and the Royal Marines had studied the blueprints carefully before the operation began. Armed with this knowledge, they split up into sections and headed for their respective objectives to assume control of the radio station.

A few minutes later, and about a minute after the radio had interrupted its scheduled broadcasting to go to the news desk, the broadcast suddenly stopped and was replaced by static. The Royal Marines had been successful in taking control of the radio station, without a single bullet fired (although the officer leading the platoon had been forced to cock his pistol and place it at the editor's head to get him to hand over control).

The radio staff was now being held under armed guard while the Royal Marines at the radio station waited for their comrades at the Royal Palace to secure the Grand Duchess and get her over to the radio station. They still didn't know what the Grand Duchess was dead.

Saint Lazare
University Café

Colonel Delacroix looked anxiously out the window.

"If you put a gun to most of these people, they won't fight back. After all, there is something about this place that makes people complacent to foreign invaders... But it's the people that will fight back who concern me."

He turned to Adam, saying, "Is there a way I can talk to the soldiers? If General Singha truly is taken care of, then they will need to hear a commanding officer. Better they hear from me than someone else who might be more aligned with Singha, or someone who just doesn't know."

Fontvielle Military Base

Just as the Garrison Commander of Fontvielle stepped out to meet Lieutenant Commander Hansen, shots rang out, and the man fell down dead. Immediately, soldiers took their positions and began to fire against whoever was firing upon them.

Abroad HMS Devestator

Prince Renaud was still being comforted by the Cottish Navy, when he decided that it was time to try to see his family.

"If it's possible, I'd like to go back home. I feel that my mom will be missing me by now."

Trivandum

Dandewante was watching one of the Governor's aides steep some tea for them. The General had gone away for a short moment, to hear some word from Saint Lazare. In the meantime, the Governor tried to comfort his guest, no doubt in shock over what was happening to her country. "This is fresh Indian tea, of course."

"I noticed," Dandewante said. "It has a very good aroma. Cottish India?"

The Governor nodded. Dandewante nodded, glancing out the window. The sunset had long since turned to nighttime. She began to talk about Singha. "He was the only one among us who had experience in the military. When we started the rebellion against TLS some long time ago, we needed a good military man to fight our battles, while we got someone to help finance our operations. Singha had pushed us so far to where we are today. He even suggested that we look at Saint Lazare - a rich enclave. I hesitated, but I think it was the best choice. They were a neutral country - perhaps still are despite all of this.

"But Singha was a wise man. I'm just not so certain how he turned against all of us. Perhaps it was when we told him that we couldn't own all of India. You know? He spearheaded the offensive campaigns against Varsola and Safehaven, without our consultation. I mean, we had to get rid of him. Saint Lazare seemed far enough away from here..."

She stopped to think. "We could have stopped this if we just killed him here. But for what then? He wasn't an evil man before he killed over 100,000 people indiscriminately. Who do you think killed these people? Singha, for ordering those poor men? Or us, for failing to get rid of him before this?"

Saint Lazare
University Café

‘Adam’ nodded.

”The Royal Marines are securing the radio station as we speak. The plan is to get the Duchess there as quickly as possible after we’ve liberated her so she can inform Saint Lazare of what’s happened and that they mustn’t fight us. We’ll go there now. Do you have a car?”

Saint Lazare
Fontvielle Military Installation

The shots made the Royal Marines react. LtCmdr Hansen’s DR-83M was up and ready instantly, the officer scanning the horizon to see if he could see where the shots came from, backing away from the gate while barking in the helmet-mounted microphone that was connected to the open company radio frequency, being ready for anything.

“Hold your fire! Who fired? Is everyone okay?”

Back at the established roadblock the Royal Marines had established, the men of the blocking force held their positions and searched through their rifle-mounted red-dot and ACOG scopes for the shooter. They knew it wasn’t them, which meant that it had to be one of the Lazares.

“No one here fired sir. None of us got hit either.” A sergeant replied after having made sure the men were okay and getting confirmation that they still had all the ammo they had been issued before they left the LPD.

“Damn! Okay, hold your positions. We’re on our way back to you.” LtCmdr Hansen said before switching frequency.

“Big Daddy, this is Blackberry 3. We have shots fired inside the base, I repeat, shots fired inside the base. No friendly casualties. Request helo recon support at present location.”

HMS Devestator

Prince Renaud was being kept in a vacant officer’s quarter within the Devestator, attended to by the only available officer who actually spoke French, the Judge Advocate General’s representative aboard Devestator, who held the rank of Lieutenant. The poor man tried his best to keep the young Prince comfortable, but it was clear that the boy was homesick.

"If it's possible, I'd like to go back home. I feel that my mom will be missing me by now."

The Lieutenant nodded. “We’ll get you home just as soon as it’s safe in Saint Lazare. I’m sure your mom will understand.”

He had no idea that the Duchess and Renaud’s brothers and sisters were all dead, killed by Singha’s henchmen just before the Cottish started their intervention.

Trivandum

The Governor sighed at the problem Dandewante had outlined. It was a difficult question to answer, and he wasn’t even sure if it was appropriate for him to answer it. It was a question best left to the central government to answer, but he had to say something. After pondering the issue for a few seconds, he sat up.

“It is a difficult question to answer Madam President,” He said, “And this is only my personal opinion and in no way representative of His Majesty’s Government.”

After pausing to make sure Dandewante understood that she couldn’t automatically take the Governor’s reply as being the answer of the Realm of Cotland, he continued.

“Personally, I believe that the fault cannot be placed squarely on one or the other. Both parties must accept their part of the blame here. You for not removing Singha from any position of power where he had the potential of causing harm… Not necessarily killing him, but retiring him or something like that, and Singha for planning and ordering those men to do his evil bidding. Of course, His Majesty may or may not have a differing opinion.”

Saint Lazare
University Café

Delacroix hesitated at moving. He felt that this could be a trap.

"The Radio Station is not far from here. We could walk." At walking, there were people in the streets... presumably.

Fontvielle Military Base

The shooting stopped, and it seemed that there were only two injuried and one seriously huge fatality. It seemed odd that he was killed as he approached the Cottish troops; perhaps they started it? But that was hard to imagine. The shots came from the other direction - Lazare troops only. Who started the firefight?

The loss of the garrison commander didn't make things any better, since he held the unity of his troops. Without him, another spark would likely turn Fontvieille into a war zone, and the Cottish troops would likely fall into the crossfire [although they weren't necessarily in between the two camps...].

Trivandum

Dandewante nodded. It was a light answer and didn't really answer the question. But regardless of what the answer would have been, nothing would have made her remove the stains of guilt. "We had the power to do something. We could have forced an early retirement - but the man had a lot of political power in India. He was popular. If we made him retire, he would have been President. And India would be in far worse a condition than now. I'd imagine if he were President, he wouldn't stop at playing a minor invasion or mass-murder rampage, whatever we can call this. He would try to make it real."

She paused. "It's only good that we can say that we have good friends in the Realm. I hope that your men are faring well in their attempt remove Singha."

bump for Cotland

And so with Singha dead, the crises soon became less intense, allowing an informal return to normalcy. A few administrative details were handled by the Cottish military presence. With permission from the Dauphin, Saint Lazare [the city] would be put under Cottish military protection for the next 60 days. The Royal family, since Colonel Delacroix's shocking announcement of their death, is discovered cremated near the courtyard. The Dauphin, Renaud, returns to Saint Lazare after the Cottish forces have secured the city, and Colonel Delacroix, for his late action, is granted supervision over the Security Forces for the Grand Duke Renaud [as the last surviving member of his family] under Cottish supervision.

In the midst of the trouble, President Dandewante decides to make a trip to Saint Lazare, to affirm India's continued support for the Grand Duchy, and the new Grand Duke is crowned at the Grand Palais near the end of the Cottish supervision period. In the meantime, the Viceroyalty of Delhi makes financial preparations to compensate the loss incurred during Singha's dastardly attack, as volunteers offer to enter into Cottish India [or what remains of it] to help distribute the aid and help reconstruct the territory affected.

With everything now done, a new government would be structured.

Surprisingly though, Dandewante wanted to do more. She felt that madmen were still "out there" and the best way to stop them was a collaborative effort by all countries to peacefully remove them before military threats were necessary. In consultation with the young Grand Duke, she urged him to open the city to the world.

"Renaud, you above all should understand the nature of making the world safer."

"And you think inviting people over will do that?"

"Well, not simply that act," Dandewante said. "I imagine that we'd need a lot of talking. We'd need to have an idea on what sort of conventions are available for all of us to engage and create a stable community of nations. We both know the effects of wild and raging men. They are capable of genocide, and let's thank our grace that Singha didn't get that far."

"I'm not sure if I'm the right person for this job," Renaud said, still distraught over the loss of his family. Dandewante nodded, as she took her leave. She realized that something like this would need some time.