Romandeos
02-10-2006, 04:54
OOC: Hi there all. This is just a little post to make sure my friends on NS (if I have any, which I kind of doubt) know I am not dead. It gives a short glance into what is happening in Romandeos following a three-year period in which Romandeos has been hit with a bioplague launched by the nation of Otagia, and two ICBMs, one nuclear, and one conventional, launched from the nation of Zukariaa.
It's not my best work, but then, it hasn't been easy getting it ready...long story.
IC:
Fort Nichols Royal Army Training Camp, Romandeos
He only had to close his eyes and concentrate a little bit, and he could still see the fireball in the distance, growing on the horizon in the early morning. He had been driving to work like so many others when he had first seen the brightly glowing object descending rapidly like a falling star, plummeting earthwards. It vanished a moment as it landed, and then an incredibly bright flash, so bright it had caused him instinctively to shut his eyes, and slam his foot down on the brake pedal, sending his vehicle into an uncontrolled skid which had landed him in the shallow ditch located just along the roadside.
In the moment just before his airbags deployed, his mind registered the cloud was located in the general area of the city of Selbyton.
He was right. Selbyton, an industrial city with a large population, had been targeted by an intercontinental ballistic missile fired from Zukariaa, a nation he had heard about recently in the news. They were having a civil war, it seemed, and the missile was launched by the insurgent Rebels when Romandeos had approached the Loyalists.
He had been an insurance salesman before then, but once he saw the news reports, and he knew with certainty what had happened, he had quit that job and joined the Army, certain it would only be a little while before Royal troops went to Zukariaa, and he would maybe have an opportunity to get some revenge against the Rebels. However, the politicians had kept the soldiers home, and now, he was stuck in Boot Camp in a peacetime Royal Army.
“Recruit Hardy, what in God’s name do you think you are you doing?”
Recruit Lowell Hardy, RRA, snapped back to reality to find a DI whose name he couldn’t recall staring back at him, looking mad as Hell.
“Nothing, sir!” he barked back in response.
“Exactly!” the DI snapped back. “And since you seem to have nothing to do maybe you’d like to get in a little extra exercise and work off that gut?”
Hardy just blinked in response.
“Well?” the DI asked, sounding irritated. “Let’s see you do some pushups, Hardy.”
Hardy groaned inwardly as he lowered as quickly as he could into the position, and began his assigned torture as the DI watched him.
City of Valwald, Romandeos
Deana Kyle walked briskly down the crowded city sidewalk, armed loaded with groceries intended to last Deana and one child a full week. Normally, she would have carried a load large enough to support her, and two kids.
Recent events had changed things.
Deana tried to avoid the ruins where the school had once stood, where she had lost a child in a missile strike from Zukariaa. The missile had been one of two ICBMs launched when it became unknown which side Romandeos meant to assist in the fighting in Zukariaa, the land she had heard so much about lately, in the news. She was told that Valwald was least heavily damaged, because the one that hit Selbyton was nuclear, and the one that landed in Valwald had sported a conventional high explosive warhead.
Deana didn’t feel lucky. She had lost a son in the school the missile had hit, when it came in and annihilated so much, concrete and iron, flesh and blood. Her son’s school had been located at the blast’s epicenter, Ground Zero they called it, and the heat was so great there it had reduced everything to little more than slag and dust. No bodies had been found, and it was hard to know there would be no remains to bury.
In the time following the missile strikes, Deana had volunteered at the nearest hospital, an incredibly time-consuming and thankfully mind numbing task. The few who had survived in the aftermath of Selbyton being nuked where dispersed somewhat to make sure that the living would not die because swamped hospitals lacked supplies. She saw the injuries and horrible pain the people there had to endure, and it helped to deal with her own pain just a little bit, knowing that she was not the worst-off, not by a long shot.
Royal Palace, City of Tasmardonia, Romandeos
“The people expect us to do something about all this!”
“Damnation, don’t you think I know that? Even so, we can’t just go charging out like this into a battle we are not prepared to fight, and there’s still Otagia.”
Regent Taunja Lockeheart had been the supreme ruling authority in Romandeos for three years now, and it was still irritating watching her Cabinet Minister, grown adults, fight like kids in a schoolyard dispute. This time it was the State Minister and the Defense Minister, and it was starting to get annoying listening to them. The whole Cabinet was gathered and she intended to see to it that they got some useful work done.
“Be QUIET!” she barked suddenly, silencing both men.
Minister of State Jamie Bladen fell silent at once, as did Defense Minister Steven Shields.
“Excellency?” Bladen questioned.
“We get nowhere from this bickering,” Lockeheart said. “The people want us to strike the individuals who did this to us, but right now, we are too weak.”
“Excellency, the Armed Forces are-” Shields began.
“Lacking adequate heavy weapons, among many things,” Lockeheart interrupted. “We’re in a bad situation here, gentlemen, and running out half-cocked will only make it worse, a lot worse. We will strike back hard, but only in time. Right now, let us concentrate efforts into helping those harmed by these most recent attacks.”
Both men, as well as everybody else in the Cabinet Room, nodded.
“Minister Shields,” she said, addressing the Defense Minister, “I want you to get me a list immediately detailing what you’ll need to build up the Armed Forces.”
He nodded his understanding.
“Minister O’Dell,” she addressed Patrick O’Dell, Minister of Human services, “We don’t know how many have died in all yet, so get that figured out. How is the plan to spread the injured out to avoid swamping local hospitals working?”
“Perfectly, Regent,” he answered.
“Excellent,” she said. “Emergency housing?”
“Problematic, Excellency, but not impossible to handle.”
“Very well, keep me appraised as the situation proceeds.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Good. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the subject of…”
Lockeheart and the Cabinet would spend long hours that day locked in the Cabinet Room in the Royal Palace, planning how to handle the situation at hand.
It's not my best work, but then, it hasn't been easy getting it ready...long story.
IC:
Fort Nichols Royal Army Training Camp, Romandeos
He only had to close his eyes and concentrate a little bit, and he could still see the fireball in the distance, growing on the horizon in the early morning. He had been driving to work like so many others when he had first seen the brightly glowing object descending rapidly like a falling star, plummeting earthwards. It vanished a moment as it landed, and then an incredibly bright flash, so bright it had caused him instinctively to shut his eyes, and slam his foot down on the brake pedal, sending his vehicle into an uncontrolled skid which had landed him in the shallow ditch located just along the roadside.
In the moment just before his airbags deployed, his mind registered the cloud was located in the general area of the city of Selbyton.
He was right. Selbyton, an industrial city with a large population, had been targeted by an intercontinental ballistic missile fired from Zukariaa, a nation he had heard about recently in the news. They were having a civil war, it seemed, and the missile was launched by the insurgent Rebels when Romandeos had approached the Loyalists.
He had been an insurance salesman before then, but once he saw the news reports, and he knew with certainty what had happened, he had quit that job and joined the Army, certain it would only be a little while before Royal troops went to Zukariaa, and he would maybe have an opportunity to get some revenge against the Rebels. However, the politicians had kept the soldiers home, and now, he was stuck in Boot Camp in a peacetime Royal Army.
“Recruit Hardy, what in God’s name do you think you are you doing?”
Recruit Lowell Hardy, RRA, snapped back to reality to find a DI whose name he couldn’t recall staring back at him, looking mad as Hell.
“Nothing, sir!” he barked back in response.
“Exactly!” the DI snapped back. “And since you seem to have nothing to do maybe you’d like to get in a little extra exercise and work off that gut?”
Hardy just blinked in response.
“Well?” the DI asked, sounding irritated. “Let’s see you do some pushups, Hardy.”
Hardy groaned inwardly as he lowered as quickly as he could into the position, and began his assigned torture as the DI watched him.
City of Valwald, Romandeos
Deana Kyle walked briskly down the crowded city sidewalk, armed loaded with groceries intended to last Deana and one child a full week. Normally, she would have carried a load large enough to support her, and two kids.
Recent events had changed things.
Deana tried to avoid the ruins where the school had once stood, where she had lost a child in a missile strike from Zukariaa. The missile had been one of two ICBMs launched when it became unknown which side Romandeos meant to assist in the fighting in Zukariaa, the land she had heard so much about lately, in the news. She was told that Valwald was least heavily damaged, because the one that hit Selbyton was nuclear, and the one that landed in Valwald had sported a conventional high explosive warhead.
Deana didn’t feel lucky. She had lost a son in the school the missile had hit, when it came in and annihilated so much, concrete and iron, flesh and blood. Her son’s school had been located at the blast’s epicenter, Ground Zero they called it, and the heat was so great there it had reduced everything to little more than slag and dust. No bodies had been found, and it was hard to know there would be no remains to bury.
In the time following the missile strikes, Deana had volunteered at the nearest hospital, an incredibly time-consuming and thankfully mind numbing task. The few who had survived in the aftermath of Selbyton being nuked where dispersed somewhat to make sure that the living would not die because swamped hospitals lacked supplies. She saw the injuries and horrible pain the people there had to endure, and it helped to deal with her own pain just a little bit, knowing that she was not the worst-off, not by a long shot.
Royal Palace, City of Tasmardonia, Romandeos
“The people expect us to do something about all this!”
“Damnation, don’t you think I know that? Even so, we can’t just go charging out like this into a battle we are not prepared to fight, and there’s still Otagia.”
Regent Taunja Lockeheart had been the supreme ruling authority in Romandeos for three years now, and it was still irritating watching her Cabinet Minister, grown adults, fight like kids in a schoolyard dispute. This time it was the State Minister and the Defense Minister, and it was starting to get annoying listening to them. The whole Cabinet was gathered and she intended to see to it that they got some useful work done.
“Be QUIET!” she barked suddenly, silencing both men.
Minister of State Jamie Bladen fell silent at once, as did Defense Minister Steven Shields.
“Excellency?” Bladen questioned.
“We get nowhere from this bickering,” Lockeheart said. “The people want us to strike the individuals who did this to us, but right now, we are too weak.”
“Excellency, the Armed Forces are-” Shields began.
“Lacking adequate heavy weapons, among many things,” Lockeheart interrupted. “We’re in a bad situation here, gentlemen, and running out half-cocked will only make it worse, a lot worse. We will strike back hard, but only in time. Right now, let us concentrate efforts into helping those harmed by these most recent attacks.”
Both men, as well as everybody else in the Cabinet Room, nodded.
“Minister Shields,” she said, addressing the Defense Minister, “I want you to get me a list immediately detailing what you’ll need to build up the Armed Forces.”
He nodded his understanding.
“Minister O’Dell,” she addressed Patrick O’Dell, Minister of Human services, “We don’t know how many have died in all yet, so get that figured out. How is the plan to spread the injured out to avoid swamping local hospitals working?”
“Perfectly, Regent,” he answered.
“Excellent,” she said. “Emergency housing?”
“Problematic, Excellency, but not impossible to handle.”
“Very well, keep me appraised as the situation proceeds.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Good. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the subject of…”
Lockeheart and the Cabinet would spend long hours that day locked in the Cabinet Room in the Royal Palace, planning how to handle the situation at hand.