NationStates Jolt Archive

In The Hole

It was 17:13 on May 23rd when the vibrations from the nuclear explosions rocked the subterranean passageway. A man walked briskly down the poorly light passageway. A hood further obscured this face and hid his face in shadows. When he reached the end of the walkway he hit the consol with the palm of his hand and the door opened. He grimaced as the light from the room penetrated past the hood and hit his face. The two guards standing inside the room on both sides of the door did not look at the man but saluted as he walked into the door. The man strode over to his desk and gestured for the guards to leave the room. They quickly and efficiently obeyed his instructions.

He exhaled a deep breath and the exertion appeared to weigh heavily on him. He pressed a button and leaned towards the telephone on his desk. In his low raspy voice he spoke, “Proceed with Phase II” and lifted his finger off the button. A hard voice answered, “Acknowledged. Initiating next phase.”

Above Ground

Reports of the nuclear detonation were sent directly to Gunter Shultz’s office. Shortly thereafter news of the Quinntopian reaction was also sent to him. When he read them a grim frown formed on his face and he hit his fist onto the desk, sending a cup sailing across the room. He stood up and walked over to the door, opened it and told his secretary to send a message to Koltec that he would needing his services. He closed the door and prepared for a public address.

Shultz

On the day of the address thousands of German citizens flocked to the streets and cars were stranded in the streets for hours to come. The people began quietly flowing into the streets and a pensive mood hung over the crowd. These were not the enthusiastic Germans who screamed that they wanted to spread the gospel and happily supported Schultz. Picket signs could be found in the crowd protesting the use of nuclear weapons and the potential damage to the environment. There were not many signs but signs of opposition to Shultz’s rule were apparent. Many people frowned at the signs but allowed the protestors free reign. The crowds came from miles outside of Berlin to reach Shultz. Once they arrived they waited expectantly.

After hours of waiting the silence is broken as Shultz walks onto the balcony. A smattering of applause reaches Shultz's ears, a signal that things had changed since the few months since he took power.

He remembered how he was rushed to power in a popular exuberance as the people wanted progress past the fractureous period of disunity between Lutherans and Catholics. He shook his head as he remembered how they squabbled while getting nothing done. Now he here was several months later, offering little more than empty words and more promises. Germany had still not entered NATO despite his frequent urging to the Moerike and stronger friendships had not been created. Germans entrance into the world scene had been more lacklustre than grand and Shultz had done little to curb Holy League ambitions. France was still in Africa spreading a perverted version of the Good News and leading others away from The Way. It even appeared the strong friendship with Quinntopia was weakening as Moerike condemned the nuclear detonations within Germany. Germans were irritated by environmentally disturbing nuclear detonations but were even more concerned with the weakening bonds of friendship between the two countries.

The German public was unaware of the internal turmoil simmering beneath the surface but perhaps they could be an useful tool in case of unfortunate events developed. For now they would have to be kept in the dark and their loyalty maintained. Shultz smiled and his beady eyes looked over the crowd sizing up the character and composition of crowd.

He began softly, "My people. We have not achieved as much as we would have liked. Our enemies remain strong and our friends separated. France continues to rampage in Africa on one side while the Soviet horde attack on the other. The poor people of Africa are being thrown into either the noose of an perverted gospel or the clamp of a radicalized secularism. We must act to prevent this injustice from continuing. But it takes time to weaken our enemies and gather our friends. Be patient my people.

"The effects of nuclear detonations are unfavourable to the environment but I assure you that, as your leader, all the necessary precautions were taken and the effect of the nuclear detonations is minimal. The tests were done underground to avoid undue stress to the environment.

"Experiments with nuclear power is dangerous but they are necessary. France is increasingly provoking us and we must respond in some manner. As caretakers of this land we must protect it but we must also protect others and ourselves from this Holy League menace. Stern measures must be taken in this dire age and I assure you that measures will be taken against the Holy League in one form or another. "

With that he curled his hand in a fist and proclaimed, "We will spread the gospel and bring the Kingdom to all nations. For Christ!"

He raised his fist and began shouting the slogan. FOR CHRIST! FOR CHRIST! .

The crowd murmured to themselves and then a few young men continued the cry and the crowd reluctantly joined in. Soon the whole street was filled with the thunderous sound of thousands shouting with one voice.

After

Two large men in civilian garb entered the room walking with the precision of military men. They entered the room and a small man greeted them from behind the desk.

"Greetings brothers. Have you found the protestors as I requested?" the man asks.

The men nod their heads and reply in the affirmative.

"Make them disappear", the man says. The men are shaken to the core by the look in his beady little eyes.

They nod and leave the room.

Beijing is uneasy, but it looks as if after several false starts, the nuclear arms race inside Europe has well and truly begun as Hu Jin Yao had predicted.

"Like all nations, Germany has a right to defend herself but the construction of nuclear weapons is unnecessarily provocative and doesn't help any peace process." Hu Jin Tao said.

Within the hour,almost all major Chinese banks begin to heavily sell their German Deustchmarks and begin buying up Quintonnian Dollars.

Within Mesopotamia, it was considered a little hypocritical to denounce the Germans' acquisition of nuclear weapons, given that Mesopotamia had only lately deployed an exemplary weapon herself against the French.

In fact, it was seen as an encouraging sign that Germany intended to stand against the Holy League, as apart from Le Roi, analysts considered the League likely to be given pause by the German weaponry.

However, to be seen as encouraging nations which had hitherto resisted the temptation to acquire nuclear weaponry simply wouldn't do; thus a token remonstration with the German government would have to be issued.

Mesopotamia calls upon Germany to, having guaranteed her self defence, renounce any further nuclear build-up and only maintain a sufficient deterrent to give potential assailants pause.
The world has quite enough threat to it's continued existence, without more nations possessing the means to end it on their own.

Regards,
General al-Rashid

The calls from Mesopotamia supporting Germans recent acquisition of nuclear arms were readily received. The German government held up the response of Mesopotamia as the response of all civilized nations who wished to live in freedom against tyranny. German officials discretely inquired in the Mesopotamian embassy about the possibility of weapons sharing or the technology exchange. The same was repeated with much more force in the Quinntonian embassy.

Upon hearing of the action of Chinese banks Shultz began pressuring German businesses to begin laying off Chinese workers if the action of the banks continued. Shultz threatened the companies with severe environmental regulation if the companies did not comply with the government's request. German ambassadors in China also began pressuring the government to maintain confidence in the German Deustchmarks or German investors may lose confidence in the Chinese economy. They also stated that a fall in the value of the Deustchmark could only help the primarily export driven German economy. It would make the high quality goods even more competitive against other economies, including the Chinese economy.

Shultz also began pressuring the Quinntonia embassy to voice support of the recent German actions. Germans waited with baited breath for their closest allies response.

The issue with Germany suddenly makes headline news in China and Beijing is quite shocked at Shultz's latest actions, especially the race-based slant taken by Shultz which many took to be an overreaction.

"Beijing's central bank has no control over the actions of private banking corporations or currency traders," says the head of the Reserve Bank of China.

The recent rash of strong environmental bills provoked a strong response in the German media. The German people were very pleased that their government was responding to their wishes to make their companies more environmentally responsible. The new legislation made it mandatory to cut emissions by 50% in the next 5 years. German carmaking companies would be particularly hard hit by this new legislation and they announced plans about developing a fuel efficient diesel, 75% more efficient than the standard fuel efficient diesel. Companies failing to meet the targets would face large tax increases. This legislation, if passed, would make Germany position as world environmental leader even more firmly established.

When Shultz was asked about the comments made in Chinese newspapers, he smiled wirely and said, "I am not aware of this matter and cannot comment in depth on this issue but I can say that generally the German government has little control over the actions of private corporations operating in other countries. There is no connection between events in China and this new legislation and and this legislation if enacted, would be the culmination of years of environmental research. But we are currently working with industry leaders to see if these targets are obtainable in such a short time but we are confident that we can come to an agreement over this issue."

The German government continues to appeal privately to the Quinntopian embassy to support their move to acquire nuclear weapons. And this time the Quinntonians are asked to speak to China about their unwarranted move to destabilize the German currency.

OOC: I assume we're taking those numbers as pure flim-flam, and targets that are actually unreachable....otherwise you're going to have real problems with the Realism Police.

It's a minor point, I know, but to me a part of AMW...we stick with things that are agreed as possible by the community of AMW RPers.

Depending on what you mean by "75% more efficient diesel" it's either highly improbable or utterly impossible.
(Depending whether you're referring to the level of incomplete combustion, or the proportion of the LCV of the fuel brought out as work, or some other measure of efficiency).
Ditto cutting emissions by 50% in 5 years...best case, you make achievable cuts and stop well short of 50% reductions. Middle case you manage to make 50% cuts, in return for a major hit to the economy. Worst case...the German economy collapses completely.

The Quinntonian government finally and tentatively responded. The Ambassador to Germany, Hans Dieter, released a short print statement only to German media:

The Quinntonian government is never pleased with more nuclear weapons, and had hoped that our closest allies would have trusted that we would be able to offer deterrent enough to make any attack upon Germany akin to suicide. However, we trust our allies and friends the German people implicitly and know that if anyone has the national maturity to handle such a weapon, it is they. God bless the German people.


However, in response to the reports and evidences of bizarre behaviour coming from Germany, a full covert investigation is launched into government practices and new policies.

WWJD
Amen.

Snippet.

OOC: Well, that is how Europe rolls, "we'll cut it by half" turns into, we "cut the increase by half." (As compared to last year's increase.)

IC:

The Bourbon's in Spain watch on, while rather pensive of yet another nuclear power, and one controlled by a bunch of sniveling peasants at that, the need for solidarity against the communists hordes overrides those sensibilities and Spain wisely remains silent over the nuclear aspirations of Germany.

OOC: Excellent thanks for posting Quinntopia. I guess the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

TI- The post was mostly saber rattling at China but I do think that Germany is definitely up at the forefront of environmental technology. Germany in RL is at the forefront so I only extended the comparison to AMW terms. People keep claiming to have completed missile defense systems and stealth fighters, bombs, cars and who knows what all else so it does not seem too ridiculous to claim that Germany has some cool environmentally friendly technology.

Moor- I was going to respond to your post about "German peasants" but decided not to because it was kinda mean. Basically Germans are highly educated.

IC:

The news from Hans Dieter is latched upon by Shultz and he called a presss conference to celebrate the news.

"My Germans. With the testing of nuclear weapons we are demonstrating our opposition to our enemies and our strength. We will not fall beneath the heel of another power and we will not allow the gospel to be perverted in this land. Our nuclear weapons will prevent any such occurances. Like other nuclear powers we will use our nuclear weapons responsibility and only in self defense.

God Bless Quinntopia. Together, as equals, we shall remain strong against all our opponents."

Moor- I was going to respond to your post about "German peasants" but decided not to because it was kinda mean. Basically Germans are highly educated.

Oh I know, I highly respect the German people, I was just speaking from Kingy's point of view.

While Caesar Romulus is certainly outraged at the news of Germany gaining nuclear weapons, he knows better than to go out arguing it over with the German President, whom he knows Greece would like him to be amenable with. Officially, he keeps his mouth shut.

Meanwhile Rome begins looking into the possibility of producing their own nuclear weapons.

Hail Caesar!