NationStates Jolt Archive

[Any NATO who wants to mobilize and doesn't yet have a thread, do so here.]

Schultarian Intelligence Directorate – Foreign Division (SID-8) Offices: Myrle, Schultaria Prime

The meeting between the Directorate and the Schultarian Intelligence service was demure, yet formal, despite the airs of tension and fear pervading the sparse, sterile, office in the middle of Myrle's bustling “old town” district. Despite attempts to lighten the mood through the good news of Granzi's reemergence to the national stage, little could be done to dissuade the gravity of the subject at hand. Between the SID-8 leadership and Directors Schultz, Covey, and Haarvekord stood nearly one hundred and sixty years of combined foreign policy expertise, and virtually all of it useless in the face of impending war. From the nation's very beginnings Schultarian foreign policy had been built on the premise that science, technology, and the arts were far superior to domineering military might, and had returned some wonderful and surprising results. In less than five score years, the nation had gone from a suppressive, mercantilist, colony to a liberal democracy with an annual GDP in excess of a quarter quadrillion USD with nary a shot fired in anger.

Central Director Elliot Schultz ruminated on the fact in his thoughts as his colleagues discussed possible methods of trying to assess direct threats on Schultarian property at home and abroad. He had been the first head of state to ever deploy the nation's defense forces overseas, as well as rally the population to its first ever declaration of war, against Zarbian Tanzania during the NATO campaign of Operation Brimstone. From a strategic and theater standpoint, the operation had been a success: in less than a month of fighting, combined Vastivian ground power and Schultarian air coverage had effectively secured Dar es Salaam with only a dozen SKC casualties; bringing about a self-determining democracy to what had been an apartheid-rich colony. To the Central Director's personal ethos, however, the whole experience had been unnerving. War was simply something alien to his personal judgment, despite the more than liberal allowances for its use in the codified Schultarian laws of combat.

War on the home front took Schultz's reticence to an entirely new level.

While the major players of Gholgothian, Oceanian, and Havenite NATO factions were quickly mobilizing their military-industrial complexes for total war, along with bracing for protracted attrition, Schultaria's density problems posed concerns for the members of the meeting which were virtually alien to all but few other countries in the grand conflict. With census data racing through his head, the Central Director made a few rough calculations based on a theoretical nuclear first strike, and none of the results were palatable. A one megaton device a might easily kill sixty to seventy million people in the nation's densely packed cities, and those projections were on the light side.

By merely being associated with NATO, the probability of the scenario being played out was high enough to be realistic, but a simple question posed by Director Covey took Elliot's grey and dismal strategic outlook and robbed it of the dimmest light.

“What level of threat assessment should we label the NATO headquarters?”

Shaking, Central Director Schultz realized the dynamic of the war was far, far more serious than had been anticipated. Normally he would have been willing to give a simple but eloquent diagram of the situation, but the loquacious leader took a nearby legal pad and began to write furiously. In less than ten minutes, he spat out his reply. Granted it wasn't much as it more motivated out of fear than developed in any coherent organization, but it was a start:

-Diplomacy: Far too much / many lives are at stake at home... Keep Sovereign League diplomats (Emphasis Praetonia) on “Speed Dial” in case they get uneasy about war.

-Missile Defense: We need to speed construction on new orbital platforms – no budget restriction - need better detection to discern nuclear / non-nuclear weapons.

-Notify Tanzanian garrison to increase defensive combat readiness... first, sixth, and eleventh carrier groups on twenty-four hour scramble alert along with three Divisions of Otkron on 12 hour jump-capable ready reserve. Notify SKC-Navem to be seventy-five percent mobilized and anchored either in Tarannu or Padersonia within the week! Call Nat'l Assembly leaders to conference for war referendum.

-Proceed with Project Junction: Notify NATO Headquarters ASAP.

-Food Supply: Sharinian / Commonalitarianism / Native biosphere projects are behind schedule; too dependent on Praetonia (Uxbridge Ag.) for exports! Petition NATO for food support now!

-Complete SKC feasibility trials on the Komomerenketsan as an antipodal bomber. If successful, proceed with target assessments for conventional and high-yield ordinance.

-----

-Holographic Communique (Direct Quantum Line) to NATO Headquarters: Edgen, Schultaria Prime

“To Primus O'Connel and all representatives present whom represent the illustrious New Alliance Treaty Organization...

First off, I would like to extend my apologies to everyone in NATO for not delivering this message in person. The pressures of trying to keep a figurative population power keg from exploding, in addition to the indirect stresses from what seems to be certain war against the nation of Questers, has severely cut into my travel time even around my beloved country.

It is precisely this issue of impending conflict that I would like to address.

We in Schultaria Prime have long suspected that our position as host nation for NATO's headquarters might make us a target of innumerable strategic value against our enemies. Ever since the dawn of the NATO / RWC cold war, and the resulting effects of Operation Brimstone, it has been our mission to draw up plans to insure the survivability of NATO's command structure as well as the governments which compose its membership. For years we have been attempting to derive simple solutions based on either solely physical or legal approaches towards the problem, only to surmise a hybrid plan as the best course of action. Unfortunately, we have not kept pace with the growing numbers of NATO members and their unique constitutional and leadership organizations, but our government has drawn a small series of contingency plans we would like to discuss in further detail in future conversations.

The plan we have developed, codenamed Project Junction, has set up and established two alternate sites for NATO's operational command structure should an attack on the city of Edgen cripple the alliance's primary headquarters. Both sites, one just north of the Eldaimovey Advanced Research Laboratories in Schultaria Prime and the other some thirty kilometers southwest of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, are fully enclosed and self sufficient underground atrium structures designed to survive numerous substantial assaults. Molded along the lines of our nation's underground city infrastructure, the facilities are large enough to hold as many as one hundred thousand persons with ample amounts of privacy, home comforts, and the facilities necessary to manage the day to day national operations of several national governments.

Granted this announcement might come as a shock or perhaps a slap in the face to the more militarily confident nations of NATO, but as hosts to some of the most powerful nations on the planet we seek nothing less than to be accommodating and look towards as many contingencies as possible. Along these lines we have a few petition requests of our own that we wish to address, but for the sake of topicality and brevity I will delay them for the time being.”

-Central Director Elliot Schultz

*Kamphstadt, Reichskamphen*

"I can't believe I'm not going with them..."

"We need you here, Alex." Gerhardt Volckner placed his hand upon Alexandre Brune's shoulder. A rare sign of affection from this coldest of all cold fish.

Brune turned away from the sight of a giant Armada of ships loading with men, vehicles, and supplies. Far out to sea, the stars seemed to hang within the reach of one's hand as a light fog crept into the docks from the vast ocean expanse beyond. In the distance, he could see the lights of military escort ships cutting neat strokes through the wave crests. Further beyond could be seen, a gigantic mass of warships, the former Greater Prussian Imperial fleet, which had fallen into Brune's hands at the end of the Civil War.

The Questarian navy was infamously powerful, and Brune knew that Allanea needed all the help they could get.

"This is the first time that we are launching a majour operation, and I won't be in the field." Brune lamented, walking in from his viewing balcony and closing the glass doors behind him.

"Yes, but you've got men you trust down there..." Edna, his personal secretary chimed in, "and it should be fine. Plus there are sattelites these days too, ya know."

Though the doors were closed, he could still hear the motors of tanks rolling onto the ships.

"Let's review the rosters again." Brune called out. His secretary began reading.

"3rd 5th 7th and 12th Royal Artillery." she scanned the paper list with the eraser of her pencil. "Sola Fide Division of the Royal Guard, 3rd Division of the Royal Army, 8th Division of the Royal Army." Her eyes scanned down further. "1st and 6th Armoured Divisions. Everything combined, we have about 100,000 fighting men and 75,000 support troops. Just over 5000 pieces of artillery, and...quite frankly sir, we havent got an accurate fix on the numbers of the armour. You understand sir, we are still recieving orders from the factories."

"A heck of a committment." Volckner shouted from accross the room as he warmed his hands in the soft glow of the lit marble fireplace. Turning his head toward Brune while still bending towards the fire, he added, "And especially for a nation that JUST got back on its feet after this Civil War business."

"Gerhardt," Alexandre spoke in a smooth melifluous baritone voice, "Allanea is under imminent threat of attack...and we are going to help them if we have to enlist every last man in the country." Now, much more agitated, "I will enlist every liquored up bum and put a rifle in their hands if I have to...and that includes you."

Volckner took a look at the tumbler of scotch he had just picked up, and after a bit of a pregnant pause, sat it back on the table rather purposefully.

"This time there is no GPE to help us either..." Edna groaned.

"Edna, darling...for this conflict...there certainly isn't. But I promise you, the Empire will be restored before you know it." Alexandre took Edna's hand. He had never been married, never had the time to be...but as the days went by he found himself more and more attracted to this woman who had served him for more than 10 years. He told her, that the Senate didn't want him to go to War, but it was quite the contrary. They begged for him to, but he insisted that his place was here now. After surviving countless campaigns...he finally had someone to worryabout, and someone that he worried he may never see again.

'How much more, these others.' He thought to himself as he surveyed the columns of soldiers marching neatly into their troopships. 'How many more mothers without sons and wifes without husbands will there be now...and for what?"

----------------------------------------------

After two more days of loading and preparing, the Royal Armada set sail for Haven. The bulk of the fleet was headed towards Allanea, but a goodly sized number were heading towards former Greater Prussian, now Reichskamphian, colonies in Haven.

1/4th of the fleet was to dock and find bases in Rosdivan's colony in the south. And, as soon as the ground assets were delivered to Allanea, most of the naval assets were to be diverted to Rosdivan as well.

Reichskampian Air assets had been transferring to Allanean and Rosdivani airstrips for days now. The Rosdivanis had been so kind as to lease the airstrips to Reichskamphen in order to preserve their neutrality, and with the understanding that times may call for their use in an aggressive manner.

OOC: More specific information as it becomes available.