NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC First Note: If you wish a real-life example on how criminality can run rampant on an anarchist or semi-anarchist society, here is it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania#Biker_gang))

It simply has overreached the tolerable: Crime was now so commonplace that even 8 years old children were being trained with light caliber guns for self-defense, and when common criminals weren't on action, megalomaniac would-be dictators would attempt with small forces of goons to overthrow the communes democratic controls and install their envisioned Police States wreaking havoc on the smaller cities. The only thing that didn't led Third Spanish States to despotism or complete chaos was the completely decentralized nature of its social order and the fact the "good guys" of the civilian militias and "honest citizens" were still the majority and also armed to the teeth due to the complete absence of gun control laws.

No matter that any caught criminal is usually shot on sight by an armed citizen and that mobs of armed citizens will literally run and shoot against uncovered organized crime leaders, cunning, stealth and the lack of a dedicated police force still have allowed it to prosper over almost all Third Spanish States territories, except for the low population density Ciudad Gaia and surrounding regions. Many(the green anarchists) also blame the large population densities to it, others(anarcho-communists) insist to claim its due to the lack of a completely communist economy and a few(anarcho-capitalists) claim the only solution is to allow the capitalist free market beyond shady black markets of brainwashed wage laborers. But regardless of ideology neither social welfare nor high quality education have solved such a problem. With this another somewhat frightening ideology has grown from a fringe group to an widely respected political movement: the anarcho-socialist eugenicists, which claim such criminal tendencies are originated from the non-ethnically linked "bottom of the gene pool" and advocate negative eugenics programs and even less human rights to caught criminals, advocating including the use of brutality and torture to induce fear against the "sub-humans".

The growth of criminality was the spark to every possible type of extremist idea, and not surprisingly, an incredibly popular and totally polemic referendum came from the depths of radical groups:

FINAL SOLUTION TO THE CRIME QUESTION

First lets remember that the life of an innocent is worth the life of a million scum, that utilitarianism is a provenly effective modus operandi and that those who actively act against freedom shouldn't be free even to live.

Considering that criminality has reached unbearable levels and threatens the stability of our democracy and fair economic system, it's therefore proposed a program to assemble as special force to search and exterminate all forms of criminal scum from the face of Third Spanish States island. Therefore we propose the creation of militia controlled and people overseen elite Death Squads which shall search all suspicious and crime-ridden areas and shoot on sight against all criminals and burn all organized crime controlled supplies and buildings to dust. In a brief note, these shall be all the functions of a Death Squad:


Kill all spotted and identified criminals
Exterminate all close relatives of criminals which have significant chances of following the footsteps of them due to genetic inheritance.
Destroy all supplies of drugs sold by criminal scum
Identify potential international relationships of national criminal organizations with foreign criminal organizations
Demotivate criminal activity through use of gruesome killing of the worst and deserving scum.
Collect DNA from killed criminals for research purposes, specially to isolate and identify the gene responsible for extreme anti-social tendencies


Besides the creation of the Death Squads, this referendum also proposes the right for the families of victims of any heinous criminal according to commonly established Western definitions of heinous crime to do whatever they want against such a scumbag.

Also, from now on, all imports from and exports to nations known to be crime ridden shall be checked and should they contain foreign criminals and contraband, those criminals shall be exterminated, their contraband destroyed and their vessels scuttled.

Finally this proposal request further research of the human genome in search of the genes which are related to human behavior innate tendencies to properly assess the genetic profile of criminals.

----------

After one of the most heated arguments of EDDNet history, the proposal, by a very small margin of support of roughly 51% was approved. the Death Squadrons, armed with G11-R assault rifles and protected with Type III body armor were formed and soon gruesome reports of criminals like child killers being brutally lynched to death started to surface. Human rights activists were outrageous on the use of brutality justified by the rampant criminally, but nothing could stop the will of a tired and oppressed people to eradicate crime from Third Spanish States, no matter the cost.

OOC Final Comment: Telegram me if you wish to join directly the RP. "Official Statements" as long as they aren't "Stop or war!" are welcome. Any non "I want war!"* participation with a logic reason for joining in will be welcome, considering that many NationStates actively use much worst brutality not only against the worst types of criminals, but against protesters as well and nobody cares about it, I don't see why a non publicly announced, as they didn't announce to the rest of the world they are going to hunt bandits and their "genetically tending to crime" families should get more attention. The reason behind all of this is the rampant(or in NationStates terms crippling) crime rate in Third Spanish States and common histories of children being killed by bandits among the other usual consequences of extreme criminality.

*I won't dismiss thugs of indirectly affected international criminal organizations(the ones mentioned on the thread title as of now) from trying to wage a small intensity "war" against it, as long as they don't have a whole nation armed forces to support them.

The United Socialist States of Yanitaria does not support such harsh reactions to crime as the death squads that have been formed. We will not intervene, but we officially disapprove.

(OOC: I'll discuss a low intensity CU backed war with Pablo. No USSY military involvement.)

Mega-City of Tucker

It was a dark night... Maria Medellin couldn't remain in her apartment anymore after the announcement all close family members of criminals shall be hunted and killed. She dressed her black sweater over a Type II bulletproof vest and black nylon pants, and then put her utility belt filled with ammunition for her black-painted silenced 9mm pistol. She then discreetly sneaked away from the apartment, taking the stairs rather than the elevator. Tension was constant for each floor she went through as someone aware of her family ties could spot her at any moment.

At the third floor, an armed man spotted her and moved his revolver against her, unaware she was an athlete, and she shot him in his head much before he could pull the trigger. Then she continued going down slowly and cautiously, avoiding making noise the best she could with her experience. The unlit stairs covering her presence, and her worries on how to get out of the building through the lobby...

When she reached the first floor a four years old children spotted her. Before he could say anything she shot straight against his head with no remorse and continued going down to the garage at the basement, hoping to jack a car to get out of there. The haunting shadows of several cars were there, and an electronic gatekeeper wouldn't allow her to leave. However it wasn't bulletproof either and after going to the control shack, she damaged the gate control system beyond repair and pulled the gate up.

Then shouts could be heard "DEATH TO THE CHILD KILLER!" and she ran to the closest car she could jack: a popular TdC hydrogen powered model. As she shot at the doorlock, the alarm sounded for her unlucky fate, and she quickly went inside and ignited directly the car with the help of an utility knife that was at her belt. After pulling quickly the transmission, she stepped over the accelerator and flied to the outside, where a mob was moving to fire against her. She was lucky to have chosen an armored car to jack, as the bullets sttoped on the glass she ran against the mob, which ran, but she still crashed with many people, which consequence was the mark of bloodstains in the car bumper.

"This is a SafeNet Warning for the people of Tucker: The Child Killer and sociopath Maria Medellin, vice-leader of the Medellin Family has escaped from her new apartment at Salsbury street, number 215 after killing one small 4 years old children, 5 innocent and hard-working men and wounding many others through reckless driving. We believe she is in a car armored with an equivalent to Type III-a armor, so assault rifles with FMJ rounds are advisable for any brave person who wish to intercept her, or maybe just shoot at the tires. Do not let her escape to the countryside at any costs!"

Driving through the chaotic traffic, Maria managed to evade most attempts to stop her and kept at high speed northwards away from Tucker in the hope of reaching Hampshire Haven International Harbor to escape from Third Spanish States. After many turns and maneuvers of several streets were mobs were accumulating to stop her, she finally was, at full speed about to reach the countryside when suddenly a row of several cars was ahead blocking her path. She them stepped on the ABS brakes, but it was too late.

The crash was spetacular: the impact of her car pushed the rows of parked cars against each other, the sound of iron clenching was unbearable for a time, then suddenly it stopped.

Maria was luckily unharmed besides a few bruises, but she fell down unconscious.

When she woke up she was laid down on the street, with a whole mob surrounding her, among them a man with a furious rage armed with a club, his club immediately struck against her face, in one of many swings as a man shouted "You killed my son! Murderer! This is what you deserve!" repeatedly while violently swinging it against her. Soon her face was unrecognizable due to massive bruises and then he started striking her back. The pain was unbearable and she finally cried after a long time. Then suddenly a man shouted "STOP THIS! Do you want to lower to their level?".

The angry, black haired man looked at the elderly who shouted:

"She killed my 4 years old son! She is a monster!"

The elder then approached the man:

"Killing her is too little of a punishment for all her crimes against this nation, we should send her where she belongs to: she is a psychopath and her place is a psychic warden!"

"Yes, and where will you find one here?"

"Who said this scum is going to remain in our nation, my friend, this is what I propose to all of you instead of this to punish her for her crimes..."

Maria couldn't hear the rest as her pain leaded her to unconsciousness again.

The Rogue Nation of Arh-Cull points out the following weaknesses of this approach:

1) The stakes are now raised massively. It is now in every petty criminal's interests to arm themselves to the teeth, and to kill or be killed. This will intensify the violent anarchy, not cure it.

2) Characterising criminals as one side of a 'war' legitimises and glamourises them. No longer are they mere criminals, they can paint themselves as noble warriors pitted against a properly constituted enemy army. Criminality begins to resemble a respectable career decision.

3) Indiscriminate use of the death penalty, against both criminals and their relatives, reduces the value of human life in the eyes of the general population. 'If it's OK for the goverment to run near-indiscriminate death squads,' thinks the citizen, 'then there's no harm in me quietly poisoning my nagging wife and burying her under the patio.'

4) Summary justice of this form does not strengthen the rule of law, it undermines it. If the government is seen to execute suspects without due process then vigilante groups will form, believing they have been given carte blanche, and the streets will descend into civil war. Faith in the justice sytem will be undermined if it is seen to be arbitrary and unjust, and this will further encourage citizens to take the law into their own hands.

For these reasons, Arh-Cull immediately withdraws its officials from all Third Spanish States terriories for their own safety, and advises all citizens to avoid these countries altogther. No official support can be guaranteed to any who stay.

Three days have passed since the "Final Solution to the Crime Question" was approved and the only result was an increase in the number of deaths. Crime was still as powerful as ever. Huge manifestations flooded many cities, large banners were wavered with impact messages...

"STOP THE SLAUGHTER! THERE IS NO PROOF OF GENETIC INFLUENCE!"

"VOTE AGAINST THE SLIPPERY SLOPE INTO FASCISM"

"TODAY THE CRIMINALS, TOMORROW THE ETHNIC MINORITIES"

"ABOLISH THE NAZIFASCIST LAWS!"

It didn't took long for a new counter-proposal to be offered:

Rewrite of "Final Solution to the Crime Question"

First, reminding that the promotion of reckless brutality shall bring severe negative changes to our culture of cooperativism and maybe even return us to the Dark Ages.

Second, considering that similar proposals were done using criminality or terrorism as a pretext to curb civilian liberties, and fearing that such can be only the beginning of a slippery slope into tyranny.

Third, reaffirming that there is no inch of evidence that the development of a criminal mind is related to the genome.

And fourth, denouncing with physical proof that the anarcho-socialist eugenics movement is a cover for neonazis and fascists in Third Spanish States.

I propose an immediate change into the nature of such proposal, to the following:


Neither the people nor the Death Squads should use violence against petty criminals like thieves or vandals, and their shall be renamed to Vigilantes.
All Death Squads must be under constant supervision of an internal human rights watch group to prevent any possible abuses of power.
Only crimes more or as heinous as murder or coup d'etat attempt shall warrant death.
Use of torture or any form of brutality shall be banned for the sake of preserving the inner virtues of our culture which allowed our society to exist in the first place. Use of lethal force must be as painless as possible
Relatives of criminals shall not be victim of any persecution as there is no scientific proof they will "inherit" the "criminal spirit" of those.
Thieves and other petty criminals shall be sent to a special rehabilitation community island where there will not be jails, but where the only way for them to survive will be through mutual aid and spirit of community, where there shall be given farming, electricity and medicinal supplies but all additional infrastructure shall depend on their own work.


Hoping that the people of Third Spanish States shall understand this, and that giving in to such extremist ideas is a way to weaken our principles, I propose this.

Annexed: Proof of relations between the mentioned groups and neonazism.
*A lengthy document was shown with transcriptions of conversations among the anarcho-socialist eugenicists and the neonazis of Denmark.

---------

For better or worse, this proposal seemed like a awakening to the hate-filled against criminals, now many became aware of how they were poisoned and corrupted from inside by a bunch of fascists, which used the chaos to promote their extremist ideas and increase their political power.

The proposal was approved and for a while things started to settle. But crime continued as rampant as before. Something really effective had to be done.

---------

At the same time, a group of the now called Vigilantes, with the support of Third Spanish States Air Force, was checking all airships and airplanes from Alfegos that arrived with imports...

Third Spanish State Territorial Waters - 9:00pm

Across the skies sliently floated an airship: the PL-Cl09, a clipper-class trading ship 720m long. Inside a massive container hung in the centre was 900 tonnes of coal, 800 tonnes of iron ore and 750 tonnes of limestone. However, this was not the only cargo.
Much more illegally, it was carrying 200kg of pure cocaine, and 2 million doses of Zen, hidden amongst the gas cells inside the massive structure.

The crew of 5 people had been given a drop point they were passing over on their way to the mineral depot, to drop off their drugs. Much more secretive than things once had been.
The captain of the airship, known only as Hi'noa, was checking the ship's armoury, another illegality. Hidden underneath false flooring were 5 Uzis,
5 AF-07P assault rifles, a Minimi machine gun and a pair of AAT-67 missile-launchers. These were even further concealed by the boxes of ammunition: 20 metal tins of bullets, labelled accordingly, and a crate of 8 missiles.
He pulled out an Uzi, and stripped it down, before oiling it, giving it a quick once-over check, and then firing off a couple of test shots out the window with the silencer on. It worked fine.

"What's the radio chatter like?" Hi'noa was talking to the navigation system controller.
"Nothing much on civilian and shipping channels, but a hell of a lot on the military and police channels. It seems like they are trying to clear up crime bigtime."
"Just as the Fego'doi said. We will have to keep low profile, which means that everyone remembers to arm themselves in case of an incident, and that the chopper is kept ready at all times."
"Alright." That was the engineer speaking. He quickly left the gondola, going out to the external gantry by the helicopter. Always dangerous leaving an airship, especially when fired at. This helicopter had "modifications", such as a pair of AAT-87 missile launchers strapped to the sides that could be removed in case of inspection, and an FN MAG as an optional door gun. It also had a couple of grenade launchers on the tail converted to fire flare rounds semi-automatic. The entire thing was like it was from a scrapyard, which was where it actually originally came from.

The engines were fuelled, and everything was in order. The engineer went back to check on the drugs, hidden amongst billowing cells near the main gas tanks for the airship cells. This area was always dangerous: many signs had been erected around the gantry, warning people not to smoke, not to wear nylon and not to use their mobile phones. If hydrogen leaked here and a match was dropped... just as well they had parachutes as well to escape.

OOC: Can I get in on this? My group Silens Nex is one of the largest organised crime syndicates on NS.

OOC: Can I get in on this? My group Silens Nex is one of the largest organised crime syndicates on NS.

(OOC: Once Pablo makes export/import business with them, certainly. And Alfegos I'll assume it's approaching Hampshire Haven port city)

Hampshire Haven, Vigilantes airwatch post, 9:04 PM

The harbor was bustling with movement, something that distracted a bit the attention drawn from the four camouflage nettings between containers hiding Librecielos anti-air and artillery rocket vehicles positioned sparingly nearby it and in a location from where anything coming from north wouldn't spot them. While it also distracted notice of the large radar tower a few kilometers through the city. Roy Adams then noticed for a while a reading from the radar as it approached the coast, until he announced through an encrypted radio

"Another airship detected in the radar, and at this time it may not be anything good they are bringing, stay alert. I'll request them to identify themselves, try to get a reading and land"

An unencrypted message went through radio waves them

"Unknown aircraft, identify yourself, over"

At the same time he consulted an airship database and shrugged at the encrypted radio:

"Definitively from Alfegos, get ready because things are probably going to get hot soon"

Several men then sneaked through several hidden and covered positions in the public buildings near the harbor, armed with G11-R assault rifles and WA2000 sniper rifles.

"This is flight NZK-TSS-A 00126. Requesting reason why asked to identify, over."

Conveniently, there was several open spots in the harbor where airships could land, they were numbered.

"Drugs manufactured by criminal organizations rather than legitimate business are being smuggled into Third Spanish States, sorry for the inconvenience NZK-TSS-A 00126, but we request you to land at landing point four for a check"

"Understood, we are now coming in to land at bay four. We will be at surface boarding altitude within 5 minutes, over."

There were roars as the airship diverted lifting gas away from the cells and compressed it into massive racks of cylinders. The airship rapidly descended, shaking as the captain adjusted for wind.

In the rear of the airship, where the drugs had been stashed, the engineer was making the final touches to the hiding place: no-one without a very skilled eye could detect their presecne, and it was impossbile to weigh an airship without massive machinery that would not float.

"We have touched down: you may board on gantry A2, where the flare is burning."

OOC: So wait...what do I have to do?

OOC: Aurum Domus, be patient, IC-wise the Medellin Family is having too many problems for now to send a representative of them to negotiate business with your mafia and Pablo just finished his business in Yanitaria. Of course you could send a representative of theirs to negotiate exports/imports with the Medellins instead by creating a closed MT thread.

A man dressed in civilian clothing came to the airship and observed its crew:

"Let me have a look at it"

He boarded the airship through gantry A2 and started to check every single corner for contraband. He checked it for 30 minutes, when at last he was its rear, his attentions doubled, he looked at it for 2 minutes and spotted something strange, but he then just left and said to the crew of the airship:

"All clear, sorry for the inconvenience"

He then vanished through the harbor and met with another Vigilante, which he made a gesture to, took an encrypted radio from and awaited for the airship to take off.

(15 minutes? A rather rapid check on an airship 720m long...)

The airship, after the man had been through checking, took off again and began to fly towards the drop-off point for the minerals it was carrying aboard. The crew however were very wary: the engineer who had been faking some work on one of the gas tanks had noticed the man pay rather too much attention to the faked cell membrane, which held underneath all the contraband.

The other members of the crew sat in the gondola, all heavily armed: Uzis were shoved into holsters on their belts and each held or was within very easy reach of an assault rifle.
The engineer was standing on gantry A1, right next to the engine gondola. As well as the machinegun attached to the rail with crude bonds, he had a missile launcher lying at his feet, with 4 missiles hanging to the side and another loaded inside the launcher itself. A portable laser designator sat to the side, batteries scattered around to allow him to fire off missiles at any choppers and boats on the surface. In his belt were stuck two flare guns, to hopefully deter any missiles that thought attacking the airship was a good idea. The fight was about to begin.

(OK, 30 minutes or 1 hour then)

Just as the airship took flight and was at about 1,000 meters of altitude, the man who checked the airship said in a whisper: "Fire!", and the Vigilantes, drivers and operators of the anti-air armored vehicles listened to it through the encrypted radio transmission.

Four 135mm ADATS missiles coming from completely different directions were launched towards the airship at the same time that the Librecielos L80/40mm twin autocannons inclined and started to fire sequentially against it

(OOC Note:

Each of those vehicles are roughly at Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast of the Airship, and they have enough frontal armor to stand most infantry weapons except anti-tank missiles... though there is an improved Iron Fist active protection system and improved Shtora one(basically a type of ECM) that together have a 70% chance of stopping an incoming missile, if that isn't too unrealistic for MT or MT+1 standards. I'll use an online random number generator for it. Obviously they aren't so well protected on the sides or rear, though it would be good to have info on all the weapons the Alfegos Underground uses to make it more realistic... or we can roleplay it without FAS.org methods, and here are its stats (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=1734&view=findpost&p=2752922), I still got to make a writeup on it though for it to be on a storefront, but it's basically a complete design for RPing as of now)

(OOC: Search on the draftroom for the AAT-87 and the AF-07. They are both pretty decent. The Uzis and Minimis are real, so you can google those if you need.)

"I was right guys! Brace for impact, and find those bloody autocannons!"

The two missiles coming from the southward directions were fired at by the engineer with the flare guns: the missiles luckily cottoned onto the flare and went flying down into the sea. The two from the north hit the envelope in two places. Two gaping holes were now on the side of the airshp, and the pilot had to frantically adjust the roll angle. Luckily, they hadn't hit the hydrogen fuel tanks.
The autocannon fire was a threat: rounds beagn to hit the airship from seemingly nowhere, and they couldn't do much about it. Then the captain had a plan.

"Engineer!" He yelled into the radio. "Take out those ones to the north. I'm gonna get the ones to the south!"

The airship turned radpily, showing only a relativly small area to the north. In the distance, the engineer could see the flashes from one of the autocannons, and raised the AAT-87. He flicked the laser unit to full marker power, looked through the scope on the side, and aimed the crosshairs directly over the flashes. He swore as a round flew past him, but finally got a lock. He hefted the launcher, aimed with the polycarbonate flipsights, and fired. There was a roar of flame as the missile shot away towards the enemy. He quickly went back to the designator unit, and corrected the aim. He waited for the explosion in the distance.

_______________________________________


Meanwhile, the airship aimed its underside container over the enemy position to the southeast.

" Release the door!"

The airship container began to take hits as a large door on one side opened, letting over 100 tonnes of coal onto the enemy position.

"Let's see how they take that!"

(OOC: Shtora (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtora) and Iron Fist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Fist_Active_Protection_System). I'll split the reply for each of the vehicles, so each of these things would be happening simultaneously)


Southeast Librecielo vehicle

Watching the movement of the airship, the driver quickly realized what they were to do and started to move it out of there before someone else asked him... the Librecielo wasn't designed to remain as a sitting duck like heavier artillery and anti-air vehicles, but to fire and move at the same time, and now they started to use its capabilities to the fullest. "Keep the turret aim towards the airship! Continue firing!", said the systems operator to the gunner as she watched the radar in the lower right of the gunner's Intelliview screen with the input of the turret camera, which also displayed a green 'lock' picture over the target, and waited for the weapon system to be recharged so she could fire another missile against the airship. The Librecielo wasn't slow and it moved through the containers, retreating from the bombardment of coal as fast as possible and towards the streets. It barely managed to escape and as it was about to reach a safe area, some of the coal struck against it rear!

"Damage report?", the systems operator and elected commander of the vehicle asked as she observed the systems

"Rear armor and the rear top armor are completely damaged, they saved the vehicle from being totaled, no serious structural damage"

"Now! I will fire this last missile and we shall retreat to safety!", said the systems operator, "An exposed rear is too dangerous, now it's ready again and the other vehicles are about to fire!", she then pressed a button and another missile was fired against the airship, then the gunner kept firing the autocannon as they moved the vehicle towards the wide and empty cargo-exclusive streets, until losing the airship from their view as they turned to an avenue and vanished from the combat zone. As they continued moving towards a military base to make repairs, the commander said to the whole group: "The enemy advances, we retreat. The enemy camps, we harass. The enemy tires, we attack. The enemy retreats, we pursue." and mentioned to the gunner, now resting from his duties: "Did you now see how to apply principles of unconventional warfare to armored divisions? Hit and run, avoid remaining into static positions after the ambush starts, this is also how the Sino works, the problem with it is that it's a too heavy vehicle to be used for urban warfare.", the gunner nodded "That was close, we should thank our comrade Gabriel for his driving skills or we would be smashed by coal now, too bad it's too risky for us to remain there".

Northwest Librecielo vehicle

In the gunner screen the message "INCOMING MISSILE" and a sound alert occurred. "Get down! Brace yourselves for possible impact!", the systems operator said as they got down the best they could, while the gunner kept his hand holding the control of the autocannon fire which continued shooting against the airship. The Shtora jammers and ECM systems and the Iron fist gun were the last things between them and the missile. The projectile trajectory was diverted away from the turret of it by the Shtora, but still the Iron Fist point defense gun failed to intercept it and it impacted with the hull glacis of the vehicle. The kinetic energy of the initial impact of missile didn't penetrate the NxRA plates, but the chemical energy and subsequent explosion provoked severe damage to its engine and only by a matter of luck the crew wasn't killed by the explosion as it did not reach into their still intact cabin.

One of the monitors did survive the concussion...

"Martez, try to get a reading of damage", the systems operator said

"Frontal camera is lost, engine totaled, radars damaged, turret motors damaged, turret still operational but cannot be turned anymore, capacitors electric reserves still enough for another unguided launch, hull glacis completely destroyed... it's a miracle the explosion didn't hit us with anything but concussion!"

"The Shtora saved us, if it had impacted with the turret instead of the glacis we would be dead by now, Martez, Miro! Open the hatch and get the hell out of here! I'm going stay to fire another missile on those scums!"

"But José! This is suicide!", Miro said

"I'm staying here, now go..."... "Units 2, 3 and 4, we are alive and well, the vehicle was severely damaged but it still can fire an unguided missile, let's fire them simultaneously in 2 seconds."

Both opened the hatch and left the damaged vehicle, before leaving it Martez said "You are either insane or heroic José"

Ignoring the comment, after adjusting the still operational vertical inclination of the turret, 2 seconds later José pushed the button to fire another missile which was then launched without guidance, after the launch he then climbed from the vehicle and ran away. Hopefully this would drive the attention away from the still operational vehicles.

Northeast and Southwest Librecielo vehicles

"They are returning fire, prepare evasive maneuvers!", said the systems operator as the vehicle started to move away from its position, still firing against the airship, the idea was that the shift of direction would distribute better the hits against it while they were waiting for the system to be ready to fire another missile. Suddenly the operator heard something from the radio and said to the 2 others: "Unit 1 was hit by a man portable missile launcher. Status of the crew unknown!", they only kept firing and after a few seconds a new message arrived: "Unit 4 damaged and retreating, they will fire another missile before heading back for repairs in a few seconds" and finally he heard the message from the still alive systems operator of unit 1, soon he pushed the button to launch another missile, the Southwest vehicle performed in a similar manner. They were moving quickly away from the harbor to get beyond the range of the man-portable missile launchers of the airship, but still in range to fire against it

(OOC: I hope it's good enough, this is actually my first combat RP, and what a luck... 30% chances and it did it, rolling dices is always unpredictable)

(OOC: Doing very well, but WHY autocannons? They are about the most lethal thing you can deploy against an airship after a cluster bomb. :-( )

"We've got two more incoming! We're going to have to get those other two vehicles still firing offline: we've already lost 20% buoyancy, most of it from the roll control cells."

The engineer frantically reloaded his flareguns, then fired them downwards, hoping the missiles would follow. Luckily, one did. The other one careened straight through the nylon envelope, straight through 4 layer of cells, and into a major structural support beam before it exploded. A klaxon began to wail in the control gondola, but this didn't drown out the sounds behind them of screeching, tearing metal. The klaxon cut off abruptly when the pilot hit the "shut up" button, yet that made it worse: all they could hear were the distant engines, and the omninous creaking of the girders.

The co-pilot ran out with another missile launcher and designator, and looked around for the muzzle flash of the guns. He looked to the north direction, and saw it. 15 seconds later, another missile flew away from just behind the control gondola. He was just reloading, when a close hit from an autocannon blew a hole in the gantry and snapped two support cables. He screamed as he fell suddenly, and unable to grab anything, fell towards the ground at high speed. He was still concious as he hit the ground at terminal velocity, near to the site of the other southern gun.

The pilot was going to try and lose all his load: the airship had now lost 30% buoyancy, and was starting to go down. He guessed when he was over them, and hit the emergancy release button. The entire container, 400m long and 80m wide, released from the structure with explosive bolts and fell from their altitude of 1300m. As soon is it left, the airship shot upwards, jolting the engineer who was trying to get an aim on the northern gun as well. He accidentally fired the missile. "Damn!" He quickly aimed the laser designator towards the flash of the autocannon, in the trail of the other missile. He then dumped the equipment and rushed into the interior of the airship. He needed to check the damage, and try and make it temporarily repaired so that the entire thing didn't undergo intergral failure while they were still under attack.

He ran through networks of gantries and ladders, before stopping at a point above where the cargo container had been: he stood on the edge of a gantry that had been completely severed off, and could see two of the massive support beams for the container had been destroyed. More worryingly though, the backbone of the airship, a massive beam running down the centre, had been snapped. He pulled out of a chest he had ran along with what looked like a harpoon gun: it was actually a two-ended cable attachment device, for joining damaged beams. He aimed at the still-glowing ends of the massive beam, and fired. He then went about securing it at strategic points around him, until he felt sure the structure was safe. Then he quickly repaired the massive pipe that ran along it, carrying helium/hydrogen mix to the cells. Luckily, the backflow valves had cut in, and after secruring the pipe atachment, he sent an electrical signal down an ajoining cable that opened up the valves again. But for how long? The autocannon fire had already left the sides ripped to shreds in places, and soon the rounds would start impacting on internal layers. Hopefully they wouldn't hit the engine gondola: if anything hit there, he was as good as dead if he couldn't grow wings.

(OOC: Because they are quite effective against larger and slower aircrafts, specially sub-sonic ones >:D, and I swear I'm using this random number generator (http://www.random.org/) for the chances of the active protection system)

Unit 4

"Stop!", the systems operator said, she looked at the radar data as she listened to the radio "We are definitively out of their range and safe here, at 8 kilometers away... we are too far to fire the autocannons but we still can fire missiles against the airship from here... if needed"

"If needed? Why wouldn't it be needed anymore?"

"Look at the radar signature, it's barely managing to keep floating, we have damaged it to the point they are trapped in that place now, let's wait for them to fall and then we'll make a rocket artillery bombardment to crush them... instead of going against them, and if even a gram of that airship content can be salvaged..."

"What?", the driver asked

"There are only two reasons the legitimate drugs businesses didn't stomped those pushers on the market: first, they have a cheaper workforce and second, unique drugs. If Cocaine-cola or another group reverse-engineered that stuff, and all legitimate drugs business started a dumping campaign (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_%28pricing_policy%29) against organized crime, we would be able to defeat them economically. Plus not only we would help to defeat those criminals, but also profit by selling a sample this stuff to the highest bidder", she said, evoking again utilitarianism

"Good thinking, now let's focus on the mission ahead", said the idle gunner

"They are still there, hopefully the autocannons fire from units 2 and 3 won't damage all the merchandise"

Unit 2

"INCOMING MISSILE", the gunner screen pointed... "We're almost out of its range, keep moving at full speed and firing against those pigs!", said the operator. The Intelliview screen mentioned the radar already identified the position and trajectory of the missile, which meant their chances of escaping without harm would be very high, but should it hit the vehicle rear, their chances of them getting out alive would be zero.

The missile trajectory was changed by the Shtora to make it easily shot by the Iron Fist gun, which interceptor round exploded near it in the middle of air, deflecting it from the moving vehicle... they managed it.

"We're still at autocannon fire range, but their missile launchers cannot reach us anymore, turn 180 degrees and start the reverse-speed, we shall slowly retreat to become away from our target at the maximum effective range of the autocannons, considering their altitude, 5 kilometers away from their airship", said the operator as she kept an eye on the radar as they started to move further through an east road near the beach at about 40 km/h, already out of their missile launchers range. "After they fall, let's fire simultaneously our rockets!", she communicated through the radio

Unit 3:

Moving through the west of the main beach side road, they soon were beyond the range of the airship's crew missiles, "Keep your fire!", the operator said as they retreated further to the west, their autocannons continued to fire as they also sought to retreat until having the distance among them and the airship close to the maximum effective range of the autocannons.

Vigilante Sniper #1

Hidden inside a container of the harbor, the sniper, equipped with a WA2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WA2000) sniper rifle, announced through the encrypted radio:

"They are going to fall soon, stay alert and if any of them get out alive from the artillery bombardment, kill them!".

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

At the same time, an amateur cameraman recorded some parts of the battle and broadcasted them through the Internet. Pablo, in his normal search for news noticed news about a video titled: "ANTIFA puts Alfegosian Criminal Scum in their Place". Without a further thought, he sent an e@mail through a contact he had with the Alfegos Underground.

"Avoid at all costs sending imports through the airspace of major cities of Third Spanish States, specially Hampshire Haven! We recommend landing your airships in any coastal region of the West Coast in the middle between the small city of Neno Vasco and medium city of Porto Bakunin, as it's a very deserted and rarely patrolled region of Third Spanish States coast and airspace where we can have a permanent onlooker to inform your airships about safety."

*Files: Third Spanish States Map (http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9229/tssmapmc4.jpg)

(I understand your number generator, and decided to use it: guess who got a double six?)

The airship had benefitted from dumping the normal cargo, and was now floating higher and higher. The autocannon fire though was still hitting. Suddenly, there was another alarm, which the engineer ran towards as fast as he could: there had just been a hit to the fuel tanks. He got there to see the pipelines ripped off the top opf the tanks and writhing about everywhere as gas at 90 bars shot out of the tanks. He turned round to run, just as another autocannon round hit the tank behind him.

There was no easy way to describe the sound of the explosion that happened then. When 22 000 m^3 of hydrogen compressed into a very small space burns, the explosion can not be depicted in normal words. The best word to describe it was "Whompf" followed by the main shockwave.
It is much easier to describe the visual effects though. A shockwave shimmered through the air around the airship, with it possible to see on the airship the lines of cells popping under the massive overpressure. This was followed by the fireball, that engulfed the airship up to 50m from the front, the flames licking at the already shaken gondola.
A massive flaming hulk fell out of the sky, nothing much remaining of anything within 200 metres of the fuel tanks except for a rain of molten metal. The drugs had doubtlessly been destroyed. The crew however had survived, but the three men were trapped inside the gondola hurtling downwards towards the ground at increasing speeds, from an altitude of about 2100m.

The pilot and the navigations officer managed to leap out, parachutes attached to their backs, and began to fall towards the ground about to try and perform a HALO jump, so they did not get shot down by the autocannons or get them ripped by pieces of glowing metal still flying out of the sky. The navigations officer screamed as he was hit by the remains of a cockpit from the helicopter, and fell trapped underneath the mangled piece of metal.

At a low height, the pilot unfurled his parachute and braced for impact on the ground. He would have to get to the Alfegos embassy to try and get to safety.

________________________________________

The information was gratefully received by the AUM who began to plan the next way of introducing drugs into the country, without a disaster as just had happened.

OOC: You reminded me to open an Embassy Program, and mine will be... a bit less regulated than most. Now, the whole harbor is a snipers-made hell with 4 snipers strategically positioned to hit whoever manages to get out of there alive where a single wrong movement means the pilot taking a headshot. I hope you won't find it a godmode, as it's common to use night scopes for these situations I'll leave it up to you on whether the pilot landed in a place from where he can, with cleverness avoid the snipers fields of view, or not.

"Hold your fire! It's going down!", the system operators of units 2 and 3 said as they watched the airship crash.

"Damn! It exploded... the cargo should be totally damaged, forget that 'dumping' idea, we'll have to defeat crime the hard way!", said the system operator of unit 4. While that the crew of unit 1 contacted a salvage vehicle to take the still salvageable Librecielo out of there. Repairing it by melding an entirely new glacis and adding a new engine could easily cost somewhat more than 2 millions, but that would less than half of its total production cost.

"Snipers! Stay alert, take down any surviving scum!", the encrypted radio message was clear. The snipers, covering all angles through which someone could leave the harbor, except for a tiny area, were ready to fire.

The man landed in a small crater, formed by the remains of the helicopter. He could see the very dead body of the man trapped underneath, and he decided to hide there. You couldn't tell what these enemies had in store for him.

He looked up slowly to find another patch of cover. Some bushes in the distance looked promising. He pulled the Uzi out of his belt, checked it was loaded, and sprinted across the open ground to the bushes.

(OOC: the randomness is at the pilot's side)

Although they kept attention the best they could, the limited field of view of their scopes gave the pilot the opportunity to get out of the snipers range he needed. Neither of them spotted him as he took cover in some bushes.

So far, no shots. Though he knew they would either be using silenced rifles or that any shots he heard would be the ones that hit him. He looked around: in the distance he could see the lights of civilisation. And hopefully safety. If he could find a phone and call up the legitamate company he was working for, so he could explain what was going on.

The Uzi was loaded and readied. The next piece of cover was at least quite large: the rear half of the control gondola, shattered and bent. He could see from this distance massive sparks from the cockpit battery unit, leaping into deep puddle of water from the water tank.

He leapt and and ran over. From the sparks from the wires, he could see the windows and most of the interior was splattered with blood and pieces of body. Not the nicest way to die, being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste inside the small gondola that had crumpled horribly.

(OOC: is the surviving pilot a member of CU or an unaware poor sod? Your last post made it a bit unclear)

"Nothing, if someone got out of there alive, this guy was damn lucky to get out of there without being spotted as well", the sniper said through the radio.

"Guess a forensics can be sent them, let's get out of here."

The snipers climbed down and simply went away to their homes to get a rest. At the same time a recovery truck was sent to tow the damaged Librecielo and the other vehicles were going back to a military base for maintenance and repairs, as a group of vigilantes specialized in forensics headed there to collect the bodies, or what remained of them, identify them if possible and call in a clean up crew of several vehicles to clear the harbor from the wreckages, taking all that could be recycled with them.

The streets nearby the harbor were apparently safe, but in the fifth floor of a nearby building facing the harbor, a typical gun-totting militia member has mounted the AWP sniper rifle he purchased years ago, in the hope he could spot any remaining criminal and kill the criminal should he attempt get out of the harbor area.

Telephones... apparently public phones were nowhere to be found around.

(OOC: He's the Captain of the airship, and an actual member of the AUM. The others were just in for the money.)

The man looked around from where he was, inside the airship gondola. So far, so good. He got out, and began to move towards the town, ducking into cover wherever he could to avoid being picked off, while wiping the sticky blood off his feet from the remains in the control gondola.
Ahead, he could see a large container dropped by the airship: at least 50 tonnes of coal if not more. He decided to get a move on, since scavengers would be coming in at any moment.

______________________________________________


"Yes, this is Alfegos Long Range Haulage head office. I would like to speak to someone in chrage."

The legitimate company who owned the airship, the ALRH, had no idea of the drugs runs that their ships sometimes carried out. They did however know that they had lost both the airship satellite beacon and radio contact with the airship. An airship flight to a country in chaos, though risky, had its profits: they were delivering Æ50 000 worth of materials, with an additional bonus of Æ20 000 for flying into a country where lawlessness prevailed. And with a company that relied on expensive airships for its trade as well as cargo planes and expensive waterships, any loss was a loss too many.

That was why the manager for that region flown to by the company was telephoning to find where the hell their airship had ended up, and what it had ended up as.

As of now several news sites already informed the headlines:

"Anti-crime Actions continue: Drugs-loaded airship destroyed by vigilantes"

After asking through the phone, the manager listened to an artificial voice

"Welcome to DiploNet... your call is being routed to an available representative of Third Spanish States in three seconds"

"Hello, my name is Preston Mayne, before anything I already expect this call is about the drugs-loaded airship that was destroyed in a small intensity battle that happened in Hampshire Haven International Harbor"

"Drugs loaded? You realised you just destroyed a mineral-loaded airship, with enough onboard for you to make just about 1000 tonnes of steel at the works it was headed to. But no, you had to destroy. You could have just arrested them on arrival, but you had to go and destroy our company's airship. I hope you realise a replacement will cost $90 million new."

"Drugs loaded? You realised you just destroyed a mineral-loaded airship, with enough onboard for you to make just about 1000 tonnes of steel at the works it was headed to. But no, you had to destroy. You could have just arrested them on arrival, but you had to go and destroy our company's airship. I hope you realise a replacement will cost $90 million new."

The diplomat simply uploaded the pictures of the damaged but still visible drugs that were in the airship and informed the manager to see the photograph.

"It was a necessary measure as it was doubtful criminals of such caliber as those who were together with the crew of the airship would even think on surrendering and if a conflict happened on the ground, many more people could have died. We shall pay for the coal sent as usual which is being recovered and sent to industries as of now, and about the replacement: I think we need to reach an agreement first on a way to ensure such drugs won't magically "get inside" your airships before negotiating repair funds."

"So you want us to implement full checks? I know you may have been lucky on your short check of the airship, but that was what appears to be a very large haul (weren't they destroyed? Right next to 20 000 m^3 of hydrogen going boom?).
We can make sure we can implement 1 hour checks on airship, but you see that that would cost us quite a bit. And that would be only for large amounts. You want us to check for tiny amounts of drugs kept hidden inside the cockpit, or inside one of 50 000 gas cells? That would take at least 5 days to do that.
So, what would be our refund for getting one of our ships shot down?"

________________________________________________


The captain of the downed airship ran up to a building on the outskirts of the town. So far, so good. He wondered if they even had money telephones in this country, though guessed he would probably have to hold up a family to use their phone.
First to check though. And he would have to stay hidden, as he was without papers in a land with no government, where power lay in a gun.

(OOC: Didn't several parts of the airship fall before the hydrogen blowing? If it isn't a blatant godmode I'll assume a part of the cargo hold fell before the explosion, otherwise we restart this from the moment the manager was contacted, if you wish)

Although there were no casualities on Third Spanish States side, this "victory" was Pyrrhic at best, that section of the harbor would require extensive repairs of hundreds of thousands, two damaged Librecielos totaling a sum of 3 millions in repair costs and now a damaged airship from a legitimate corporation. More battles like this would slowly ruin Third Spanish States economy. Things were definitively going to change.

"Why would it be necessary to implement full checks? I believe such operations could never be accomplished without the help of an accomplice, in fact I suspect there might someone inside your corporation making things easier for smugglers. 30 minutes checks and an internal investigation would be enough for the deal. If accepted we immediately offer you an Indemnity of 90 millions for the economic loss, while we shall, regardless of you accepting the deal or not, offer 1 million for each family of those who died there who weren't criminals."

(OOC: How many which weren't members of the Underground were in that airship, besides the pilot who survived?)

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

A shady figure simply appeared at the front of the Alfegosian pilot just before he crossed the alleyway from where this figure came from, he was a tall, black haired white man dressed with a dark grey suit and with sunglasses. he immediately asked him, in an apparently friendly tone:

"You seem a bit off yourself. Are you having any big problem?"

(OOC: It is a slight bit of godmode, but do not worry, I will accept it for now. The durgs weren't kept in the cargo hold, but inside some false gas cells by the engine fuel storage cylinders (containing hydrogen). But, seeing as the airship was slowly falling to pieces as you shredded it with the autocannons, don't worry, it is acceptable for now...
As for the crew, only the pilot/captain was a member of the mafia: the other four were working for the money, and weren't active members.)

"If your investigation can extend that far, then we will attempt to help you with that. Yes, we will carry out the terms you have imposed on us, and will accept the moeny for economic compensation.
As of now, I think you will find it hard indentifying what happened to the crew: I understand that in most airship "accidents", there is little left to identify the people on board."

He turned to look at a laptop brought to him, with a web video playing off youtube.

"Especially when the cause of destruction is a direct hit to the Hydrogen tanks. If you can find the bodies of the standard 5-man crew on this vessel type, consider yourselves very, very lucky."

________________________________________________________________

"Yes, I was wondering if anyone had a telephone in the area, since some people most gratefully shot down my airship."

His tactic was to act innocent, as if he wasn't who he was: they might take sympathy if he could tell them the elaborate story woven in his mind.

"I was the airship's engineer, and I need to get a call into my company to tell them I am alive."

(OOC: I'm sorry for it, I simply didn't pay enough attention when I was writing the answer, I'll try to avoid doing something like it again in the future)

"We will gather their remains and conduct DNA tests, I would like to request, if available, the manifest of the airship and the full name of its crew members.", the diplomatic replied. "As for the indemnity, the value shall be deposited into one of your enterprise accounts according to which would be more convenient.", he added.

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

The shady men looked at the pilot and said "VoIP technology has rendered all telephones obsolete here, and there are also the palmtops with cellphone capabilities, so you are not going to find a telephone, all make their calls using computers", and then added: "And lying to a Medellin is even more obsolete" as he looked menacingly at the pilot, but without drawing a gun added: "Is the Zen shipment completely lost?".

The pilot stood there, unabashed. At least these men knew what they were talking about. Obviously his in-country contacts.

"Well, about that Zen and Cocaine... I am actually not sure where that went. The engineer was the last to see it, before he was atomised in that very big explosion you just heard, but there is a possibility it may have survived. You would be looking for a very large package, about 125 m^3, slightly translucent, and very badly damaged. That is what is likely to contain drugs. If the viglantes haven't already got hold of them, but then if they can't be retrived we can assure you that we will refund you in full, as a trustworthy organisation.
So, can I put in a call to my "contractors", to negotiate refunds?"

_______________________________________________________


"Yes, you can have the information you wish for as well as our account details for the funds transfer. The details will be sent over electronically as soon as we bring them up."

He found the file on his laptop, and sent it down the phoneline to the number he was calling: he knew they all used palmtops, so this should be accepted.

"You've got the equipment manifest, the maintenance manifest from last month, the cargo manifest and the crew details. You'va also got a diagram there of the airship structure so that you can have fun trying to work out what was where that is now in chunks on the ground."

The shady man then replied:

"Yes, and that's a pity, but it's not going to happen again, now follow me, I can take you somewhere safer where you won't be shot on sight."

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

"This is going to take five days!", shrugged the forensics experts a he looked at the crash site, trying to picture the whole airship from the schematics he received. "And we need to change our policy on airships, or develop a weapon to hold, but not destroy them", he frowned again as he walked through the debris and observed everything. The bodies, or what remained of them, were already removed, to be sent later back to Alfegos in graves for the families after DNA tests were concluded.

At the same time the weary diplomat answered: "The indemnity for the airship loss is already transfered to that given account, and we'll take it from here, is that everything you would like to know?"

"Alright. I will come with you since you appear to be the safest option in this country. What government takes out drugs runners with heavy AA fire though?"

____________________________________


"That will be all from your end. We will send a private team of investigators to aid with your work, and will also put you in contact with the airborne crime division of our security force, who will give you advice on how to stop an airship without necessarily destroying it."

"Alright. I will come with you since you appear to be the safest option in this country. What government takes out drugs runners with heavy AA fire though?"

____________________________________


"That will be all from your end. We will send a private team of investigators to aid with your work, and will also put you in contact with the airborne crime division of our security force, who will give you advice on how to stop an airship without necessarily destroying it."

The man then, walking in a normal pace, leaded the pilot through a bunch of alleyways, traveling through several blocks until they arrived at the edge of the city. He then continued further through the deserted coast until they spotted a type of air field. There he explained him about the loopholes in Third Spanish States air patrols as he leaded him to a black painted EH-101 helicopter. "Hop in, we are moving to a safe base of operations of the Medellins in the west coast, from there you can take a flight back to your country!", he said. "That base of operations also shall be the new delivery point for the Alfegos Underground as it is a quite safe area in comparison to where you went through", the man then boarded the helicopter and took his seat, while awaiting for the pilot to get inside.

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

"I am sorry it had to end this way, and farewell, I wish you a good night!", the diplomat replied, then he closed the call and went back to sleep as it was a tiresome day for him.

"I shall inform them of this when I have the chance: it is likely that the AUM will have already dispatched a compensation airship, with the goods hidden more artfully and arriving via a different route."

"I shall inform them of this when I have the chance: it is likely that the AUM will have already dispatched a compensation airship, with the goods hidden more artfully and arriving via a different route."

"Welcome aboard pilot! How should I call you?", the man said as the helicopter took flight and started to move towards west.

"Since I was the head of the ship, Captain will suffice. It's a hard job driving an airship, but a much more rewarding one than flying most vehicles, since you can just leave the controls and get yourself a coffee for most of the flight. However, it is the storms, turning and landing that makes the job a very hard and dangerous one, especially due to their large target area..."

He trailed off.

"Well, they can take the number of hits that could down an entire airforce wing before they are crippled, but there is always the problem of hydrogen, and the time it takes to get anywhere. And the pay is rubbish. That is why I decided to assosciate myself with a common friend."

"Since I was the head of the ship, Captain will suffice. It's a hard job driving an airship, but a much more rewarding one than flying most vehicles, since you can just leave the controls and get yourself a coffee for most of the flight. However, it is the storms, turning and landing that makes the job a very hard and dangerous one, especially due to their large target area..."

He trailed off.

"Well, they can take the number of hits that could down an entire airforce wing before they are crippled, but there is always the problem of hydrogen, and the time it takes to get anywhere. And the pay is rubbish. That is why I decided to assosciate myself with a common friend."

"Well, Captain, you seem to know how to do business, and I appreciate businessmen", the mysterious man said as he opened a backpack: "I have some snacks and drinks for this trip, we should arrive in a few hours, would you like some?".

Their helicopter flied over the large Bacconi Woods, the work of decades of efforts from the Greens that was a testament of the balance between progress and the environment that existed in Third Spanish States. Of course it also was a perfect hideout for every type of criminal.

"We have much to thank to those environmentalists!", the man said with a grin, "The base we are going to is inside another stretch of woods, but which are instead very near the coast and share a very mixed vegetation", he explained as he opened a can of sardines and grabbed a small spoon.

"I'll have some thanks."

The airship captain looked out at the scenery flickering past below, and still could see behind them the smoke cloud of the hydrogen explosion.

"I'll have some thanks."

The airship captain looked out at the scenery flickering past below, and still could see behind them the smoke cloud of the hydrogen explosion.

As time passed, soon the image of the smoke cloud was nothing but a memory as the helicopter flew at low altitude above the Bacconi Woods. After two hours it went through the entire woods and back to plains, where the chances of being detected would increase in a dangerously high way, though they kept an as low flight as possible, from an altitude where the surface was very close and silent radio to do their best to avoid being caught by radar towers.

Fortunately this time luck was at their favor as the helicopter crossed the country and soon they were found above another expanse of woods, but this time it was a coastline vegetation, quite different from that of Bacconi Woods but providing some good cover for the helicopter to avoid detection. After a total of 5 hours, the helicopter reached a point in that littoral vegetation where a large clearing could be seen.

"Finally, that clearing is our landing point", the shady man explained to the Captain. "There is a quite decent base of operations in these littoral woods, good enough to be an excelent point of delivery for the merchandise of your partners, by now we have some "exports" heading to Alfegos and if you wish you can take a ride on one of them. Or if you prefer, you can wait for an airship of your partners to arrive and get a bedroom in the base while you wait.", he added.

The helicopter landed at the clearing, where two armed men were waiting for them. The pilot then took off again as the two guards escorted them to the base of operations: a large amount of nicely built shacks hidden in the middle of the forest.

"The shipment to Alfegos will depart in one hour, do you see this small lump of tree cutted in half? It points the direction to the place where we lift and receive cargo from sea. Now it's up to you how you would like to depart", he added.

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

The investigations did not take long to discover there was a single survivor: the captain of the Airship, and as there were no reports of a citizen killing someone matching his description, it was assumed he already fled back to Alfegos. However a new idea was springing up: The use of the recently purchased "Banana" missile against future drug-loaded airships instead.

(OOC: Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring! Banana Phone!)

(OOC: :eek: You cruel bastard! Not even the AUM deserve the banana missile!)

"I think, to maintain our organisation's noble element of trust, I will wait here for the next airship to arrive. Of course, you will have to let me send a message to tell them that the airship needs to arrive from the other direction, to save suffering the fate of the last one."

He disembarked from the helicopter, and follwed the men to one of the huts.

_________________________


OFFICIAL ALFEGOSIAN GOVERNMENT STATEMENT

The Alfegos government is saddened to hear of one of its vessels being shot down due to being part of the international drugs trade. While you may have heard rumours about this, we wish to ensure that the truth be known:

1) The airship was not known by the authorities to have drugs onboard.
2) The government is cooperating fully to aid in the solving of this case.
3) The survivor of the airship's destruction has not been seen to enter Alfegos at any of the official border points, so is believed to still be in the nation of Third Spanish States,

The government also wishes to announce its condemnation of the possible use of the inhumane non-lethal weapon known as the "banana missile" against airships suspected of carrying drugs, due to the immense amount of suffering it inflicts upon human beings and because it has been known to cause death in some cases.

(OOC: :eek: You cruel bastard! Not even the AUM deserve the banana missile!)

"I think, to maintain our organisation's noble element of trust, I will wait here for the next airship to arrive. Of course, you will have to let me send a message to tell them that the airship needs to arrive from the other direction, to save suffering the fate of the last one."

He disembarked from the helicopter, and follwed the men to one of the huts.

"Do not worry, we already informed your organization partners about it, thus this is not going to happen again.", the man explained. The mess room is just there if you are still hungry, and there is a bathroom with a hot shower in each house here as well.", he explained while pointing to a large shack where people came and left with a certain frequency.

(OOC: I'm thinking on something else (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O5Px3_RJ3w) rather than the banana)

(OOC: Alright. Anything is better than bananaphone though...)

"Thankyou"

The man showered, before going to the mess hall. He looked around to see if he could find what actually was being served.

(OOC: This thread became too pacific for too much time, I think)

Independent Media News Network

HEADLINE: Slavers operating in Third Spanish States!

Frightening reports have arrived to the SafeNet public safety network of volunteers and seem to point that late anti-crime policies have been completely ineffective: A forest patrol Iron Column has spotted and attacked a hideout of a new class of organized crime in the southern seaside outskirts of Bacconi Woods west of the city of Porto Populi. All criminals were killed during the attack while two of the soldiers were wounded and were sent to Porto Populi General Public Hospital #115.

In a 80 square meters large shack were found 40 chained, cluttered and malnourished "slaves" under deplorable health and hygiene conditions and with several marks of physical aggression which were also sent to hospitals for treatment. All of them were captured from other nations, as it is believed those groups are operating as middle men for an international human slavery trade using Third Spanish States near coast forests as intermediary delivery stations.

Strangely enough there is no single evidence that the Medellin organized crime family is involved with these groups. In fact from several sketchy hearsays it seems that those new criminal arrivals are actually enemies of the Medellins illegal drug and wage labor hiring capitalist businesses and are being actively attacked by their thugs in a secret low intensity war among them, focused mostly in the woods. Perhaps this competition for the control of organized crime in Third Spanish States might give an unequaled opportunity to take measures to weaken both sides. All able-bodied citizens who witnesses activities of slavery are encouraged to shoot to kill against slavers or to call for help, according to their discretion. Following this unfortunate discovery, radical members of the SafeNet have suggested to make an exception for slavers on the rules that request the least painful possible use of lethal force against heinous criminals, to authorize use of torture against slavers and to even allow the heads of killed slavers to be staked in the middle of woods as a warning to the rest, claiming they are "the true sub-human scum and bottom of mankind's genepool that must be exterminated from Earth".

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

(OOC: Alright. Anything is better than bananaphone though...)

"Thankyou"

The man showered, before going to the mess hall. He looked around to see if he could find what actually was being served.

Finding a chef in the middle of those mediterranean woods and simple but rugged shacks was a surprise. He could see several "first-class" dishes like Paella, caviar, Pheasant meat, bovine first class roasted rump cover, Tenderloin, Striploin and Flank steak. A truly plentiful dinner being devoured without any etiquette by those who were hungry and sat down on the large benches around the tables, leaving their assault rifles below them. Few business, both legal and illegal in the known world, offered so many benefits to its loyal members as did the Medellins.

However soon their dinner would be interrupted as the sound of gunshots was heard, followed by a message spread out through phones at the buildings:

"Alert! Slavers invasion at east, all to your posts!"

Soon the mess hall made justice to its name as people desperately ran from their seats and took their guns, sliding plates and breaking all furniture that was in their way as they ran towards east.

While it looked like a civilian airship on the outside, a trained observer could see that the airship coming towards TSS territorial was not actually one at all. If they looked carefully, they might be able to notice the concealed doors to the internal bomb and missile bay, and see the the gondolas were heavily armoured.

It was a modified Comrade-class aircruiser, the underside container a modification to make it look more autehntic. But the internal bomb bay and missile rack holding 80 Crossbow AT missiles and 20 Nimbus AAMs were still working. And the armour able to withstand 30mm autocannon rounds on the sides of the gondolas were real.

It was ready to make the drop of the drugs owed, plus a small compensation packet of $20 000. And the crew had made sure this time that their armament was much heavier: there were at least 3 AAT-87 missile launchers, 2 AeNo 12.7mm HMGs and a 71mm mortar amongst multiple assault rifles in the ship's armoury, to be used by the additional onboard preseence of 6 men in addition to the 8 crew members.

Its ETA over the TSS drop area was 20 minutes. And from hacked radio reports, there appeared to be a bit of a problem.

__________________________________________


The alarms sounded as the captain was about to place his order.
Not now, he thought. He drew his Uzi, checked the magazine and cahmber, before cocking it and making sure to assist it forwards: now the weapon was armed and dealy, with a crude Duplex 60-round magazine thrust into the magazine port and hanging down ridiculously far. But it would give enough power.

He ran out, making sure to keep to cover, and crossed towards one fo the buildings with a radio on as an explosion rocked the area. He burst in looking for the radio controller.

"Get the radio onto 44.15 MHZ, and use the code phrase Capsize! That will tell any inbound AUM ships that we are in trouble, and should hopefully et us some help. If I know them correctly, there is a chance they're using an old Comrade-class aero-cruiser, with a shitload of missiles and bombs onboard. That will get the enemy away and divert attention while the drop is made and the rest of you move out. Then it will use the Cumulus tactic to drift out before air support gets anywhere near.
Do it NOW!"

(OOC: I know this one is a bit bad, but I still need more practice)
"No, this is just another damn hit and run!", a man replied to the captain of the fallen airship as he ran with his FA-65 assault rifle towards the slope to the east, taking cover behind several barrels.

The layout of the terrain was logical. The base of operations was conveniently located in an elevated ground of the forest, which smoothly lowered by about 20 meters in a slope of terrain, which was ahead of a large makeshift barricade. Everywhere around the mediterranean woods offered cover to potential attackers though.

Down there a small group of slavers armed with AK-103 assault rifles fired in bursts against the barricades, although they seemed to be more worried on causing structural damage than on killing.
"Cover me! I am going to fire a grenade on these bugs!", the voice was familiar. It was the same man that brought the captain to there who gave the order as the gunfight became more and more intense. They all kept down and irregularly moved to fire back, while their enemies took cover behind the large trees, trying to change their positions and to spread out gradually.

"Now!", a pull of a pin was heard and as the man shouted he got up to throw the grenade. All moved away from their covers and switched their rifles from single to automatic fire to perform suppression fire against the slavers as others moved to reinforce them.
As the grenade flew towards their enemies, they simply ran away through the forest, some of them being caught by the fire of their FA-67s

The first man who met the captain at Hampshire Haven then shrugged "Hit and run... they keep shooting for a two to five minutes to damage our property and then go away, they don't dare to make a direct assault. This was their fifth attack this week and I believe they are continually trying to lure us into an ambush, to damage our property and to make us weary as they can't or aren't courageous enough to attempt a take over"

"Check if one of those buggers we got is alive! I'll want to personally talk with him if so!", he ordered
"They won't come back so soon, so if you are still hungry, you can head back to the mess hall"
"Now... what we really need is to purchase some airborne weapons like gatling guns and autocannons and some heavy-duty surveillance and recon equipment for our helicopters to locate their bases of operations and raze it from the air, as they must be close to here but they are quite well hidden for our scouts... who come back alive.", he explained to the Captain. "We gave up sending scouts after 3 days without getting no clue of the whereabouts of those human beings traders. Now, if your partners could arrange all of some of those hardwares and bring them here as soon as possible, we would be very grateful", he added.

The firing had ceased as the raiders ran off into the forest. The captain unloaded his gun, wrenching the extended magazine from his Uzi and shoving the lot in his belt.

"Well, since you ask, I do think the AUM carry quite an armoury aboard their airships anyhow. But the next shipment will probably include some pretty toys for, like mortars, HMGs, possibly vehicles and possibly things like mine dispersal missiles."

___________________________________


The airship saw the marker in the forest in the distance, and the two engineers and the mafia personnel moced to the back of the airship, where the drugs were stashed. The dragged the packages form their hiding places, before getting ready to throw them overbaord into the forest at the drop point.

Even for a nation such as ours who qwells political protestors with extreme menace we see your approach as "barbaric" at best. We deal with crime by having an all seeing police force, cameras on every corner and deportation of repeat non-violent offenders. Execution is only reserved for the most violent offenders and traitors of course. Although we differ on views of how to deal with the criminal question we see it as your right to do so so and applaud you for standing your ground agianst international pressure.

Reinhardt Heydrich
Lebenscraum Gestapo Chief

(OOC: Kind note - though the comment is greatly appreciated as interest, please could you read the title of the thread before posting in it, and note mainly the section that states "CLOSED". This means that you are not allowed to post in here without the thread starter's prior consent, and in most cases have little chance of getting in since the thread was prearranged.
Keep this in mind for next time.)

(OOC: In this post will happen two parallel things. Pablo will return to Third Spanish States in great "007" style aboard of a smuggled Spades Class stealth corvette from Yanitaria through its east coast while the Captain awaits his airship in the west coast where the hidden camp in the forests is located)

"I've found one of the bastards alive! What should I do with him?", a grunt asked from the distance.
"Bring him to the 'chat room', I'll talk with him later as I have more important businesses to attend to now", the man in control of the base replied.

"Of course, regarding vehicles we would need something small enough for these forests, although not for now. For now what we really need is some airborne equipment. I have autonomy to run all businesses regarding this base so if you wish to make a negotiation, I am the one to look for.", the man explained.

"To be exact, I think the Medellins base of operations here would be better with four 25mm autocannons for helicopters, two 20mm airborne miniguns and infrared for each copter and some SIGINT hardware for the base. That would fit all the copters currently at my disposal and the most urgent needs. But we can have further business later. So, do you have any idea on how much would such merchandise cost?", he asked

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

The travel was very calm. The Spades Class corvette named "Nihil" soon reached a almost entirely deserted region of Third Spanish States east coast where a group of the Medellins awaited for them. As he gave the first payment to its crew and disembarked, Pablo coldly informed and gave them directions to the closest drug bars and brothels around, should they wish to have some fun, and also warned them to not become shocked on seeing people running around naked as it was a common sight in his nation.

As he met the men awaiting for him with greetings near the coast, he quickly asked for updates on the slavers situation, which in turn was answered:

"Mister Medellin, Dietrich is negotiating some additional hardware with our other business partners, if we get some helicopter hardware we will have a real edge against those slaver pigs!", was what he wanted to and heard. "Good to see you people got initiative instead of just awaiting my orders", he smiled in reply.
"How nasty would be the vigilante cops if I went to Tucker from here? I need to reach the Fifth cemetery", he added as he unfolded an urban map of Tucker.
"Sir, if you really need to go there I suggest you to take the vicinity roads to Tucker, they are rarely watched and would give you a straight access to the cemetery, if you take the south end of the Kropotkin avenue, here", the man pointed in the map.

"Good, did you bring some cars?"
"Of course sir! Besides the trucks there are six cars parked and hidden behind that small mound there! All of the same type, so here is the key of one of them", the man said as he handed the key to Pablo, who then took his cell phone and palmtop.

"Hello Paco! I need something, if you have the resources for it", he said through the phone
"What would you like mister Pablo?", the old man asked from the line.
"Forensics, I want to know exactly what killed Maria! Just telling you beforehand that I'm going to send her body to you for it"
"Well... Pablo? At this time the decomposition should be in a stage where there is not much I can discover from investigating her body. Are you sure you would want to do this?"
"Yes, and if not much, then discover what you can from her once I bring her to you. This is very important for me, and now if by some fortunate fact you could also discover the DNA of who killed her, I would be really very grateful.", he added.
"I... understand. Just call me again antecipatedly once you are bringing her so I can prepare things beforehand for it", the biomedic replied, reluctantly.
"Everything set then, talk to you later Paco!", Pablo coldly replied as he stopped the call.

"I am going to Tucker, and with a shovel. Wait here for the Yanitarian cargo to arrive and take care of the loading and transport of it. Let's go then James!", Pablo said as he and James headed to one of the armored cars... armor was standard for all civilian cars in Third Spanish States due to criminality itself, and ironically this ended helping them.

Pablo took the drive while james took the passenger front seat and they started to move through the off-road in direction of a small vicinity road that would take them to Tucker while others waited for the shipment from Yanitaria to arrive and the crew of the Nihil headed to the closest bar to have some drinks.

(I've gotcha)

"Well, the upgrades to your current choppers will cost a couple $100 000, but I think we'll be able to throw in a couple military-spec gadets as well as the guns and networking system.
If you want more choppers, we can purloin for you a Karish for transport and any amount of attack helicopters you please.
And, for ground vehicles: have you ever heard of FAVs? Fast Attack Vehicles? They're basically 4-man buggies with scant amounts of armour yet a nice big machinegun on the roof and lots of mobility. They'll cost about $120 000 each, though we can cut that down for bulk order.

Finally, the cost of transport. You can have a week from now if we send it by airship, or in a day if we send it by Ekranoplan. The length is because this will have to be sent from the Alfegos mainland, not from its colonies as we have been doing here. The Ekranoplan will cost $1000 extra, but I think it'll be worth it for you.

What do you say?"

(I've gotcha)

"Well, the upgrades to your current choppers will cost a couple $100 000, but I think we'll be able to throw in a couple military-spec gadets as well as the guns and networking system.
If you want more choppers, we can purloin for you a Karish for transport and any amount of attack helicopters you please.
And, for ground vehicles: have you ever heard of FAVs? Fast Attack Vehicles? They're basically 4-man buggies with scant amounts of armour yet a nice big machinegun on the roof and lots of mobility. They'll cost about $120 000 each, though we can cut that down for bulk order.

Finally, the cost of transport. You can have a week from now if we send it by airship, or in a day if we send it by Ekranoplan. The length is because this will have to be sent from the Alfegos mainland, not from its colonies as we have been doing here. The Ekranoplan will cost $1000 extra, but I think it'll be worth it for you.

What do you say?"

"For now only the helicopter upgrades and SIGINT would be of interest and urgency, we might acquire those fast attack vehicles in the near future.", the man explained. "How does it sound 201,000 for the airborne and intel hardware with Erkanoplan? That would be really important for this base of operations and would make things much safer as well for your airships arriving here and also for us", he explained.

-------

There are advantages of living in a relatively small nation in territory, and one of them is that travels won't take too long. After literally passing through the Bacconi woods through several vicinal roads, Pablo arrived at Tucker through the south as the night came, no vigilantes bothered them during their travel. Soon his car passed from the road to the end of the Kropotkin avenue at the outskirts of Tucker. After passing the first three blocks of industrial streets, he arrived at the large cemetery where he would find the body of Maria.

The cemetery was a large plot of grassland and tombstones, but even though it encompassed 8 blocks, it was still insignificant in size compared to the massive cryogenic chambers where most atheists and agnostics were "buried".
Its center was also notorious by the 10 meters tall monolithic monument with the names of all who "sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom". However this cemetery was completely abandoned: there were no caretakers, the grass started to grow too thick and many graves were vandalized and even violated by every possible type of low-life. Third Spanish States wasn't known for caring about the dead, or for being afraid of them.

Pablo parked his car near the cemetery as the empty streets reeked only a desolation accentuated by the sight of death. He soon got out of his car, accompanied by James who always kept his handgun at hand.
"James bring the shovel, and I am going to dig it myself!", Pablo said
The man accompanying him opened the trunk and handed the shovel to Pablo as they headed inside the cemetery, both also turned on flashlights as he added "And keep an eye for the most intact graves, the oldest ones were already mostly scorched with grafitti and vandalism by teenagers with nothing better to do", he said with a smile, remembering his teens.

They walked through the large cemetery looking for Maria's grave...
"Pablo, isn't that one?", James said, pointing to a seemingly fresh tombstone which was still covered by flowers Maria's parents putted there.
"You always find what I need James, I believe it is", he said trying to read the tombstone from afar as they approached it, when he finally confirmed by reading the tombstone: "Here lies Maria Medellin, worthless childkiller scum now being fed to worms"

"Hijos de la puta!", Pablo shouted as he readed the tombstone, "I am going to kill the idiot who wrote this!", he added as James tried to calm him.
"Pablo... we don't want to be spotted here... remember? You can take your revenge later... but now we should keep quiet"
He sighed, after calming down a bit, "Thank you James! Now, can you give me a hand?", he asked as he started to dig the dirt.
"Yes Pablo, let me give you a hand", James said as both held the shovel in synchrony to dig the grave.

After 2 minutes Pablo was exhausted as they finally saw the coffin. They then carried it out of the grave, as Pablo said:
"Now the... most unpleasant part, I am sorry Maria", Pablo shrugged as he opened the coffin...

The smell wasn't very pleasant, as they opened the coffin the decaying corpse was seem, but even in such state of decomposition, there was something Pablo quickly noticed while he checked the corpse with the flashlight as he said, covering his nostrils:
"James! This is not Maria's body! Do you know what this means?"

"What Pablo? Are you sure it isn't?", James asked in surprise.
"Yes, the remaining hair in this body isn't liss, but curly! And facial features don't fit either!", he frowned
"But why would someone do that?", James asked.
"I don't know... but perhaps someone wanted the entire nation to think Maria is dead... now why would someone stage her death? It seems too strange, there is not much to gain from making people think someone is dead... Mierda! Eso és ridículo!", he frowned as he looked at James and asked, trying to remain serious: "Do you believe in fake death conspiracies James?"

He quickly replied: "You mean those weird 'conspiracy theories' in the Internet about criminals whose deaths were staged by the Illuminati or Freemasons or New World Order and babble? Of course not! They are utterly ridiculous!"
"Yes I know, but with this... things are starting to look too strange."
"There must be a less far-fetched explanation", James said.
"Yes, but I have an itch that we are going to hit something big, do you have a plastic bag?"
"Yes, why?"
"Because whoever did it underestimated us, they expected that once I arrived here the body would be completely beyond recognition, and they did not even care to try to find a corpse that is similar to Maria's! Maybe they might have left some fingerprints or saliva", he explained as he putted two gloves on his hands and said "Open the bag".

They quickly putted the rotting corpse in the body bag and closed it. "I'll have to inform doctor Paco of the change of plans as well later", he said as they started to carry the corpse to their car trunk. James opened the trunk as Pablo dropped it inside. Finally, they departed through the outskirts of the city, and Pablo sent a small, highly encrypted message to the family of Maria: "Maria Medellin is alive! The body in her grave was a fake, not hers! And I'll find her wherever who took her away from us, and whoever did this with your daughter and with your feelings will pay. I am sorry I couldn't attend to the fake burial, but things were very complicated for me when it happened".

It was the time for him to contact doctor Paco later, but he couldn't help but feel the sensation of being watched during all the time he was at the graveyard, maybe these far-fetched events were starting to driving him paranoid, or maybe he just found the tip of the iceberg.

"Alright. I believe that is an acceptable deal. If I could use your radio to signal headquarters, then you'll have your kit arriving in no time."

A shadow fell over the camp: the sun was eclipsed by the airship coming over.

"Here's the goods I said were arriving! Get ready to pick them up!"

From the side of the airship, large sacs were dropped on small parachutes, gliding slowly to the ground in the centre of the compound. There was a wave from one of the men aboard the airship, and a ladder was thrown down as the airship sunk downwards.

"Don't worry: the goods will arrive soon. I will use the airship radio. For now, I will have to see you later!"

He began to clamber up the ladder.

_____________________________________________


In Old Zevkhay, an ekranoplan was dropped from its holding clamps into the water below. There was a scream as the engines started, followed by the roar as they reached 80% thrust. The ekranoplan began to rapidly accelerate out from the harbour area and into one of the long, red strips marked with bright red flashing buoys that led out of the harbour. Inside its bloated cargo bay, 8 Apache Longbow helicopters fully armed were secured to the internal surface. In front, 8 AUM engineers and 12 AUM gunmen sat with the crew of 4 men and one AUM representitive.
The ekranoplan rose to 5m above the water as the engines reached maximum thrust, the air-speedometer reading over 300 kph. Enough for it to reach its destination in at least 20 hours, weather permitting.

"Here is my radio. And hopefully that one will be the last airship incident", Dietrich said to the Captain as he hopped in the airship. "Now I have to see what that slaver have to say", he then said to one of his goons, who quickly guided him to the interrogation room, a large room where the captured slaver was, handcuffed to a chair. As Dietrich approached he crackled his knuckles and stared menacingly at the man, which had two large bullet wounds, at his left arm and left leg, still fresh and bleeding.

"Hello! You are the lucky one. I give you two choices dreg: you either tell me what I want now and I will kill you with a quick, painless shot in the head... or else I'll make you suffer so much you would wish you were caught by an angry mob of anti-slavers instead."

The wounded slaver then said "I have a third choice" as he quickly pressed his teeth, leading something to break inside a cavity of his tooth them as he started to quickly fade to his death. Dietrich frowned:
"Cyanide pills, folks! Next time you grab one of them you take out all their teeth", he said to the goon and sighed "It seem we'll have to find their base in the woods through the hard way, as he took another radio to contact the Alfegos Underground."

-----------

Tucker Morgue and Forensics #7, 6:30 AM (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13391207&postcount=4)

There was a screech on the shore as the ekranoplan slowed down, before it slowed to a stop using the sand that came up to greet it. The engines died down to a mere hum, before silencing. The side doors at the rear of the cargo hold opened, and 2 "Gecko" FAVs roared out, skidding around before coming into the forest, their camoflage pattern unnecessary above the whine of their engines that threw them forwards to 60 mph. Each held 4 men, one of them held on the roof with a Minimi machinegun aimed to fire at any hostilities.

Behind them came the roar of the 8 helicopters that were to be delivered, holding yet more men. And the head of this delivery.

"This is FedEx speaking to customers: we have your goods. Expect delivery imminently."

The ekranoplan roared back to life, sliding off the beach into the water before turning about and accelerating off again at a ridiculous speed, towards the nearest Alfegan colony to refuel and resupply.

There was a screech on the shore as the ekranoplan slowed down, before it slowed to a stop using the sand that came up to greet it. The engines died down to a mere hum, before silencing. The side doors at the rear of the cargo hold opened, and 2 "Gecko" FAVs roared out, skidding around before coming into the forest, their camoflage pattern unnecessary above the whine of their engines that threw them forwards to 60 mph. Each held 4 men, one of them held on the roof with a Minimi machinegun aimed to fire at any hostilities.

Behind them came the roar of the 8 helicopters that were to be delivered, holding yet more men. And the head of this delivery.

"This is FedEx speaking to customers: we have your goods. Expect delivery imminently."

The ekranoplan roared back to life, sliding off the beach into the water before turning about and accelerating off again at a ridiculous speed, towards the nearest Alfegan colony to refuel and resupply.

The radio equipment of the base, which was part of a WW2-age obsolete SIGINT apparatus stolen from a museum and incapable of intercepting the type of signal those slavers used, intercepted the transmission from the Alfegos Underground as Dietrich smiled from the command "center", a large wooden building decorated with some retro 1930s furniture, filled with such electronics equipments and computers where four others were busy working with communications. Those slavers lives were counted now as he sat down on an wooden chair, took a headphone with him and announced:
"Acknowledged, we are already awaiting for the delivery, payment will be on cash as soon as it arrives".
He then typed a password on a numeric keyboard hidden below a false floor, as a wooden plank was lifted by a mechanical device, revealing a depot with hundreds of mutualist credit chits where he took several of those cards with him, tucking them inside a black briefcase to the point of overfilling it, like if they were dollars for a shady operation (http://acordabrasil.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/maladinheiro.jpg) inside a typical corrupt Third World government.
He went to the west edge of the base towards the coast, from where he expected the delivery to arrive, carrying that credits-filled suitcase with him and waited.

The helicopters landed in the centre of the clearing, as the Geckos met up with the contact. Two men jumped out, the obvious heads.

"You've got your goods now, and the engineers will fit all the stuff to what you have already and make sure you read the instruction manuals. Now, we will be staying here for a couple of days till we have finished everything here and the Ekranoplan returns with enough fuel. I need to ensure we are getting our payment."

Dietrich simply handed the man the large suitcase: "I trust you brought all that was requested. Here is the exact amount for the merchandise. I'll see the refitting of the electronics for now", he explained as he took a radio and said: "Prepare to dump the WW2 junk! We are getting some newer tools now!".

The base had about 8 buildings over that small mound, one which served as a restaurant, four crew quarters, one command and communications center, one large hangar for helicopter maintenance with capacity for six helicopters and Dietrich's personal home there, where he sometimes brought several prostitutes at once. Also, several barricades were located at the corners of the mound where it was located, with two heavy machinegun emplacements with XM312s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM312) at each of the corners and at the central positions of each of its edges, and several pillars holding camouflage and infrared netting covering almost the entire base to minimize chances of airborne reconaissance.

A group of 7 technicians armed with MP5-N submachineguns and dozens of aides headed inside the comm center, and there they started to dismount the old SIGINT hardware from their emplacements to give space to the new equipment just as another group of 12 technicians arrived at Dietrich, where one of them took step forward, looked at the AUM contact and asked: "We are the responsible for mounting and checking the airborne hardware, the hangar is just there, that building to the southeast", he indicated the hangar, about 50 meters away from them, with his finger as Dietrich nodded to him.

The technicians began to work with the units they had bought in large wooden crates, using sleek power tools to strip out the WW2 equipment and fit in gleaming new devices. The Apache longbows were quickly covered up with camo netting, since they could not be fitted into the hanger the AUM clients had provided already.

A few other devices were mounted atop buildings, long reels of cable stapled to the walls as they were threaded into the buildings: new radio equipment and new sensor systems.

_________________________

The two Gecko FAVs drove to the camp, where they were quickly concealed with netting as the men disembarked, assault rifles at the ready. A decent-sized force for keeping their clients safe while they carried out the refitting of equipment.

"So, this is your base of operations then? A rather cleverly concealed one I must say. Though I think, since we are friends in a way, I could consult you about the physical defences around here: a three tier system as used by the Alfegan army might come in useful.

You see, you want to stick out traps in the way of hidden holes farthest out, with ditches and more explosive traps further towards us and then ending with concertina wire stacks and perhaps a few dragon teeth. And Caltriops might be a very good idea to scatter around the area, to stop anyone escaping easily if they do attack. Hard to walk with a hole in your foot."

"Static defenses are not part of our defense plan because they become useless should this place be compromised and can serve as a trap for a retreat because remembering the position of all of them is never possible, so sorry, but I am not interested.", Dietrich replied as the equipment was being setted and continued to justify his decision. "Plus three kilometers east from here there is an ecotourism route and should a tourist accidentally step into one of those everything would be lost as they would them knew of our presence. The fact we are in a relatively well explored region of these coastal woods is the reason why nobody suspects".

The technicians started to check the airborne equipment as he spoke, tinkering on them to verify their condition. There was no word on Pablo or on the Yanitarian shipment as of yet.

"Of course, you are right in that. But I would think that at lest some form of protective defence instead of hindering defences, such as a few earth bunkers, would be a brilliant idea to shelter your AA weaponry, especially if you do get found out."

The technicians had begun to calibrate the helicopter devices to fit with the system. As per instructions, they were also giving the helicopters a maintenance checkup, to make sure that they would still actually fly and fight well, as well as fitting new communications units and new wiring.
The head technician looked for the man who looked vaguely in charge of the helicopters.

"The helicopters are almost complete - my men are just checking them over to make sure they are still air-worthy. As for the helicopters we've delivered, where do you want to put them?"

(OOC: I'll write parallel stories too to add a flavor to this thread, sorry for taking so long to reply to this but only now I got in the "mood" for not making a cheap and lazy post. Oh and I mean no offense with the irony on the second story. And also, it's a story getting on "the limit", but no seriously nasty stuff shall happen or be described)

Dietrich said something to one of the mechanics as he ran towards the mess hall of that base.

"Ready for flight, and with the weapons armed. the 'competition' doesn't expect an attack so soon and I need them ready to take flight to survey the surrounding areas now, they are not far and with airborne surveillance these pathetic rats will all die now!", he explained to the representative of the Alfegos Underground.

Soon a couple of man, apparently pilots from the way they were dressed, headed towards the hangar to wait for the time to take flight.

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

Becoming lost in the forest is not wise, but that was what happened to the young, 14 years old girl named Alina Cienfuegos. She was one who tended stood from the crowd because of a combination of looks and charisma, although the truth was that she never liked to call such attention and, being raised in by a Christian family in Fátima, was more prude than the typical Third Spanish State teenager who tended to have the "first time" just after completing twelve years old, and that tended to make from her disliked by others because of refusing to "hang out" with both boys... and girls of her age or older.

Never committed any "sin" in her life, yes, never. But suicide is a grave sin, however for a moment she contemplated the possibility as the only thing that came to her mind was a single thought:

"I want to die..."

Before this moment though a couple of events have occurred.

She was wandering, with no sense of where she was, or on where to go due to a poor skill of navigation, stepping on shrubs, grasses and a dirt which humidity was pretty low since it was the dry season for a Mediterranean weather like the one of her nation. It mattered little as her eyes only saw trees, trees and more trees in a way that gave the impression of walking in the same place over and over, even though she was walking in what she believed to be a straight direction through the woods. Stopping to follow the rest of the tour to have a "personal adventure" was a foolish idea, and now only regret came from such impulsive action that brought such consequence of being lost. The temperature was stable at 25 degrees Celsius at that location to make her blue tracksuit comfortable, which did not meant she would not stop occasionally to grab a bottle of water and drink it. Alina brought no food, however, not even a small candy bar. And the hours were passing. Nothing but woods, where could she find anything edible in such place? She stopped a bit and reminded from a phrase her mother always tended to repeat to her. Religion in Third Spanish States was taught only at the family level, there were no centralized religious institutions or churches as the anarchist brand of Christianism was the most common and they believed even a religious hierarchy would be corrupted by Earthly powers and that people should seek God by themselves rather than by priests and clergy. Not the type of faith that tends to lead to the construction of Churches and monuments, or to people carrying guns around, as they were devout pacifists and idealists who scorned all forms of violence as well.

She simply remembered the phrase which came to her mind as she stopped. The place was entirely deserted of any presence besides her, a few birds and insects:

´"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing"´

She sat down as her thoughts came to the depths of faith. Prayers were not a group of pre-made mantras for those of her faith, and they were rarely spoken or visible to others, as they preferred to be discrete and introspective in their faith rather than public and attention-calling like groups similar to adventists:

´"Lord, I have faith in you and I do my best to be pure of the sins of the flesh. I know I did something foolish for my self-gratification and I regret it, but please, guide me to somewhere with food, give me any sign, any help for me to find it. My spirit is well into your kingdom, my body is not: I am starving and lost in this world of matter, any guidance, sign or whatever, Lord, I ask you to bring and guide me to somewhere with food and shelter."´

It was simple, it was short compared to pre-made prayers but apparently it was effective as Alina notice a smoke coming from somewhere ahead to her left, somewhere from a hundred to two hundred meters away from her. Her belly was making unhealthy noises of hunger as she started to sprint towards it, there was a slope she had to climb on the way ahead. Not much attention was paid to her surroundings as suddenly, as she still had to climb the 5 meters tall slope which had a smooth enough inclination, the noise of branches being moved was heard and she stopped to look around. There was nothing there, nobody. Must be some animal.

Then as she got up the slope, she saw something she never expected to find: an entire "village" of wooden shacks. But there was something else as she became paralyzed of fear. A cold touch of a gun barrel was what she felt on her forehead as an ugly-faced, dirty man wearing a camouflaged suit pointed his assault rifle on her head. She immediately stopped. Now she got into a real trouble for her mistake. The man simply smiled in a disturbing way revealing a row of toothless cavities on his mouth.

"Look at what we have found folks!", he shouted as several other menacing and scary men surrounded her. "I tell you: this one is worth at least a hundred thousand, there are few who are as pretty... and if. But that is for later folks. Let's show her the five stars hotel!", the thug said with a laugh

She cowered in fear. They were looking at her as if she was not an human being, but a merchandise. Slavers, definitively. She started to tremble and pale as the man who pointed his gun against her head talked with the others discussing "how much she was worth in the overseas market".

The ugly man, of almost one meter and ninety of height, was almost entirely bald and had a large beard which mixed brown and grayed colors and had a small scar on his chin. His eyes seemed to be as black as the bottom of an abyss as he glared at her steel grey eyes. Her blonde eyebrows raised as he did so, and sweat came from her forehead just as tears came from her eyes in despair. He looked at her and said:

"Obey, be nice and nobody will hurt you. Be a bad rebel and..."

His answer was a thrust of his rifle stock against her head. She felt a nasty pain from it as she felt on the ground, grass coming inside her mouth as those men started to laugh of her defenseless condition and were telling.

"I bet you 500 dollars she got a cyanide pill and is going to kill herself now!"
"Shut your fucking bad-lucked mouth Rovin! You would gain 500 but we would lose hundreds of thousands, dumbfuck!", the man who knocked her on the ground shouted. The other lowlife then raised his gun against him, but before he could even pull the trigger a burst of several rounds opened holes through his chest as she covered her ears and cried. The man then stood and glared at the other slavers, asking:

"Anyone else wanting a discussion or bet?"

They just remained silent as he again turned to her and said:

"Now, just follow me. And you! keep an eye on her and change your gun to semi-auto. If she runs, don't shoot to kill, just to take her down! I will personally ensure you shall have a lesson you shall never forget"

She, scared, simply nodded in silence as she obeyed the slaver and followed him. He went through several woods in the clearing until he led her to an empty shack with a tiny, dirty bedroom with a mattress so old that some of its springs were visible. And also on the rotting wooden bed where the mattress was, there were a set of four handcuffs to each of the corners of it. She started to quietly cry as the slaver looked at her and took a disgusting piece of raw meat from a camouflaged backpack he was wearing and handed it to her:

"Eat!"

She had little choice as she grabbed the gelatinous meat, probably the leftovers from some recently hunted game they were not interested into. It had a disgusting taste and the sensation of eating it raw did not help as she finally swallowed it entirely. It was deeply ironic that such was the way she ended up with "shelter" and "food" as the despair kept her mind too occupied to question her faith regarding that. The man then simply looked at her and said:

"Undress yourself of all but your underwear! And now!"

She had a quick burst of despair then as she pleaded:

"No... please, I can clean this place, cook your food and carry weight for you, but please, I beg you! Do not do this to me!"

He gave a strong slap on her face, pulling it to the left and stretching her neck, leaving a large red mark on her cheek as she continued crying. The scum then simply shouted:

"Shut up! I ordered you to undress your fucking clothes besides your underwear, I did not ordered you to get laid! Are you as dumb as you seem to be? Because if you were not dumb you would not end up here you stupid girl! You are hot, but the least you did it, the more worth you'll have when being sold and a whore is cheaper than the 'depreciation' that would happen then. And you here Foster, tell this to the others: If any of them put theirs on her 'birdie' or hole, I will personally cut them off!"

She never "did it", and the man at the side of that thug had a momentaneous shiver as his boss threatened to "cut off" whoever tried to do her. She seemed a bit less scared and undressed all her clothes, wearing only her very wide, thick and not revealing at all lingerie.

"Now lay on the bed and stretch your arms and legs!"

´"I want to die..."´, she thought for a moment. Suicide was a grave sin which would condemn anyone who did it to lose not only the body, but the soul and then simply have their self-awareness cast into oblivion rather than into the Kingdom of God. They did not believe in Hell, only that the fate of the skeptics was what the skeptics themselves believed that was their fate: non-existence. It was a small, justifiable sin considering the situation on the moment.

She again complied, feeling herself entirely ashamed as she laid down on the bed. The thug then cuffed her hands and feet and looked at her:

"Now, stay still or you know what happens!"

She started to only cry, more and more. It was now, they were going to... she felt her underpants being slided by those gross hands... she was sweating and her eyes filled with tears as the she thought she was going to lose it in such horrible way rather than with someone she loved. But soon the thug putted back on place her underpants, grinned largely and said with a clear sign of being pleased:

"She is a virgin folks! This means that she is worth double! And that if any of you try anything... you'll know what I will do with your little friends!", he then said with his disgusting tone of voice which seemed to come not from an human being, but from a rat.

She became a little less frightened as they left her alone in that bedroom of wooden walls and ceiling. All that could come to her mind then, as things went clear, is how that "sign" she asked for ended being her demise. "´What the hell was God thinking to guide me to a place like this?", the question was the only thing that occupied her mind to forget a bit from her situation. All she could do was to wonder on the reasons that led her to there, and to regret her choice.

Nothing happened and nobody tried anything against her, but she did not managed to sleep that long... agonizing first night in that place.

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A few days later a newspaper would have a large announcement


http://www.winkelried.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/antifa.jpg
TO THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE: CALL TO ARMS AGAINST SLAVERY AND SLAVER SCUMS!

We have received reports that one of our citizens, an young teenager named Alina Cienfuegos, had disappeared in a region of Bacconi Woods where there is a suspected activity of slavers. We cannot tolerate such monstrous and inhuman activities much longer. Help the ANTIFA Unified Militia to get rid of this filth before your children become the next victims.

We ask all able-bodied citizens to meet at the 2nd north entrance to the Bacconi Woods on Saturday, from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, and to bring their own FA-65 assault rifles and as many 6.5mm magazines, food, water and equipment they can carry, and for those who have technicals to bring their technicals as well equipped and loaded for action. They have gone too far since they stepped in our free nation and now we shall with our own hands and our direct action put this slaver scum in their place: We shall not rest as long as there is a single captive slave or breathing slaver in Third Spanish States. We shall burn the slaver scum, kill them and hunt them like the filthy fascist beasts they are until only their bones and rotting carcasses remain to be fed to the worms! For Freedom! For Dignity! For the Confederacy!

(Nice idea: I'll see what we can do to play along with it.)

As the helicopters took off, the AUM technicians and "personnel" grouped in the central yard of the camp, around the AUM operational head.

"Don't just stand there: get something useful done. You got everything fitted?"
"Yes sir."
"You got rid of the old stuff?"
"Yes sir."
"Then go get it back! It's worth something to whatever idiot will pay for it, or whatever museum."
"Yes sir."
"8 of you with guns, come over here."

The rest of the men scurried off to the pile of crates marked with Alfegan pictograms, and began to busy themselves. The 8 men, armed with either AF-87s, AF-07s or APM-10 000s, stood and awaited their orders.

"Since we are here, and want to make sure that the tech is working, I want you two teams to take the Geckos and blast the hell outta any slavers you find. Use the recoil-less rifle sparingly though: that will give your position away very quickly. Now go!"

"Yes sir!"

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The two buggies roared off into the woodlands, the expert drivers dodging large trees and smashing down any smaller shrubs, before moving onto any roads they could find, following the helicopters. So far, no contacts. But they knew that these vehicles would attract fire, and thus allow them to see where every target was.

_____________________________________

(OOC: It's up to you whether the vehicles will fall or not on the traps)

Four squadrons of two helicopters each took low altitude flights through the woods scouting them for radio signals or clearings. This time Dietrich had high hopes those nuisances would be over as also, apparently as a courtesy, or as a way to advertise their vehicles the AUM decided to support them with a couple of fast attack vehicles.

The soil seemed stable enough for the buggies, and apparently mines were non-existent in those woods. However this did not prevent the slavers from digging up a few holes, putting some iron pikes on their grounds and hiding them, large enough to engulf and pierce part of those buggies should they move at the wrong locations, although a minimally decent armor would block the pikes of piercing through it. The layout of those traps was predictable, and they were usually put very close to the slaver bases, in places where their bases could be already spotted by those vehicles about to fall on those hidden holes as a last field of defenses.

It was just a large group of shacks in the middle of the woods as well, where three slavers maintained a watch on the skies and had loaded some old, but cheap Stinger missiles, to fire against a possible close air strike while two others were hidden with TOWs. Hopefully the AUM package also included countermeasures added to the helicopters, or the consequences of such engagement which would eventually happen would be initial losses before that hidden camp could be effectively razed.

Eventually one of the helicopter squads spotted the base, before the buggies could do it. Dietrich heard it through the encrypted radio and immediately was very pleased with the news, immediately giving the coordinates to all vehicles engaged to strike it as he ordered:

"All helicopters on flight, move towards coordinates and burn those annoying bugs!"

The first two helicopters retreated farther away, in wait of the others who approached. A few minutes later all were lined and flew towards the camp, their guns beginning to wreak havoc against the slaver camp as they were interrupted by the detection of three missiles being launched against three of their helicopters.

The buggys cut through the foliage, roaring as they lept across ditches and up steep banks. A radio crackled as the co-ordinates were given, and sharp orders were snapped in Fegosian. The two buggies split off to the sides of the slaver camp, before unleashing fire on them: a heavy machinegun chattered as the roof gunner fired off heavy bursts at the camp buildings and any slaver foolish enough to be in the open, while a rocket from the other embedded itself in one of the larger buildings, the thin cable dropped from its rear as it blasted at the building.

One of the drivers, busy firing off bursts from a machinepistol at fleeing slavers, didn't notice the crudely concealed trap-hole, and fell in. There was a screech as the spikes cut into the unarmoured belly, followed by a crack as the iron stakes hit the armoured engine block in the centre. The driver clambered out in agony, his foot a mess from the spear, while the others dragged out the vehicle from the hole. The fuel tank had a small leak, but that was soon fixed by a patch. By this time, they noticed that the enemy had decided to open fire at them. One of the men coughed as his bullet-proof jacket took a round, before returning a grenade from an underbarrel launcher into the clearing, an explosion rewarding the slavers.

Now mobile, the two vehicles began to patrol more carefully, a driver sitting wounded as a passenger in one, picking off any slavers who attempted to retreat and lobbing the occasional molotov into the ruined clearing.

"Multiple kills comfirmed, over. Requesting permission to enter area once clear to pick up live baggage, then to sterilise area."

Or, in normal english, to go in and capture the remains of anything still alive there, before razing the whole lot to the ground and incinerating the bodies.