NationStates Jolt Archive


Northern Rangeria takes a giant leap for mankind (ATTN Kostemetsia)

Northern Rangeria
29-01-2008, 01:23
KATK Research Facility
Kawnisto, Halsanki Province
Northern Rangeria

Sky was grey above the research facility, located approximately twenty kilometers south of the capital city of Halsanki. It was here that the KATK, or Kansallinen Avaruustutkimuksen Keskus, the National Centre of Space Research and Exploration, was founded not ten years earlier, on the remains of a Greater Rangerian missile base. Here Northern Rangeria had shown its desire, to rise from the ashes of war and occupation, and to reach towards the stars.

Thus far the KATK had only managed to send unmanned probes into the orbit, but today... today all that would change. On the courtyard was set a covered seating area for honoured foreign guests (mainly ambassadors from other nations), and another housed the main members of the KATK research staff. Between the two podiums, on the wind-swept tarmac, stood a podium with the royal insignia of Northern Rangeria. And towards this podium walked a single man, dressed in the grey dress uniform of the Northern Rangerian Defence Corps, the golden marks on his arms telling of high rank. This young man was the Prince himself, Mikhail IV. It was a special day indeed, for even he had arrived to this location.

He stepped behind the podium and looked around.

"Honoured guests and staff of the KATK. Today we stand at the ruins of the past, in the present, and await the dawn of a new future. On this site were once housed weapons of mass destruction and other implements of war to keep the people of Northern Rangeria down, to keep their eyes looking down into the soil to which they were bound. For the past decade, this has been the main facility of our most ingenious scientists and dreamers, looking up to the stars. Looking, and dreaming of strange new worlds from which we only hear news and rumours."

"Today Northern Rangeria reaches up to those same stars, seeking new frontiers among the celestial bodies. With the gracious help of our trusted friend, the Unified Republic of Kostemetsia, our people now reach up towards those spheres. Ladies and gentlemen... the dream has come a reality."
Kostemetsia
29-01-2008, 01:44
Minishuttle Volksrepublik (IX-3502-Charlie)
300km geosynchronous orbit above Northern Rangeria
1040 hours, January 29, 3028 (Military Calendar)

The fingers of Captain Ernest Kalintern drummed a steady beat on his armrest. As one of the Republic's most distinguished captains, recipient of every medal except the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal, he'd been sent to officially welcome Northern Rangeria into the interstellar community.

He found it somewhat ironic that the minishuttle had been borrowed from a man more illustrious than himself - the legendary James Jackson. The interior and exterior of S-Volksrepublik were shiningly clean, almost embarrassingly so.

The computer sounded a notification alert and activated the manual flight controls, allowing Kalintern to take the shuttle down by himself. Rotating it slightly, he aimed for an unused out-of-the-way runway and sliced downwards through the atmosphere, pulling up at the last minute to land on the tarmac with the shuttle's ventral thruster jets.

(OOC: Kalintern arrives at just the right time to push a button on a device he has in his pocket and unlock all the Kostemetsian ships, while remaining gracefully diplomatic and punctual. :p)
Northern Rangeria
29-01-2008, 02:07
OOC: Hope I got this right then...

The thundering roar that even the minishuttle made was soon diminished by the roaring of more powerful engines, as the first ships of the KATK fleet descended below the clouds, atmospheric thrusters humming and burning as the sleek vessels landed towards the large tarmac-covered area.

Prince Mikhail looked up with a smile of pride, watching the vessels landing.

"Ladies and gentlemen... I give you Northern Rangeria's stairway to the heavens. The fleet of the KATK, to be used for expedition and possible colonisation in the future."
Kostemetsia
29-01-2008, 02:27
Kalintern waited a few seconds, timing it precisely, then removed a small device with one button on it from his pocket. Flipping up the safety cover, he pressed the button.

A dramatic change came over the Northern Rangerian fleet. The neutral grey colour of each ship started sliding up towards the bow and being replaced by KATK livery, essentially very obviously allying the ships to Northern Rangeria.

Pulling out a small intercom and intently watching the assembled Rangerians, Kalintern transmitted to the Northern Rangeria-class flagship, as yet uncrewed. Except for one entity.

"Mekayla, this is your show. Make sure you don't startle the Rangerians."

The eighteenth-generation polysentience, adapted from a Vuhifellian AI, took control of each ship, and gently landed the new KATK fleet in its assigned place.
Northern Rangeria
29-01-2008, 02:33
The scientists of KATK were amazed, watching the ships descending from the clouds, their landing thrusters scorching the snow from the tarmac, steel feet supporting the vessels as they landed one by one.

Indeed, a glorious day for the Principality...