NationStates Jolt Archive

Deep Inside the Kremlin

As the unnaturally cold snow whipped along the erstwhile called Red Square outside, and the wind threw frost even into the many-coloured onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral, where the Metropolitan of Moscow, one of the most important voices in Orthodox autocephaly, sang and chanted passionately and sombrely the words of a Divine Liturgy that was daily said for the aging Tsar, the embodiment of all of the strength and as Nietzsche wrote, “the glorious insanity” of the Russias. Some kind of passion and fire had burned in his body since he was just a boy, and he had been forged as a man on the altar of conflict with the last incarnation of the Soviets, who had bent their inhuman ideology to perverting the lands that he loved. He had spent his life fighting to tear the jewel of the Soviet Empire, Ukraine, from their blood-soaked ideals, and then, through a series of events that assured him again and again that he was chosen by God Almighty Himself, and Blessed of the Theotokos, the Ever-Virgin Mary.

In this inner chamber, the First Minister of Russia, the Boyar Lord Armand stood in the chilly, grey, vast and dimly lit room. His long red robes stood in stark contrast to the intense black, long, hair that cascaded down his shoulders as it sprouted from the tall bearskin hat that he wore in the presence of the Tsar to signal his standing as a Boyar. His breath created a cloud in front of him, and the conspicuous absence of any kind of a beard meant that the cold chilled him right to the bone, but to see his smiling composure, one would never know.

He stood before Tsar Wingert Groznyy, whose immense frame was currently supported by an equally immense gold throne, with red velvet cushions. Wingert glared out at his First Minister, with eyes that gave him a look of the Biblical prophets and zealots. His grey and long, unkempt beard spilled onto his mighty chest as he rested his titanic head on his bear-like paw. He was dressed in a full suit of plate armour, rumoured to be strong enough to stop bullets and small explosions, and wrapped in a cloak that could clothe a family well. If he were standing, he would stand over seven feet tall, and weigh in at well over 450 pounds. At his side was a sword reputed to be stained with the blood of more than one head of state, itself over six feet long and weighing over 70 pounds. The dimensions of this man did little to shake the confidence of the people in their monarch, as when he appeared to them, he seemed otherworldly and supernatural, majestic and awful all at once. He was the physical embodiment of everything the people wanted after the humiliation of the Soviets and the subsequent chaos of the terrifying democratic experiment.

First Minister Armand was explaining to his lord all of the current happenings throughout the world and the developments in Spyr, Dra-pol, Depkazia, The Combine, Germany, Neo-Anarchos, Africa, Britain, Poland, China, and the USQ. It seemed that the world was spiralling ever more into the chaos and entropy of the end, and more and more the people turned to him to give them direction in this time. The people were scared, the masses needed a purpose, and they needed to feel themselves strong. The Tsar needed to show them that strength. The First Minister stopped, awaiting some kind of indication as to the wishes of God’s anointed, His meshiach, His christos on the throne. And the mighty and terrible Tsar stirred, stood, and spoke: “Proceed with Operation: Father Almighty! Set the North Fleet to battle stations and ready them to sail into the North Atlantic through the English Channel at once! Further, make preparations through our diplomats to speak to the new Chinas that are emerging. And get the Fleets that were involved in the battle back to home port for repairs. And call upon Caesar. I will not leave my Empire to my grandson in a weakened state. Let the world shudder at the power of the Tsar!” His voice boomed out to the nearly empty room, terrible in its physical presence, but even more terrible in the power it commanded in the real world.

Rome

In Rome, the Caesar heard through the Tsarist diplomats that the Tsar was inviting him to meet with him for an Imperial summit in St. Petersburg, at the historic Winter Palace of the Tsars, as soon as was convenient for him. The tone of the diplomats left the impression that it was very important.

Siberia, Taymyr Peninsula

The first of three weapons that were to be delivered using two different methods one sneaky, two with the massive air power of the Russian Strategic Bomber Wings. This one was dropped, and filmed, and broadcast all over the Tsarist states and beyond. They had just dropped the Father of All Bombs, the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the world. (FOAB)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ee_cDX7ys

Kerguelen Islands

The Ukrainian commander of the Typhoon submarine was authorised to finally make use of his new weapon, and planed to use it to the fullest of his abilities. They had loaded the weapon long ago in their Pacific Base, and were now coming very close to the coast of their target. He gave the command to rise to the surface, with the moonless night shrouding them in its inky blackness, and the Commando dive team was readied. They prepared the specially made raft that they had been towing with the new bomb, itself over 7 tons. They began to guide the massive floating device towards the shore. Near the populated area. A first group of commandoes, about 12, landed when the bomb was still quite a ways out, on the raft marked with a red cross. The were among the best that Spetsnatz, the Black Berets, had to offer, and they came on shore read to deal with anyone that was foolish enough to try and raise the alarm, though not much was expected seeing as the island was so far from anything resembling danger and the incredible darkness of the night. They would utilise crossbows and knives to silence those that they could, but were fully prepared to make a fight out of it if necessary. Soon after, the bomb ran aground, and the 20 soldiers with it found the amphibious landing track controls for the bombs and shed the bulky raft so that they could literally drive the bomb the rest of the way there.

Soon, and without too much problem, they got to the perimeter, and readied themselves. The unit that had come before had circled around to the opposite side, and while the bomb was prepared for the next phase of its travel, they opened up with a full on assault utilising mortars and light rockets to target the barracks and mess where the most amount of troops would be found. As soon as the attack began, and though taken by surprise, it was expected that the well-trained Indians would fight back, the bomb would literally be driven into the midst of the base with light armour protecting it from all sides, along with a path cleared for it by the 20 Black Berets that were escorting it. All of this was being broadcast to the sub via many cameras mounted on the heads of the troops in question, and when the bomb was just getting into place, before the Indians had time to figure out the gravity of the situation, the armoured sides fell off at the touch of a remote control switch and less than a split second later, it exploded, destroying all living matter in the area, including the Russians. The Ukrainian commander sneered as he watched the explosion light up the sky from his sub. He didn’t like Russians anyway.

Soon after, two Bulova missiles were fired at the Crozet Islands as well. In Tsarist news agencies, both attacks were described as “weapons testing on friendly French possessions, with the permission of the French monarch.”


Sea of Okhotsk

The Tu-95 that had taken off hours earlier from an isolated airbase in Siberia, deep in the Eastern Defence Sector, had finally reached the middle of the Sea of Okhotsk, deep in international waters, but close enough to Spyr to send an intended message. One of three weapons that had been authorised to be tested today was dropped out of the back of the big bomber as it thundered along, and left a massive explosion, obviously monitored by everyone, in its wake.


Tsar Wingert the Great.

Gurg’s Post:



Near St. Petersburg, At Sea

"Right, that should be close enough. Officer of the deck, make your depth zero metres and set a course fifteen degrees southeast, sixteen knots." The captain of HMS Vigilant smiled to himself, imagining the consternation of Russian military commanders as one of Britain's four Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines surfaced eleven kilometres from the St. Petersburg shoreline before describing a lazy circle and sailing, quite unconcerned, out to the North Sea.

Russian intelligence, no slouch by any standards despite their government's frequent foolishness, would certainly inform the Tsar's staff that the Vanguards carried sixteen ballistic missiles, each of which carried eight separately guided nuclear warheads. Given their ability to launch a new missile every ten seconds, thereby guaranteeing that nuclear holocaust would require less than two minutes to complete.

Someone, in the defiance well known amongst Royal Navy submariners who had achieved infamy for flying the Jolly Rodger after a successful wartime cruise, hoisted the Union Jack on the Vigilant's flagpole. It flapped in the stiff North Sea wind, reminding the Tsarists exactly who it was that controlled their vital sea passages through the Kattegat and Bosporus.

London

Condemnation for the Tsar's activities are quick to come, but not expected to achieve much in terms of actual political change. London makes the appropriate 'madmen causing firestorm' noises, and British-Tsarist relations sink yet again.


Vecron’s Post 1
Rome, Palace of the Holy Citadel

Caesar Romulus looked out the window after receiving the message from the Tsarist diplomats. The weather seemed bleak, very bleak. The sun was hidden behind the matte grey clouds with a chill wind biting those citizens that walked past the palace. He didn't look forward to meeting in person with the Tsar. His last encounter with the Russian giant wasn't the smoothest meeting he had ever had. Not to mention that Wingert creeped the hell out of him!

But the Tsar was perhaps his most faithful ally, and Rome and Moscow had worked very closely and successfully in Yugoslavia. Romulus informed the diplomat to send a reply to the Tsar, his presence in St. Petersburg could be expected in four days.

Shortly after the diplomats were excused and the message was sent to the great Tsar, news came to Romulus of the Russian attack on the Indians at the Kerguelen Islands. Russians don't kid around. A revised message was sent to Tsar Wingert Grozny, Caesar Romulus could expected in St. Petersburg in two days.

Hail Caesar!

Vecron’s Post 2
St. Petersburg

Caesar's personal A-319 jet landed on the tarmac at Pulkovo International Airport. The jet, which had flown under the escort of four T-65 Actis fighters, rolled to a stop as a limosine and a crowd of media and hailing peasantry approached the plane. Russian and Roman security forces had already cooperated to ensure the safety of the Roman monarch during this impromptu visit to one of his closest allies. Caesar Romulus emerged from the plane wearing a heavy coat, a fur cap and black leather gloves. Over his cap, were the golden laurels that had been placed on his head by the Pope himself at his coronation. The cold wind bit at his exposed flesh. He could not abide the cold, yet still he took the time to wave and do his brief curtain call before meeting whatever dignitaries the Tsar had sent to meet him.

Following Caesar was a host of aids and diplomatic attaches, ready to assist their lord in whatever negotiations or proposals the Tsar might have.

Hail Caesar!

Chingiz Khagan Depkazi joins the chorus of world leaders condemning Russian provocations and aggression, and issues official sympathy to Hindustani victims of Russian hostility, calling for Muslims at prayer to spare thoughts for those fallen against what he calls the Great Satan of Tsarist Russia.

Just days after the Tsarist actions, not far from the town of Gyzylgaya Caliphal strategic rocket command forces may be observed from space as they prepare the ground for a ballistic missile test. Forty-eight hours before the test, the world is informed that such an event will happen, indeed that it is imminent, though an exact time is not given.

The expectation is that nations such as the INU (Samarkand has no interest in complaints from the Russians and such nations) will seek to discourage the test of a domestically manufactured two-stage ballistic missile, which could potentially hit Western Europe, let alone Russia, but Samarkand insists that it will not be dissuaded from reminding the Tsar that the Soviets he hated so much left no small part of their ballistic missile and nuclear infrastructure in Mid Asia, and that it is now firmly under the control of the Islamic Caliphate.

The international community is informed that no nuclear test is to be associated with the missile launch, Samarkand remaining cagey about its real nuclear capacities, and that the target is a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean far from regular shipping lanes. A general area is listed as potentially dangerous, specific co-ordinates omitted to limit the possibility of interception of the test and perhaps to enable Samarkand to claim whatever degree of accuracy it desires, provided that the launch is not a complete failure.

In addition to preparation for a missile test, the Caliphate moves more of its defensive forces usually employed in guarding against Armandian threats to face the Kazakh frontier, which proves to be a grindingly slow process in light of the military's increasingly over-stretched state.

The Caliph uses Russian provocations as an opportunity to remind the world of his insistence that Kazakhstan is under occupation, Borat a greedy shill, and to claim that Chechens and other Muslims in the Russian Empire are in dire need of liberation and the opportunity to associate themselves with their brethren in the Holy Caliphate.

Whether the Caliphate really maintains the capacity to produce nuclear weapons must still be an issue of much debate, but as if to suggest that it does, activity at the Kara Balta uranium mining facility is visibly increased following Tsarist weapons tests. The Caliphate may not have the particular means to counter the latest Russian super-bombs in like scale, but if the Russians can test strategic nuclear bombers and nuclear-capable Bulava missiles, they should at least be given the impression that Samarkand has a nuclear response capability.

Berlin receives a few new approaches from Caliphal envoys seeking access to certain modern technologies presumably used in Germany's recent development of nuclear weapons, with the suggestion that new centrifuges and other items might result in widened investment opportunities for German firms in the Caliphate, which is after all far and away the world's fastest growing nation, now claiming to be in the hundred-million-plus club.

Demonstrations of Russian fuel-air ordnance, if meant to cow the Lyongese whose lands border Wingert's holdings, are not likely to have much effect. Already aware of the Tsar's threats of more-potent nuclear attack against them through information from Beijing, and having no reason to doubt the potency of Moscow's arsenal (their own comparable thermobarics battle-tested months ago in Indonesia), explosions in Siberia and the Okhotsk are at best confirmations of a reality with which the Party has already become comfortable. Having confidence in their own abilities if faced with Tsarist assault, there will be little overt impact amongst the Strainists, save the usual barrage of protest and propaganda which invariably accompanies any event of significance.

Of course, outward appearances never tell the whole story, and two particular ripples from the Father-of-all-Bombs reach deep into the Party apparatus.
The first is a victory for the Revolutionary Army and its assertion that the Tsarists present a danger which must be confronted. The choice to liberate Indonesia rather than Siberia had allowed more conservative Party bureaucrats to question how deeply their leftist rivals believed such claims, and the lack of results achieved by the embargo imposed on Tsarist goods had shown a need for a different approach. Faced with footage of weapons tests on their doorstep, the bureaucrats would have a more difficult time pushing the Party masses towards a more conciliatory stance.
The second is concern over the potency of Lyongese defenses against Russian attack, based as it is around large numbers of nuclear-tipped interceptors. While most soldiers are unlikely to be worried by world opinion, Party diplomats begin to wonder at global reaction should Lyong react with nuclear defense against a conventional bomb attack.
In the end, it is hoped that the example set by the French, and the difficulty recovering ordnance that has been intercepted with a nuclear blast will allow the Party to put forth a reasonable assertion that any Tsarist attack was nuclear or biochemical in nature, even if they themselves cannot be certain such is the case. Still, the matter will continue to cause some discomfort in the ranks of the foreign service.

Amongst the usual rhetoric which pours from Party pulpits in response to the attack comes a suggestion to Moscow that regional security would be best preserved by announcing weapons tests to neighbouring powers before they take place, as a misinterpretation of intent would likely have grave consequences for all involved. The example set by the Depkazis is cited as a proper approach to testing activity.

The Khaganate (Party ulema having declined to accept Chingiz' Caliphal claims) is also mentioned in assertions that Russia is 'encircled', and that the Tsar would be wise to reform his feudal barbarism for his own sake. The Strainist Party is bound by ties of ideology to Constance, which musters across the Caspian; by ties of faith to Samarkand, rightful ruler of Kazakhstan; by ties of history and language to the Han, the Mongols, and the Manchus, who have reclaimed their rightful preeminence after decades fending off the depradations of encroaching barbarians.
The unity of such a supposed brotherhood is certainly questionable, as is wether such statements are meant to threaten the Tsar or merely for domestic consumption, but Beijing, Guangzhou, and Samarkand will certainly find Strainist diplomats eager to talk over the coming weeks.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/2239/strainistsignaturelb6.jpg (http://z7.invisionfree.com/A_Modern_World/index.php?showtopic=12&view=findpost&p=13773433)

The Southern Indian Ocean

Most Indians on the Kerguelen and Crozet Islands are, unsurprisingly, killed in the attack, though Russians watching the progress of the battle at Port-aux-Francais may be surprised to see their commandos falling in quantity to Hindustani marines, ready and waiting for just such a contingency, and by no means intimidated by Spetsnaz troops in spite of their being locally outnumbered. Indeed, the approach of at least one body of Russians is reported by an observation post situated on high ground overlooking the main base, established in order to prevent just what the Russians are attempting to pull-off. Hindustani marines, experienced and well-trained, are not about to be caught sleeping, though they don't have any anti-armor weapons and thus are unable to destroy the bomb-carrying vehicle in time. The area around Port-aux-Francais is devastated, though small groups of scientists and researchers at other sites on Morbihan Gulf are largely unhurt. Port Christmas and its population are also in good health, though the sudden blast comes as a major surprise and a tense evening is spent in slit trenches, ready to face an amphibious attack. Fortunately for the dozen or so scientists there, protected by all of four marines, no attack is forthcoming.

The Russian submarine, meanwhile, will not find itself alone in the waters off the archipelago. The submarine INS Lanternfish, sent to the Kerguelens as part of its shake-down cruise, with several shipyard workers aboard to help sort-out any problems that might be encountered, is on hand to observe the blast, running on the surface with the intention of calling-in at Port-aux-Francais. Though by no means expecting enemy action in the Kerguelens, the crew of Lanternfish wastes no time in diving the boat, strongly suspicious of the presence of an enemy submarine. The order is given to rig for silent running, while sonar operators monitor the passive array for any signs of trouble. Of course, the Russians make things a good deal more straightforward when they fire at the Crozet Islands, giving sonar operators aboard Lanternfish a pretty good fix on the Typhoon's position. Operating smoothly and effectively, the Indian crew, much of it made up of ex-surface fleet sailors whose ships went down in the naval battle off West Africa, closes the distance with the target, going as fast as the demands of quietness will allow, torpedoes at the ready.

Mumbai

When news of the Russian attacks reaches the INU, public reaction is not strong, especially when it becomes clear that the detonation at Port-aux-Francais was non-nuclear. Any loss of life is regrettable, but initial reports indicate, at most, a hundred Indian dead along with an unknown number of Spetsnaz, a figure that makes little impact on a population engaged in a declared war that has so far proven nothing if not costly. Few Unioners feel any more threatened by the Russians now than they did previously, since the Tsar, if he really wanted to, could destroy India with ICBMs, no commando raids necessary. And neither does the image of Tsarist commandos making a suicide raid against what is essentially a scientific outpost really make much of an impression on the popular mindset.

UDF commanders decide, very shortly after the attack, to evacuate Union-occupied sub-Antarctic islands, long ago deemed strategically irrelevant and generally not worth defending should the Leaguers ever try to re-assert their sovereignty in a serious way. The small fisheries protection flotilla operating in the Southern Indian Ocean is ordered to take remaining Unioners off the islands. Mumbai does not renounce its territorial claim, and UDF cutters will continue to patrol for illegal fishing, but Unioners themselves will be no more than a temporary presence on any of the islands until the present war has been concluded.

Whatever damage the Tsar does to Hindustan's sub-Antarctic possessions, he can't win back his shattered navy, that much is readily apparent to UDF commanders, and the attack is widely seen in military circles as an indication of Russia's inability to influence world events.