NationStates Jolt Archive

Queen Sukhee Kaur sat in her chair reclining from a long day of work. For years, Space Union had become isolationist and fell of the map for most nations in the world including its allies. During these years, Space Union had gone through a metamorphisis of a kind. It had changed from its Federative Republic government that had been in power under the Federate Satpul Singh to a new, more powerful Federative Sikh Empire. The change had not come in a glorious revolution or through a military coup but through sheer political willpower and force. Indeed, after years of turmoil due to the isolationist policies imposed by the temporary Federate after Singh had resigned had left the nation in a peculiar circumstance where it was no longer a world leader. She was going to change that.

The new empire was born in a bang, as one may say. Though that was making no linear connection to some war of the sort, but in a spectacular event albiet peaceful that ushered in the age of the empire and scooted the old republic out the door. She had come to power a few years before the end of that government and had been elected the first female Federate in the history of the nation or leader in that case, something she delighted herself in thinking. Through vigorous work that would break many, she transformed Space Union into a powerful nation to be reckoned with and from the ashes that the former Federate had left for her, she had expunged all the impurities and established a solid base that could withstand anything imaginable. In her first act, she reestablished ties within the Haven region, which had in the years that Space Union had been absense become polarized around two camps: NATO and APOC. A sort of cold war had developed in the region and the once unified mainland was now split in no simple fashion into two megablocs that seemed to have no difference in policy and their hatred of each other (though they claimed otherwise).

But Space Union was not about to jump onboard any of the two camps and instead decided to work its way up till it came to that fork in the road. Till then, it would reestablish itself as a major power in the region and the world. Afterall, it had arguably the best air force in the world (certainly the biggest), even though those lots in Juumanistra or Tyrandis might say otherwise. Already, Space Union had diplomatic envoys traveling to former Sovereign League members like Praetonia, Questers, Northford, Willink, Soviet Bloc, Chevrokia, Aralonia, Bruxella and others. Space Union had even sent a represenative to Doomingsland, which for reasons uncertain other than divine intervention, seemed to bear the most surprising of results.

The Queen had expected a reply such as "We shall look forward to working on diplomatic fronts in the future" or such generic commonalities but instead she got an offer to expand the relationship beyond just a stand-still loose relationship that could collapse at the slightest change in reasoning from either nation's leaders. The reasons could have been many such as the similiarity in language both nations spoke, their political systems, or whatever but it was surprising nonetheless. In the months after establishing contact, the Sikh Empire and the Doomingsland Empire had developed a military relationship that expanded into a formal alliance and now brought a new fruit: an exchange of basis as a symbol of friendship. In exchange for bases in Doomingsland to use for Space Union Air Forcce to station an air armada or two, the Space Unionists gave the Doominglsand a series of gigantic military bases in their colony in East Haven called Ferrum Lupus. Also another ally named Chevrokia was also getting bases in Ferrum Lupus. This was outside of any alliances and a bilateral deal with them in the case of war as the empire and Chevrokia had discussed joint protection plans together.

Some in Space Union had disagreed with this move. No one wanted foreign troops on their land other than needed, especially such a nation like Doomingsland which had a reputation. But the Queen wanted to expand Space Union's empire and that didn't just include colonies, that included being able to project your military power. Already Space Union had moved significant forces of its air force for the past months into Ferrum Lupus and with Doomingsland soldiers there, Ferrum Lupus would be well protected. This was why these bases were crucial. That and military excercises with different nations would help each nation, especially the Space Union Army, which to many was just a filler for the slot of "army" in any nation's military. Oh well, at least it wasn't the Navy....

Already thousands upon thousands of Space Union aircrafts had already taken flight to start relocating themselves to Doomingsland and at the same time help the Doomingsland move their troops to Ferrum Lupus, a show of friendliness that the Space Unions had offered. But within this flight of birds that could cast shadows on entire countrysides without trying was something new, something never before seen. The world had yet to lay eyes on something this revolutionary and defining that would change the status quo forever.

EZ-12A Skytop
23rd Air Control Wing
Patrolling north of the Holy Marsh-Hjeltland Border

"Look, I'm gonna repeat this again Jacob. You're expecting that we're gonna be brought down today. This is not a realistic assumption."

"But there isn't anything going on out there! It's all regular civilian and military traffic, nothing unusual."

"Look, Jacob. One; we're watching movement in Holy Marsh, and as you know now, they're part of NATO. Two; we're not going down until tomorrow, the brass don't want to send AWACS up for only a few hours if they can send them up for three days. I don't care if you want to be in a fixed wing AWACS unit, what matters is what's going on now. If you like, you're free to step out at any time, but at our altitude, the fall can actually kill you, from the distinct lack of oxygen and severe cold." He looked over at the radar display, not very pleased. "And you're wrong, it's not all regular civilian traffic."

"What are you talking about? They're all squawking civilian transponder codes. I don’t see what the problem is."

"Perhaps you could inform me the last time you saw that many civilian aircraft flying in highly synchronized formations. If we're seeing this much traffic moving in this sector of Holy Marsh, I can't imagine how much total traffic they’ve got moving in."

"You don’t think they’re all Marsh aircraft?"

"Oh, that would make a lot of sense. ‘Hey I got an idea, let’s move all our civilian aircraft at the exact same time to the other side of the country for no apparent reason.’ Come on now, act like you’re in the Air Force. We’re calling this one in."


Office of General Yuri Mikhailovich Sorvenyenko
Chevrokian Army Commander-In-Chief, Hjeltland Military District
Tórshavn Army Command, Hjeltland

No matter what things you fix, life has a tendency to bring you new problems. For General Sorvenyenko and the immediate future, these problems lay to the south. Bordering Hjeltland was the nation of Holy Marsh, now a member of NATO. Word from the zoomies was that a suspiciously large amount of airliners flying in formation had arrived in the country, and nobody in the Chevrokian military hierarchy seemed to believe these were actually filled with civilians. As of yet, they could not prove otherwise, but thousands of airliners arriving in a country all at the same time seemed rather unusual, to say the least.

And the NATO business didn't stop there. On Holy Marsh's northern border was the Scandavian Duchy of Mya, on their southwest was the Californian territory of Ravenna, and bordering Ravenna on the southeast was Labehkstan. Aside from NATO, there was still the situation in Muncheria, which had yet to cross the border, aside from the loyal No Endorse forces who escaped the rebels.

Two parts to a solution now existed. The first, resulting from the fact that potentially hostile forces now bordered sovereign Chevrokian territory, was a significant expansion and uparmament of the Chevrokian Army. Finally, the General thought, the brass back in Duntovostok on the mainland realized that having an army that knew the difference between their ass and a hole in the ground was actually useful. The second part had arrived by air, from the far southwestern part of Haven, and in great numbers. General Sorvenyenko decided to travel across town, as he did on a regular basis, but today to see the elements to this second part.

The General stepped out of his personal car, on a rather non-descript street in southern Tórshavn near the Air Force base. A seemingly random passerby, a young and apparently naive woman, saw the General and approached him.

"General, thank God you're here. They were up all night, playing heavy metal very loud, they were drinking heavily…"

The General laughed. He knew better than to think this was out of the ordinary for such people. "Come now, how is this different than any other day? It’s just different people doing it here."

"But General, we saw somebody who tried to shut off their music, he was nearly beaten to death by the drunkards!"

"I think it’s clear at this point that fighting against them in an irrational manner and/or for irrational reasons is not conductive to one's well being. We all remember what happened to Kahanistan, after all," he said, with a big grin on his face.

The woman couldn't speak. She seemed outraged at his last comment, and so the General continued.

"It would appear you’re certainly the minority here, but trust me. These people are our friends, and they are here as guests. You may not have the same beliefs as them, but they can be trusted. They’re honest church-going folk."

"Are you out of your mind!?!"

"Certainly not. Come here, I'll show you." The General led her up the steps to a perfectly normal looking church, and filling the inside from wall to wall, most of them having to stand, with their customized ACOM carbines slung over their shoulders, were Doomani Imperial Guardsmen. The woman appeared as if she had seen a ghost. Clearly, the General thought, she was not a Doomani Catholic.

"The ones you have to be careful of are the Legionaries, the ones who don't raise hell all night long. They're our friends too, but they're highly professional and dangerous guys. Now if you'll excuse me, I must join these fine gentlemen for mass. Good morning."