NationStates Jolt Archive

FSIS Building, Singapore

FSIS, the Federated Straits Intelligence Service was the intelligence corps with overall responsibility for signals, military, internal and external intelligence for the Federation's military. They, therefore, did have an interest in the large slipway which was considerably busier than normal in Rangoon (Straitians - white ones at least - refused to call it by the Pyekian name.) All attempts at human intelligence had so far failed; FSIS had taken its cue from KGB and later FSB, and while its human intelligence was top notch, truth be told, infiltrating Pyeki was harder than one imagines. With very few satellites their coverage of the area was somewhat minimal, but the analysts at the Tower, the tall, perfectly innocent glass building that housed the Intelligence Agency, knew something was afoot.

"Bloody hell." The Director wiped his forehead, sticky sweat soaking the tissue and meeting the humid air before being tossed into a waste paper bin. "Is the aircon on?"

"No." His subordinate responded, sitting across the wide circular table. "Hold on." Picking up the remote and clicking it a few times, the six men in the room watched the fans of the aircon slowly turn on as the fan's door lifted open with a heavy wheeze that marked almost anything physically taxing in the tropics. Still, in their forties through seventies the men watched the aircon switch on. It was almost a ritual. A habit, of sorts.

"Much better." The Director smiled. Maybe the tropical potted plants that lined the marble floor around the edge of the circular room agreed. Maybe not. The Director was hardly an expert at biology - his job was the security of the country, not potted tropical plants. "Well then, what do we know?" He demanded.

"It's a battleship."

"Is that it?" The Director looked at the Chief Intelligence Analyst, the remnants of his once proud brown hair flapping in the artificial wind. "Is that all we know?"

"Well, if you'd let me finish." The CIA rolled his eyes. "As far as we're aware, the Pyekians have been developing a new series of naval rifles. Fifteen inch calibre. They've also been doing some heavy steel developing. I Imagine the armour on whatever they're building will probably be slightly lighter than the calibre of their main guns, by the way."

"I see." The Director raised his eyebrows. "It's not a threat, is it?"

"Not as such." The Military Attache nodded. "The Air Force and Navy can take care of it, if we know enough about it. Formulating attacks on Pyekian battlefleets has been what we've trained for for all this time, after all. Is it possible to get a data-sheet on it?"

"Not yet." The CIA replied. "This is why I wanted to meet about this specifically. I want us to work with the Indians on this one. If we pool our knowledge and military capacity, we can probably get some solid information. God knows we're lacking knowledge about them as it is."

The conversation lasted for a couple of hours longer but afterwards the decision was made: the South Asian Confederacy's Intelligence Services were invited, rather quietly, to work with FSIS on uncovering more about this new... development. Perhaps if enough was learnt, then it could be taken care of.

OOC: You forgot about little ol' me? I could help you blockade the Gulf of Thailand if you needed me too but you would need to contact me ICly.

The would-be battleship Mekong was by some estimates currently the most expensive single project under way in the Pyekan-Kuogu. No doubt infrastructure projects in Djakarta would cost more in the long run, and so too the Burmese uranium scheme and the cyclotrons dotted throughout the jungles of the Empire, but the battleship itself was supposed to be a two-year construction project, after the months spent carving out the slip and building up half a shipyard full of materials, where as the other projects would go on for much longer.

Admiral Akihiko Hirata had been making his first official visit to the construction site on the very day of the meeting in Singapore, and was pleased with what he saw. More than eighteen thousand tonnes of armour had been manufactured, and the hull itself was really taking shape. It was Hirata who vetoed work on over-head covering at the docks, designed to hide the project's features. The Admiral, unknown to the world a key member of the Garcat Laur junta pulling the Empire's strings, was so much taken with the glorious spectacle of his pet that he declared often that it should be seen and feared.

From this, the recurring theme of homage to Imperial Japan could be seen in Mekong's undulating deck and bulbous bow, and a 3x3 arrangement of the primary batter was becoming clear. As yet there appeared to be rather limited allowance for guided missile systems.

While all of this was going on, however, with months still left before a likely commission of the battleship, the cruiser Pan Jaya was under way on Sumatra's southwest coast, heading northwest, and the light carrier Panaku was making ready to sortie from Yangon for the first time in just over three months.

The Indian Central Intelligence Service (ICIS) was rather unsure when the FSIS first asked them to share information. Firstly, this was a nation with whom they bore no hostility towards but also not much, as of yet, friendship, and therefore they were apprehensive about the partnership. Also, despite many years of information gathering, they too had also found it highly difficult to get much on Pyekian that the FSIS may not have already heard. Nevertheless the Director of the Organization Surjit Shetty commissioned a report on what India knew about Pyeki and its weapons and people so they could give recommendations for a plan of action.

The ICIS had noted that the battleship was not yet complete though in fast development due to intensive labour. They believed they had years to play with, and a simple air strike would kill off its development, though their where other concerns. It was reasonable to believe Pyekian forces would desire to create more of these and there was unusual naval movement in the seas recently for a nation that rarely stirs much but for drills and practices.

He felt the Indian government and FSS were capable of taking on the threat, considering, most of its other military hardware is out-of-date and below-par compared to all the other major powers in the region. Also, he felt if Pyeki was to be stopped it would be best to limit the strike – they did not know enough of them to start a full-scale offensive, India had not been provoked, and from images and reconnaissance it was believed they don’t care about civilian deaths as long as they have enough to “power their war machine”, meaning they will fight by all means. As for the civilians, they are struggling people, part of a possibly demoralized nation, though still kept strong by almost religious cult unseen Emperor.

As most nations in Asia view them as a threat or has disputes with them so attacking them would offer little problems with foreign nations, and Surjit on this occasion recommended action over dialogue to confront their growing naval power.

The ICIS, already in frantic mode after the "little" incident in the Nicobar Islands, relayed a message to the FSIS. It simply stated that Indian land had been attacked, patience in the country had quickly run out, and to quote India's Prime Minister Indra Patel their was a strong desire in the military to formulate a plan to destroy the battleship within days. The end of the secretly transmitted message relayed a need to, when loosely translated, "bomb this bastard out of the water".