Rosdivan
15-08-2008, 00:59
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Hospital Fleet Leaves on Nine Month Goodwill Voyage
By Lisa Dixon
Amid much fanfare, and escorted by the Navy's Blue Thunder military aerobatics demonstration team, a flotilla of hospital ships left Tudor City late yesterday afternoon to begin what will be a nine month voyage to the Gholgoth continental cluster. With them, the sleek atomic powered ships carried with them thousands of medical workers and tons of medicine and advanced machinery to aid Gothic citizens.
"It's really a great opportunity to try and help further the cause of peace," reported Sarah Mitchell, a volunteer nurse aboard the lead ship Asclepius. "Most of the time we deploy to areas devastated by war, with all of the accompanying tragedy. It will be really nice to help ordinary citizens with ordinary ailments and, by doing so, reduce the possibility that yet another war zone will be created."
The genesis for the goodwill visit came from the highest levels of government after the Freekish ultimatum in the opening days of the Doomani War. With the worrying prospect of the conflict expanding to interregional status, a not unlikely prospect given the history of tension and conflict between the Havenic and Gothic continental clusters, diplomats set about seeking a way to reduce the tensions and raise public relations.
"A lot of people hear that we are sending a fleet of hospital ships and automatically think 'Oh, they must have a poor infrastructure, unable to care for even their own citizens,' which is actually quite wrong, " said David Vinson, a pediatric surgeon. "The Gothic nations have their own very good hospital system, so what we'll be doing is mainly preventative maintenance. In every nation there are always those who can't afford to visit the doctor or a hospital, or don't believe they can afford it, or simply don't wish to wait when hospitals find themselves backed up due to too many patients. So we'll be providing free services to help take care of them and provide an overflow resource for area hospitals while we are visiting their ports."
In addition to providing free medical care, the goodwill voyage is also intended to help increase the capabilities of those hospitals whose budgets are too tight to afford needed additional computed tomography or magnetic resonance imagery machines, a situation quite common in the global healthcare industry. It's also a major cultural and educational exchange.
"As one would expect for nations separated by tens of thousands of miles, there's often a tremendous difference in the techniques and drugs that we use," said Mark Short, captain of the Patecatl. "One of the benefits of this voyage is that, by having our doctors and nurses working alongside of their doctors and nurses, we'll be able to see those differences and gain insights to help treat patients, both here and in Gholgoth."
But not everyone is pleased with the voyage. At the dockside, a large number of protestors gathered, chanting various slogans, though the most popular, or at least the loudest, was "NO AID TO TYRANNY!"
"It's simply unconscionable that Rosdivan would do anything to support those murderous thugs in Gholgoth," responded one one of the demonstrators, a Praetonian, like many of the other demonstrators, here on a business trip who declined to give his name. "Gholgoth is home to nothing but tyrannical regimes and the only thing that Rosdivan should ship them is mustard gas!" He refused to respond to questions about how this would aid those supposedly in dire straits due to the 'tyrannical regimes.'
A smaller group of protests arose from a committed group of activists who have protested every significant event of the Asclepius class since their design was announced. "It is a fallacy to describe these as hospital ships. Hospital ships by definition are non-combatant, yet here we see the Rosdivani Navy carting a missile armament straight into Gothic ports on the pretense of helping their citizens!"
Asked for a response, Captain Short responded: "Technically, it is true under international law that hospital ships are to be completely unarmed, and thus these are officially on the Navy List as 'forward casualty treatment vessels.' And yes, we do possess a missile armament. It consists simply of two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers for self-defense, since this ship may be mistakenly attacked when in a warzone; missile launchers with no offensive capability. However, when we enter into Gothic waters, as a show of our peaceful intentions, these systems will be deactivated and Gothic sailors may remain aboard the vessel to ensure that they are and remain deactivated."
But even with those demonstrators, well-wishers and family members still formed the vast majority of those at pier-side, many of them with tears in their eyes as they said goodbye to their loved ones, waiting for that special day, nine months from now, when they return to hearth and home.
Hospital Fleet Leaves on Nine Month Goodwill Voyage
By Lisa Dixon
Amid much fanfare, and escorted by the Navy's Blue Thunder military aerobatics demonstration team, a flotilla of hospital ships left Tudor City late yesterday afternoon to begin what will be a nine month voyage to the Gholgoth continental cluster. With them, the sleek atomic powered ships carried with them thousands of medical workers and tons of medicine and advanced machinery to aid Gothic citizens.
"It's really a great opportunity to try and help further the cause of peace," reported Sarah Mitchell, a volunteer nurse aboard the lead ship Asclepius. "Most of the time we deploy to areas devastated by war, with all of the accompanying tragedy. It will be really nice to help ordinary citizens with ordinary ailments and, by doing so, reduce the possibility that yet another war zone will be created."
The genesis for the goodwill visit came from the highest levels of government after the Freekish ultimatum in the opening days of the Doomani War. With the worrying prospect of the conflict expanding to interregional status, a not unlikely prospect given the history of tension and conflict between the Havenic and Gothic continental clusters, diplomats set about seeking a way to reduce the tensions and raise public relations.
"A lot of people hear that we are sending a fleet of hospital ships and automatically think 'Oh, they must have a poor infrastructure, unable to care for even their own citizens,' which is actually quite wrong, " said David Vinson, a pediatric surgeon. "The Gothic nations have their own very good hospital system, so what we'll be doing is mainly preventative maintenance. In every nation there are always those who can't afford to visit the doctor or a hospital, or don't believe they can afford it, or simply don't wish to wait when hospitals find themselves backed up due to too many patients. So we'll be providing free services to help take care of them and provide an overflow resource for area hospitals while we are visiting their ports."
In addition to providing free medical care, the goodwill voyage is also intended to help increase the capabilities of those hospitals whose budgets are too tight to afford needed additional computed tomography or magnetic resonance imagery machines, a situation quite common in the global healthcare industry. It's also a major cultural and educational exchange.
"As one would expect for nations separated by tens of thousands of miles, there's often a tremendous difference in the techniques and drugs that we use," said Mark Short, captain of the Patecatl. "One of the benefits of this voyage is that, by having our doctors and nurses working alongside of their doctors and nurses, we'll be able to see those differences and gain insights to help treat patients, both here and in Gholgoth."
But not everyone is pleased with the voyage. At the dockside, a large number of protestors gathered, chanting various slogans, though the most popular, or at least the loudest, was "NO AID TO TYRANNY!"
"It's simply unconscionable that Rosdivan would do anything to support those murderous thugs in Gholgoth," responded one one of the demonstrators, a Praetonian, like many of the other demonstrators, here on a business trip who declined to give his name. "Gholgoth is home to nothing but tyrannical regimes and the only thing that Rosdivan should ship them is mustard gas!" He refused to respond to questions about how this would aid those supposedly in dire straits due to the 'tyrannical regimes.'
A smaller group of protests arose from a committed group of activists who have protested every significant event of the Asclepius class since their design was announced. "It is a fallacy to describe these as hospital ships. Hospital ships by definition are non-combatant, yet here we see the Rosdivani Navy carting a missile armament straight into Gothic ports on the pretense of helping their citizens!"
Asked for a response, Captain Short responded: "Technically, it is true under international law that hospital ships are to be completely unarmed, and thus these are officially on the Navy List as 'forward casualty treatment vessels.' And yes, we do possess a missile armament. It consists simply of two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers for self-defense, since this ship may be mistakenly attacked when in a warzone; missile launchers with no offensive capability. However, when we enter into Gothic waters, as a show of our peaceful intentions, these systems will be deactivated and Gothic sailors may remain aboard the vessel to ensure that they are and remain deactivated."
But even with those demonstrators, well-wishers and family members still formed the vast majority of those at pier-side, many of them with tears in their eyes as they said goodbye to their loved ones, waiting for that special day, nine months from now, when they return to hearth and home.