NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Check the OOC thread to see if there is any room

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=574216

IC

10:00 AM La Ciudad de Azura Centre Plaza

The Centre Plaza, the largest man-made park in the country. In it contains several beautiful areas for people to visit, whether it be wooded forests for hiking, or clean rivers for boating. There are some areas near it that are within the massive city. Along this way are stations where people can rest after hiking and drink, eat, and watch the news.

Today was a special day for the country.

"Today is a special day in the history of Edoniakistanbabweagua," the reporter remarked, "in which the space shuttle Bravery is launching the final piece of the Protecter. Now on location at the NSA launch headquarters is Daniel reporting. Daniel, can you tell us about what is happening?"

"That's right today marks the launch of the final component for the Protector, an orbital space colony that represents incredible strides in our space technology," Daniel yelled loudly over the announcements at the launching bay. "It will house a total of 1,500 citizen of over 25 countries. This is the dawn of a new age of peace for our nations."

"Daniel isn't it true that the Protector will also be housing a set of particle batteries?" asked Thomas.

"That is true, the Protector's secondary function will act as a defensive turret against nuclear warheads and other forms of ICBM," Daniel answered. "It has sparked controversy that the lasers could me used against ground targets. However, I recent interviewed a scientist that stated that the particle weapon is solely for targeting low-orbit projectiles and that the effects of clouds, weather, and humidity of the Earth's atmosphere would make the particle ineffective against ground units.

"Well Daniel it sounds like the countdown is beginning. In three hours we will see the most advanced technology this country has created go into space..." he trailed off into talking about sports...

The launch would begin in three hours.

Blubland Intelligence had been aware of this launch for quite some time. The Edonians hadn't really made much of a secret of it all and Blubland took special interest in nations attempting to further weaponize space.

Already on the warpath and with the military mobilized, High Command saw little reason in allowing another nation to put weapons in space. The cowardly attacks Blubland had suffered from Hataria's weapons satellites were still remembered despite the passing of years.

Certainly Blubland had the money and resources to build space weaponry if they chose to do so but Blubland had always been a rather straightforward nation. Their wars were conducted with only passing subtley. When a Blub wanted to fight, they'd walk right up to you and tell you they were going to punch you in the face and then do it.

And sneaking around did have its purpose once in a while...

12:45pm and 95km off Edonia's northern shores

Colonial Command had dispatched the Nemesis class cruiser Halo to the region. Being just a single ship it was unlikely to draw much in the way of attention. Halo was under orders to run silently until the deadline of the launching. By calculating the trajectory of the rocket's path into orbit, it was determined that it would pass over Halo at about 9,700 meters altitude.

And so she waited.

1:02 PM NSA Lauching Pad

"Well Tom it seems as though the countdown has been postponed an extra hour," Daniel reported. "It seems as though there may be loading malfunctions of the final piece of the Protector..."

As Daniel reported, there was a tour going through the inside of the NSA headquarters. It was lead by the lead scientist and creator of the Protector System, Dr. Harius Montanez. Amongst the tour were older people and young people alike.

"Since the dawn of the nuclear age, several countries have tried to find a good defense against the dangers of nuclear war," Harius stated. "Several treaties were attempted to limit the amount of nuclear weapons and even dismantle the stockpiles that several countries had. But no country was willing to sign any of them, fearing that the lack of nuclear deterrence would leave them open to a nuclear attack."

"Sir," a teenager rose his hand, "What does this have anything to do with putting lasers up in space?"

"Good question," the doctor said. "Well it came to pass that a terrorist almost succeeded in setting off a nuclear missile from one of our submarines. Luckily the missile was intercepted by a brave pilot who gave his life to stop it from hitting another country. This event started the SANDI treaty." Harius turned on a big screen with his laptop.

"The Strategic Anti-Nuclear Defense Initiative, or SANDI, was a joint project between all of the military and security departments in this country as well as other countries. It was dedicated to finding cost effective way in intercepting nuclear missiles. Our department focused on what was called Project Hyperion." A picture of the Earth from orbit went on the screen.

"We had long planned to have a space colony housing a capable population that was self-sustaining," Harius continued. "With the help of other countries in the treaty, we begin the process of outfitting the colony with four particle batteries called our Sub-Orbital Tactical Iota Surge battery, or SOTIS for short." The diagram showed the satellite in orbit. "The four batteries will allow us to be able to shoot down any ICBM within the eastern or western hemisphere. Their angles of aim can change to target any projectile in low orbit, and having four allow us to target multiple projectiles in an area of an entire hemisphere." The diagram showed the lasers shooting down nukes aimed at different countries.

"With the Protector watching the skies, the world will be forever safe from nuclear war and soon nukes will become obsolete and this will usher in a new age of peace between nations."

"But sir, I have heard rumors that the lasers can hit ground targets anywhere on the planet. Isn't this just adding to the long list of WMDs we already have to fear?" a woman asked.

"Let me dispel all rumors about the so-called ground capabilities of the Protector," Harius brought up another diagram of the station above Earth. "There is an effect called blooming that weakens the laser. Because of the moisture in the Earth's atmosphere as well as atmospheric conditions such as storms, the particle beam becomes significantly weaker as it travels down the atmosphere." The diagram showed the particle beam weakening and dissipating before hitting a ground target.

"As you can see, even if we wanted to attack a city, which would go against the SANDI treaty, we couldn't do it even with our technological advances," Harius stated. "In the end there are going to be people who will always suspect the motives of projects like this and we have to show them that we want to end the fear of WMDs."

As the tour continued, the countdown began again. The loading problem had been fixed and now the launch would commence at 3:00 PM. People were celebrating in the NSA building. Music was playing from the halls. Spaceman by The Killers coincidentally enough.

3:00 PM

"3...2...1... liftoff... Bravery rocketing into the sky" Everyone watching across the nation cheered as the Bravery launched for a new age of peace.

OOC: BTW if anyone is going to be allied with me and wants to play a nation in the SANDI treaty thats fine.

BCN Halo

In the CIC of the air-defense cruiser, technician sailors sat at computer screens. The room was dim and lit by soft blue lights that are easier on the eyes. On one monitor was a pirated signal from the Edonian news network showing the live launch.

"There it goes.." announced one technician as the rocket slowly rumbled into the sky, arcing north and picking up speed.

At six hundred feet off the ground another technician spoke up, "Confirmed. Tracking now. It seems to be on course."

A weapons officer began typing on his keyboard, "Entering air defense envelope in fifteen seconds."

Launch Plus 45 seconds

Almost a minute after the launch as the rocket climbed skyward and still quite visable from the ground, Halo launched a single anti-ballistic missile missle towards it. It was moving much slower than a true ballistic missile and the crew were confident it would make an impact. If not, there was still time to launch another if needed.

The ABMM shrieked out of its VLS cell and curved slightly south, accelerating quickly. Programmed to attack the upper part of ballistic missiles, this ABM calculated the trajectory, the exhaust bloom and made an educated guess as to where the tip of its target would be.

In this case with the rocket being much larger than a ballistic missile, the impact would take place at about three feet forward of the solid/liquid rocket motor. The 120lb warhead depended more on a kinetic strike than true explosive power to do its job.

This ABM moved across the sky the sky, a thin trail of white vapor marking its passage as it closed with and then intersected with the larger white exhaust trail of the rocket.

Intro Only

Present at the launch as part of the official Duchy of Rechburg treaty negotiating party are

Dan Patterson - Ambassador
General Brad Thorn - Arms treaty negotiator
Colonel Allen Watson - Military attache
Ms Diane Kerr - Scientific Advisor

General Brad Thorn was always dubious about these new damn fangled technological leaps in weaponry, they worried him as much as they baffled him.
To him warfare was two generals going head to head in Main battale tanks, now that was fighting.
He had been an odd choice to send as Arms treaty Advisor, but the Duke insisted simply because in General Thorn he recognised the Rechburg Martial spirit. The Duke also reasoned that if General Thorn could be convinced, then it had to be good for Rechburg.
Admiral Ney the Dukes national Security Advisor had remarked several times that Thorn was president of the Rechburg Flat earth society, fortunately for General Thorn he didnt know about the Flat earth society or he would likely have been a member.

Dan Patterson the new Ambassador was very keen to impress today, he felt diplomatically the Duchy had to move forward into the new era. There was much resistence back in Rechburg diplomatic circles to extending into treaties with technologies that bordered on the fantasy, However Ambassador Patterson was young ambitious and he very much wanted this treaty as a personal coup for him.

Dr Dianne Kerr was the Dukes real ace in the hand, one of Rechburgs leading scientists, she also represented the new breed of Rechburg leaders.
They wanted to take the Duchy into the new world, so in Dan patterson she had a natural ally. She thought General Thorn to be a dinasour from another age, he was in her mind redundant and to her an embarresment. However he carried huge influence with the Duke so she had to at least play lip service to him.

The final Member of the Group was Colonel Allen Watson, he was military attache to the Ambassador and he very much admired General Thorn, to him Thorn embodied the spirit that made Rechburg great; to Col Watson Gen Thorn was a national treasure and had to be protected.
He had already detected Dr Kerr's distate for General Thorn, but he he understood what it was, it represented what was happening in the Duchy right now, it was the change from the old guard to the new.

30 Minutes before Launch(ooc: just to get rech in on this)

The head of the DSD took the stage.

"Greetings. I am glad to see so many people here to see the historic launch of the Bravery." he began. "I see we have several members from different countries here to witness the product of 2 years of research with the SANDI treaty." the speech continued for 5 minutes then he stepped down.

The head of the DSD went to each group from each different country that was there to visit. He went up to Dan Patterson, ambassador of Rechburg, as well as his entourage.

"Greetings. Welcome to Edoniakistanbabweagua. I am glad you are here in the interest of joining the SANDI treaty organization," he shook Patterson's hand firmly.

3:02 PM inside the Bravery

"All systems look good," Jameson said to ground control. "Fuel lines are working and we should break the atmosphere in 7 minutes. We are ready to.." he was interrupted by a beeping nose from the radar on the control panel. What the... he thought

"Jameson radar is showing something coming in towards our direction fast," co-pilot Tara said. "What is it?"

Jameson turned to his left and there he saw it. A missile aimed straight for them.

"Oh, shi..."

His transmission was cut off.

Everyone on the ground floor screamed when they heard the explosion. People ran for their lives.

Military Police on site came out. "MOVE MOVE, ALL CIVILIANS PLEASE GO INSIDE FOR SAFETY!" The audience and tours and ambassadors were herded into the building as debris began to his the launching area.

Harius stood from his office at the fireball in the sky.

"No..." he whispered to himself. "My life's work... gone... everything..." he dropped to his knees and stared.
_________________________________________________________________

"Get me every staff member here at the station!" yelled the head of the DSD. "I want a trajectory of that missile tracked immediately!! Put the god damned navy on the phone and tell them to scope the ocean around that area!! I want every surveillance satellite we have combing the area!!"

Pandemonium flooded the halls of the NSA headquarters. They would find out who did this. And whoever did this would pay dearly.

General Thorn had been watching the screen and listening to the voices, he heard the warning and the screams, and then all around him pandamonium broke out.

"What the hell happened"? he yelled at anyone and everyone.

"It was a godamn missile, some fucker just fired a missile them" replied the Colonel.

Ambassador patterson just saw his personal diplomatic coupo go down in flames, much like his diplomatic career he thought.
He turned to the Colonel

"Watson go find out what happened and who fired that missile." he ordered.

The general felt very much alive at this moment, attending this launch of space age weaponry was he knew the end of his duities, it was sad he reasoned that an old warrior went out as new weaponry made him redundent.
But now, a missile, a weapon of war, and war he understood; he was alive again.
Someone had tried to attack a friendly nation, a nation his Duke had taken great pains to impress, and god almighty that young bugger of a Duke was going to be pissed. Much like his late father, now Duke Leo, there had man a soldiers leader.

Good God general Thorn thought to himself admidst all the chaos, Im back; Im needed.

3:03pm Halo

http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060126/060126_challenger_hmed_1p.hmedium.jpg

A technician still watching the television feed sighed as the rocket seemed to explode like some massive firework. A massive cloud of bright orange and white sparks rained downwards towards the sea, larger pieces of the rocket spinning crazily and trailing great plumes of white smoke. The rocket booster flipped end over end wildly before sputtering out. Billions of dollars and several lives down the drain.

The weapons officer spoke up, "Confirmed kill. She's breaking up."

Captain Hubbs shook his head, "Remember, they forced us to do this. We cannot allow space to become further weaponized. Today it's a giant laser, tommorow it'll be godrods. Remember Dee City." Dee City had been targetted by Hataria for an indescriminate godrod strike, and the losses had been terrible. Dee City had been so ravaged that Blubland had started over and renamed it Azure Bay.

Halo turned lazily south-west and picked up speed to a steady 28 knots. The air-defense cruiser had completed its mission and now it was time to get the hell out of dodge.

3:35 PM inside NSA headquarters

"Sir," a staff worker went up to the head of the DSD. "We have a proposed trajectory of the missile."

"Dammit up link it now!" he yelled. The massive screen in the office showed a computer generated image of the shuttle and several trajectory paths.

"We have about three possible trajectory paths the missile could have taken," the staff member said. "We have started working on scoping out the areas where the missile could have come from."

"We just received satellite surveillance of one of the paths. There is an unidentified ship around the area of the trajectory at the time of the explosion." The photo was brought up to the screen.

"Enhance the image," Francisco, the head of the DSD said. The image unblurred more and more to reveal the name of the ship on the side of the boat.

BCN Halo

"Blubs..." Francisco said. "Those god damn Blubs! I want a naval and aerial strike force ready to intercept within the hour now!"

Halo, 3:59

Those sneaky Blubs were still steaming south-west towards Blubland. The crew had stood down from their battle alert stations and things were running 'as usual' onboard the warship.

Many of the crew were in the lounge watching news footage of the rocket 'disaster' and persuing various thoughts. Some felt bad about it, while others felt justified in shooting the weapon down before it could become a true threat. Either way, everyone onboard had the distant thoughts of Dee City haunting them.

The attack on Dee City had occured before most of the crew were even born, but it was as ingrained on the Blub psyche as the JFK shooting was to Americans.

The powerful air defense RADAR on the ship was in active mode, scanning the skies above and the horizon for threats. They had detected both large and small pieces of the rocket raining down minutes after the attack, which further went to confirm the success of the mission.

For this action Halo would receiev another commendation to add to its flag.

Colonel Watson rang the NSA headquarters, explaining he was the military attache to the Duchy of Rechburg Embassy.

He wished to talk with Senior officer present about the recent missile attack, there was much hesitation and then he was asked to hold.

Colonel Watson rang the NSA headquarters, explaining he was the military attache to the Duchy of Rechburg Embassy.

He wished to talk with Senior officer present about the recent missile attack, there was much hesitation and then he was asked to hold.

Francisco was on a phone conference with the general and lieutenants of the Dynasty Naval Armada.

"Sirs we need to deploy a capable fleet of two air craft carriers and eight cruisers. Satellite shows that this Blub Colony ship was in the vicinity of the missile's starting path at the time of the explosion.

The general nodded and said, "We will send a contingent of Next Generation Strike Warriors in Jeje'n choppers in to take control of the ship. Then we can bring in the captain for questioning."

"And what happens if they give us too much trouble?" asked Francisco.

"We know they did it and we just need to know why. If they do fight back, we bomb that boat unto oblivion," the General said sternly.

"Ok, go for it. I have another call on the line," Francisco said. "Francisco, head of the DSD speaking who is this? Colonel Watson... ah from Rechburg... yes I will send a group of security to send you and your entourage into the ready room for briefing."

Security walked towards the cafeteria where the civilians were being kept safe.
_________________________________________________________________

4:25 PM On the docks of the launching area

A small fleet had just set sail towards coordinates of the Blub vessel. It would take some time for the ships to catch up with the vessel, however the helicopters were being prepped to catch up quickly and take the vessel.

Five helicopters were waiting, each one with a squad of ten capable NGS warriors. The soldiers were being briefed in the ship.

OOC: Will be gone until Saturday for Thanksgiving Day. Have a good turkey day everyone. Also does Hataria still visit these here boards?

There were three satellites in total. Two of them surveillance satellites, focusing their surveillance systems down on the country of Edoniakistanbabweagua. Once the country had been located their pre-program minds for the day search for the area the people of Edoniakistanbabweagua so gladly told the world of. Finally the satellites focused themselves and get a steady low orbit over the launching pad that would be launching the shuttle of Mu Cephei's interest. As their eyes looked down on the pad they began to the photos, video feed, and any other data they collected to the United Territories Strategic Command (UNTESTATCOM). Where various people would look over the data lazily, making sure everything went as Mu Cephei expected it to go.

Also in low orbit is a Satellite Killer System (SKS). The system was not has glamours as the other two and was designed solely for three purposes. To track satellites, to kill said satellites as ordered by UNTESTATCOM, and to not be detected while doing its first two jobs. As the surveillance satellites looked upon the rising shuttle the SKS prepared itself to track and stalk its new prey. While Mu Cephei had no interest in shooting down the satellite that was not to say one day it might.

Within the main building of UNTESTATCOM there is a list of every country that has Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) or Anti-Weapons of Mass Destruction (AWMD) or both capabilities. As an AWMD, the Protector of course, went under said list. As such a SKS was programed to stalk the space colony. If the interest of Mu Cephei and Edoniakistanbabweagua were to ever overlap in a violent way, the SKS would be ordered to destroy the colony.

That was before a technician saw recorded video feed of a large explosion where the shuttle was in mid-flight. That technician began to jog from one place to another inside one of the buildings of UNTESTATCOM, asking her fellow technicians if their data confirmed what hers' said. It did. The finally components of the Protecter had been shot down before reaching orbit.

The surveillance satellites were ordered to move away from their current orbit. The SKS satellite was ordered to go ahead and begin stalking what was already built of the space colony. All of the data files collected that day that involved what was surely the attack of a military system by another country, was put into a encrypted data package and sent to the National Intelligence Source (NIS) to be analyzed.

One the other side of Mu Cephei a handful of people dressed in business suits and averaged out to be in their late thirties began to look through the data their boss had ordered them to look through. One of these people is the infamous Brain Minzhe; who gained his fame for being of German, English, and Chinese origin. While it is very common to those of German and English origin in Mu Cephei it is nearly impossible to find one of Chinese, especially after the Chinese Massacre that took place some fifteen years earlier.

Brain had rose through the ranks quickly, even though he lived in a country that held a strong dislike for foreigners and this had gained him the respect of everyone who knew him.

"So," Brain said looking at his of intelligence officers, "what does everyone think?"

One of the officers in the far corner of the plain white room filled with modern furniture spoke, "it seems like someone didn't like Ed-... Ed-... Edon-..." the officer looked at the sheet he held looking at the name of the country attacked, "dammit. You know... The one attacked? Well, someone didn't like the idea of them putting some big lasers in space."

Brain paused to think already conjuring up some ideas in his head. Believing it best that his team of those under him (some of them even in training) gain experience from this he asked, "Why would someone not like that?"

As soon as he asked his team began hitting him with ideas. One said, "they are at war?"

Brain responded, "then wouldn't they be prepared for an attack then?"

Another said, "bad history?"

"Possible, but once again why would they launch a military target without proper protection. Remember, they broadcast this launch to the whole world. If there was a remote chance someone wouldn't like this, why leave it unprotected?"

Another spoke, "terrorist?"

Brain knew they were beginning to get desperate. Rookies always said the word terrorist when they had no idea what was the real cause of anything. "Okay everyone, lets look over what we know." Brain lifted his hand in the air and lifted a finger for every point he made, "we know the Protecter is a space weapon. We also know that the object that hit the shuttle carrying
the laser had exhaust coming out of its rear end, that means it it most likely a missile. Which means it had to be launch from something near by and since I doubt they could do so on land it must have come from the sea."

"Why use a missile? Why not wait for the shuttle to reach space? A missile can be tracked and its shooter can be found, but a satellite killer can't be. With all of those satellites in space, if one was to shoot at the shuttle no one would be able to figure out who did. So why not do that?" One of the more experienced rookies asked.

Brain was about to answer and give his theory as to why someone would attack the shuttle when another experienced rookie spoke before he could, "maybe they can't? Maybe there is a country out there that does not have extensive space capabilities or just have limited capabilities. If I was in charge of a country like that I would try to make sure no one has advance space weapons otherwise my country could pay hell for having none itself later."

Brain nodded in approval at the only female intelligence officer in the room, "good. As of right now that makes quite a bit sense with what we know now. The question is, however, is who did this? Who shot down that shuttle? All of our surveillance equipment was focused on the launch pad and the shuttle, not the surrounding oceans. So now I want all of you to search for more data and to try to find out who did this. If you will excuse me," Brain grabbed his jacket and walked towards the door, "I have a briefing to go to." The doors opened automatically and then they closed automatically as Brain left the room.

As soon as he left the rookie officers grabbed a few cups of coffee from a nearby coffee machine and went on their computers to search for news relating to the attack in Edoniakistanbabweagua on the internet.

Possibly like every world leader with an interest in developing their nation into the next step of the arms race, Duke Blaise looked too space. It was the next dimension to be explored and developed by every nation that sought to seek an advantage over its neighbours, and what nation or national leader didn’t want that.

Rechburg lagged behind in the space race, it wasn’t that they lacked the technology, it was simply that the Duke put nations money into a defence budget that ensured national security on earth. He didn’t really see space as an environment for war, at least not yet; which was odd he reasoned when he had spent so much in developing satellites for intelligence gathering.

His scientific advisor Dianne Kerr had been pestering him for years to allot money in the budgets for the development of space weaponry, but pestering wasn’t an abnormal thing for department heads to do around budget time. So far the defence lobbyists had always presented the best cases for the expenditure of the Rechburg Ducat, that was until last year when Dianne had finally forced the Duke to see, that Rechburg lagged behind min space technology. For sure they had satellite killers in the ADSAT missile, but these were launched from fighters, not satellites She had convinced him finally, that Rechburg had to increase its space budget,

There were she said nations that not only had satellites every bit as good as Rechburg’s intelligence birds, some were maybe even better, then there were nations with satellite killers and even worse there was of course the space station. She had described it as the weapons platform in space, it was the weapons in space aspect that worried the Duke,
His options had been simple, do what he could to destroy any significant advantage that a nation had in space, drop all present defence budgets and projects and divert the money into a project that Rechburg was already behind in or join another nations efforts and learn from them and do what he could to limit the extent of the other nation’s advantage.
He saw the Edoniakistanbabweagua SANDI and SOTIS programs as steps in both joining the space race on the coattails of another nation as well as pushing through agreements and treaties that limited the advantage other nations had in space.
His diplomats had begun negotiations with the Edonians in regard to joining them in their efforts to develop space programs and weaponry as well as joining them in limiting any advantage others may have.

Now at the culmination of Rechburg’s efforts in regard to these diplomatic and scientific efforts they finally had a negotiating team on board with the Edonians, he had a team at the launching of this final step In developing the space platform launch.

As the Duke had sat in his office with Admiral Ney his National Security Advisor , they watched the launching procedures, and much to his amazement the destruction of this final Edonian step in the development of the space platform. Both he and Admiral Ney sat motionless and almost speechless as they sat watching the dying moments of the rocket.

The smoke from the pipes that they were puffing on started to cloud the room as they drew deeper and deeper breaths, the Duke looking to his Security Advisor and mentor

“What the fuck just happened” he asked.

The Admiral sitting there in his own little cloud of smoke and ignorance just looked, in his mind he was already playing back what his subconscious mind saw, but his conscious mind didn’t register. He had seen an instant of a flash that could only have been a missile.
Immediately he reached over to the screen panel and replayed the tape, he brought the images up on another screen, this time in slow motion; he rose from his chair; paused the tape and pointed to a tiny object that was entering the bottom left corner of the screen.

“That sire, is someone fucking with the Edonians , it is a missile”

“Who the hell would do that, I mean so bloody blatant” asked the Duke as he sat there looking at still image of the rocket moments before its death and then glimpsing over to the other screen that was in real time showing clouds of dissipating smoke.

The Admiral walked back to the control panel that was situated on the edge of the chairs, pressing a switch he called up Admiral Stan Keye head of Naval intelligence.

“Stan did you just see the Edoniakistanbabweagua rocket blow up”

“Yeah I did Jochiam, what’s more I bet you saw what I saw, a goddamn missile blowing it up”

“Sure as hell did Stan, next question is the who?” asked Admiral Ney.

“Well we are just running through the satellite reports now, we had two Intel satellites watching, one that brought us the close up of the launch and the other a normal Navsat Intel bird”

“Ok Stan, when you know, let me know” replied Ney.

“Wait one Jochiam, here it come s now…. Good fucking god, you’re not going too believe this” gasped Admiral Keye.

“Well what the christ wont I believe Stan, for fucks sake man?”.

“I have a perfect image of a Blub Nemesis class cruiser with a launch plume, given its position and the direction of the missile I would say the Blubs have just destroyed a Edonian rocket Sir”.

Admiral Ney and the Duke stood there looking at each other.

“Sir, Admiral you still there” asked a still rather stunned Admiral Keye.

“Yeah ok Stan, will get back to you, run a tape of that stuff and send it to the Edonians pronto”.

Admiral Ney switched both screens off and collapsed into his seat, the Duke, still puffing on his smoke looked at the now blank screen, he too sat back in his chair.

“You know what happens now Jochiam, don’t you” The Duke said rather dejectedly.

“Yeah another fucking mother of a war”

Halo, 8:30pm

The large cruiser steamed steadily south, it's RADAR still sending and recieving its powerful signal. In the CIC things were calm even as the situation was developing further.

A radio technician finished typing up a message he'd just recieved and looked to the duty officer, "Sir, NOCOM advises that the Edonians have launched warships."

"Speed and bearing?"

"Ah.. one moment." Some typing and then, "Bearing is direct persuit. Speed.. closing slowly. Satellites indicate they are prepping helicopters on deck. We can't outrun helicopters."

"But helicopters can't sink us either. They're too slow to avoid anti-air missiles. It's a stalemate unless their warships catch up to us or they send aircraft."

Halo's several deck-mounted RAM launchers swiveled about on thier mounts, pointing north towards the distant Edonian fleet still in persuit. It could be hours before something happened.

Blubland Northern Operations Command NOCOM

A squadron of A-16A Invader (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12855709&postcount=68) aircraft were rolling down the long northbound runways in takeoff mode. Under the wings of each A-16A were Exocet-type Peppy air-to-ground anti-shipping missiles. Each jet carried two of these weapons in addition to two air-to-air missiles and external fuel tanks for the long flight ahead.

Once in the air the Invaders angled north and began to climb to cruising altitude. Their noses pointed towards the developing situation. They wouldn't arrive for four hours however.

Admiral Ney returned to his office, he sat down on his chair, and pressed the intercom button; moments later his secretary came in, with a coffee in hand.

“Its black and with bullets Admiral“.

Ney smiled to himself, he knew Suzan whole heartedly disapproved of him drinking strong and very sweet coffee, but goddamn it; it was the way he liked it.

“Thank you Suzan, have we heard from General Thorn or Ambassador Patterson yet” he asked.

“No sir, not yet”

“Well Suzan could you chase them up for me”

“Certainly Admiral” she replied as she left the office.

He picked up the Phone and rang Naval headquarters
The voice at the other end replied

“Admiral Stark, here”

“Frank its Jochiam, I want you to prep up the expeditionary force will ya, from now on its on red alert, grade 1 and the armed forces are on grade 2. Get the recall out Frank”.

“Jesus Jochiam what’s happened, where we going?” Admiral Frank Stark Chief of Operations for the national security Council..

“Well its the Blubbers Frank, they just downed a Edonians rocket and I have a feeling we are going to get dragged into it.”

“For gods sake, those fuckers piss me off”

“Yeah well maybe Frank, but you ain’t as pissed off as the Edonians are feeling right now. Anyway get the unit recall out and upgrade the alert status to Grade 2.”

“Sure will Jochiam, bye”. replied Admiral Stark.

The Spire, Magna Polis

The Order was relatively uncaring about the satellite's launch, as the Order had scores of laser satellites. The only thing that intrigued the Order was that it was a particle laser; GWO satellites used radioactivity/thermal/electricity lasers, as the sunlight in space is unfiltered; mirrors and solar panels would charge up quickly and be able to fire laser beams at given targets.

So the launch was put into a report, then into a file cabinet, and never opened again.

bump

ooc: Just waiting for Edonia right now.

OOC mmk i've recovered from a long Thanksgiving/Black Friday and I am back home. Hope you all had a good Turkey Day. Looks like I missed alot.

@ Blub check your time the ships and helicopters departed at 4:25 PM so you are four hours off :)

@ Rechburg, your people on-site of the launch pad should be entering the ready room with the head of the DSD at the NSA headquarters.

@ Mu Cephei, good intro. I always love it when people in game can't pronounce my name :D

@ GWO, ok... well thats nice...

IC:

4:45 PM 7 km off the coast

The NGS Warriors sat in the briefing room listening to the commander discuss the plan of attack.

"Soldiers, this is an extraction mission to find and take some of the key personnel on board the vessel. The enemy will be armed and ready to take down our helicopters. The choppers will not be able to withstand any of their barrages so dodging and intercepting the missiles is a must. Luckily once launched, they will not be able to detect your helicopters on radar. This will give you the advantage until you are within sight range. Once on board you are weapons free."

"Sir, what if we are unable to take the ship by force?" a soldier asked.

"If they shoot down all of our helicopters, we have a plan B. The SCOPE (Special Covert Operations of Paramilitary Espionage) agency has a personal unmotorized submersible that should be able to reach the ship faster than we can. It's small frame and shape should allow it to pass by sonar undetected. It will be shot from one of our submarines and once it reaches the ship, the sub will hook itself unto the ship and will be hauled to port, where our agent will escape the personal sub and continue their mission."

"All right people time to move out!!!" the commander yelled. "ETA one hour! Let's move it people."

The NGS teams moved into their helicopters. Each chopper launched up and towards the Blub ships.
_________________________________________________________________

At the NSA Headquarters

Francisco entered the ready room, waiting for the Rechburg group to walk in. The conference room rang. It was the presidential line.

"Good afternoon Mr. President," Francisco said.

"Save the pleasantries for later, what is the situation..." the President said.

"We have reason to believe that the Blub colony may have been involved with the destruction of our shuttle," Francisco said.

"Do you have any proof?" the president said.

"We have satellite footage of them in our area at the time of the missile launch," Francisco responded. "We currently have a group of Next Generation Strike Forces en route to capture the vessel and interrogate the Blubs."

"Good. Before we look into war we need to make sure it was these Blubs that struck us first. What about the ambassadors from Rechburg? I take it they are safe"

"yes Mr. President, I am bringing the four of them into the ready room as we speak..."
_________________________________________________________________

The security detail walked into the cafeteria towards the Rechburg group.

"General Thorn, Colonel Watson. You and your group have to come with us to the NSA ready room for debriefing. The head is waiting for you."

BCN Halo, 5:40

A comm button flashed green until the duty officer picked up the intraship phone. "Go."

A lookout in the ship's tower spoke into the phone, "We have low airborne contacts approaching. It looks like several helicopters.

The duty officer hung up the phone, "Angle RADAR to sealevel please." It would greatly reduce the range of the RADAR to the world's curvature, but it would pick up low contacts easier.

A RADAR controlperson spoke up, "Hummingbirds bearing two two six. Range is six kilometers."

An acoustics specialist monitoring Halo's anti-submarine array hit a button to reel in the towed listening probe in preperation for potential combat. "Acoustics don't match any of our equipment."

The duty officer wrote this information into the ship's log and then gave an order, "Weapons free. Engage."

Four kilometers was point blank for the RAM launchers, and several swiveled to point towards the rear of the ship. Halo turned to its port hard, showing its broadside to the inbound helicopters.

As 4,000 meters was still out of range for the CIWS, the 5" guns on the bow of the ship opened up. These rapid fire deck guns spat out a stream of projectiles, one shot every second towards the inbound helicopters.

The RAMs fired, their missiles streaking across the distance towards the vulnerable helicopters. These were set for proximity, and would explode when they passed within 25 meters of their targets.

Ambassador Patterson and his party were led into the ready room, there they waited for the briefing' already the Ambassador knew of the Blub involvement.
He also had been asked to assure the Endions of Rechburg support.

This was the beginning of an era, the event that would accompany Ventares' return to the world stage. In due time, this silly space shuttle would be forgotten as it was eclipsed by the sheer magnificence of the approaching Ventares' victory. If any one is going to militarize space, it damn well better be us. And thus, Ventares threw it support behind the blobs.

Occ: This is just an introduction. The more detailed post will come later tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Ventares is a Prussian style state with a martial spirit and a strong army. The nation is now the confederacy of Ventares having just conquered the small states surrounding it. It has a well disciplined and supplied army but a small and weak navy consisting mostly of transports. It's hard to get them places but once there they pack a wallop.

OCC
Ventares where is your homeland based. Most of us seem to be in the Pacific - Asia region, just wanting to keep a grasp of who is where ;)

OOC sorry for lack of posting, finals are upon me Ill try and get a post in sometime this weekend.

ventares is on an australia style continent. so I guess I'll put it right where it is in real life.
Sorry about the delay. it'll be up soon

5:40 At the Blub vessel Halo

"Attention ahead everyone, missile barrage from the enemy Blub vessel," Blue leader. "Prepare to intercept with missiles. Use missiles sparingly. Split up!"

The five helicopters split up to avoid being picked off. The choppers unloaded their missile payload to intercept some of the missiles. Still, they had to try and avoid the barrage and get in close enough to land on the ship.

One of the helicopters tried dodging one of the missiles, though it was a bit too late. The explosion knocked the chopper into the line of fire of one of the CIWS. The projectile shredded the chopper before any of the soldiers could escape from the chopper.

"This is Blue Leader to Armada, we've lost a chopper," Blue leader said as he tried to get closer to a landing area. "Preparing to drop in our men."

The chopper flew to an open area on the ship where none of the batteries could hit him. NGS soldiers began dropping down rappel lines while others held out their assault rifles to provide cover fire for their departing men. The helicopter also bared its M230 Chain Guns at the ship to take down groups of Blubs.

"Move move! Get down and hit cover!" Blue Leader yelled. Ten NGS soldiers rappelled down the lines two by two. It would take a bit for the other helicopters to land their men so they had to act quick. The soldiers on deck moved quickly to cover and prepared for a fire fight.
_________________________________________________________________

The president sent a phone call to the Blub Colony. He had much to talk about with them.

"This is the president of Edoniakistanbabweagua requesting to talk to the Blub leader."

_________________________________________________________________

"Please be seated," Francisco said to the Rechburg ambassadors. He explained the situation about the Blubs, the boats, and the Strike force sent to grab them.

"As you can see we are in danger of Blub aggression and we also believe they may try and target members of the SANDI treaty including those that may be interested in joining the treaty," Francisco stated. "This is why we would like your nation's help in stopping them from committing further attacks."

OOC: Sorry for the delay. Also, I have decided to have a par of running gags in my post in this RP. One involves a certain name and the second one involves three officers who will get named as well as get a bigger role.

IC:
Brain Minzhe began to set up the project which was placed on top of a black cart with inputs on the side of it and a plug attached to the cart itself was plugged into a nearby wall. Once the projects blue screen was perfectly balanced on the white wall Brain began to attach several cables to a laptop on the bottom part of the cart to the project. Once the two electronic pieces of equipment was set up Brain took out his note cards, his projector remote, and stood by the screen which showed his powerpoint presentation. Like the rest of the powerpoint, the title page is vary plain with only the black text THE PROTECTOR INCIDENT on it with a white background.

Soon several men and women wearing various uniforms entered the room located within one of the buildings of the National Intelligence Source (NIS). They took each took a seat. The three military officers sat next to each other, the four National Congress representatives sat next to the two National Justice representatives, and finally the one representative of the Chancellor sat alone on the far end of the polished oak table. The briefing began like most, with introductions. Everyone took their turn stating their name, rank (or position), and any opening statements or announcements they would like to make.

Once this was over and after Brain introduced himself he opened a small case in the cart. Taking out some folders he began the presentation.

"Okay," be began to give each representative an identical folder, "right not we are in the works of investigating an incident currently taking place in a country not too far from one of our outer territories." Brain walked back to the wall with his title page still being projected on it. He clicked the remote and the page, with a basic transition animation, moved to a page containing the main points of the presentation. This would inform the representatives of the things they would be going over so as to allow them to brain storm on what they thought of what they would have to later report on.

"This presentation will go over some background of the incident, information on the country it took place in, what happened, reasons we believe to be as to why, and finally some basic conclusions we can make from this," Brain clicked on his remote and a slide with the title of THE PROTECTOR was projected on the wall.

"A few weeks ago NIS came across a news article about the launch of a space colony in space. Originally this was not reported. The news article made it sound like a civilian colony and Mu Cephei itself has several space stations acting as colonies itself. Thats when, if you look at the first document in your folders," the representatives opened their folders and took out the first document which is a newspaper clip. Those who opened their folders before to get the briefing overview paper took the document as well. "This clip comes from one of the newspapers from the country in question. It states that several orbital lasers were to be placed on the space colony."

Some of the representatives reacted to this, but most of them shrugged at the information. Brain continued, "as you all know it is standard protocol for Mu Cephei to be in place a Satellite Killer System on standby near any space weapon. So several satellites were sent to monitor the launch of the laser's parts and to have a SKS stalk the space station. This laser was meant to shoot down nuclear weapons from space. For this reason the country in question called this space station The Protector." Several representatives began to jot down a few notes and any questions they had on their notepads which they took out one-by-one.

Brain clicked on his remote again and a slide was projected on the wall with the title of EDONIAKISTANBABWEAGUA. None of the representatives bothered to jot down their question and to save it for the end during Q&A as they rose their hands.

Brain sighed in response, "just do your best. I'm sorry, but I just don't know either. No one really knows, but do your best when saying it okay? If you would like we can agree on a pet name for the country in question until we can find the vocal cords that can pronounce this forsaken name." Everyone shook their heads and put down their hands. The presentation is already too long and boring; no need to add to insult.

"Okay then, Edonikistanbawa is a very large country with a population of about five billion. They are the ones building the The Protector. It appears to be their first space weapon and it seems they have run into some trouble with launching it. As for relations, Mu Cephei and Edoniakastanawa has had no past interactions besides a few very minor incidents in which Mu Cephei merchant vessels from the nearby territory got lost in their waters. This is all we currently know on Edonistanbawa," Brain paused to allow everyone to jot down their notes and questions on their notepads. Brain laughed a little as many of them cursed at how complicated it was to write the country's name.

Brain murmured idiots before moving on. Clicking on his remote the next slide came on with the title of SHUTTLE LAUNCH INCIDENT. A picture next to the text on the side that gave the main points on the topic showed a satellite photo of the missile hitting the shuttle. "Our satellites watching the shuttle launch were there to see what we believe to be a sea-launched anti-ballistic missile hitting the shuttle carrying The Protector's parts. The damage was fatal and the shuttle crashed most likely killing the crew as well destroy the cargo."

Brain continued to give details on what the satellites saw and then clicked on his remote. A slide came up with two pictures on it, one of the Blub cruiser and the second of the Edoniakistanbabweagua fleet moving to give chase to the cruiser.

"These pictures were taken from an old naval satellite that was moved to find out who launched the missile. The first picture is of an unknown lone cruiser moving at high speeds away from Edoniakastanaway. At first we at NIS believed it was after the attacker, but after comparing it with the second photo of a confirmed Edonikistenbewa fleet we realized that the designs were too different to come from the same navy. It is unknown where the cruiser came from," the National Air Force Major (one of the three military officers) spoke up.

"Can't we track it with the naval satellite? Sorry for not waiting, but we should be able to determine where that ship came from," Brain nodded preparing his response.

"Like I said before, the satellite is old. It does not have enough fuel to track a target," Brain said.

"Damn; wish there was an Air Force sat near that place. Our satellites can track such a simple target," the Air Force Major said chuckling.

"Oh really?" the National Navy Lieutenant Commander said.

"Yes really!" the Air Force Major responded.

"No way!" the National Army Major jumped in. Military rivalry at its best.

"Well... Back to the topic at hand," Brain clicked to the next slide entitled REASONING, "we don't know why the nation who owns that cruiser did it or even if a country did it in the first place. For all we know its terrorist, but I wouldn't count on that. It is possible that Edonekistenbewe is at war with someone or that it is currently at odds with someone who thinks they can get away with an attack. Once we find out who did it it should only be a matter of time before we figure out the reasoning."

Brain clicked the remote and the slide called CONCLUSIONS came on screen, "in conclusion we know very little of what is going on, but we do know enough that this is going to be big. If Edoniakistanbebwe figures out who did this we can have a major incident on our hands and if your wondering why this concerns us. Well, remember that territory I was talking about before? It's small enough that a hundred guys with guns can take it over and control it with no trouble. Plus, it is within strategic range of Edonistanbawe and already has an air field. This makes it the prefect target for someone who wants to bomb Edoniekistanbawag."

Once the slide showed was over the representatives began to bombard Brain with questions who answered each one to the best of his ability. Later the representatives would report their findings to their bosses and Brain would return to his team for an update.

It had been hours of organised panic getting the pre-positioned Expeditionary Fleet prepared. But now they were finally at sea.

Admiral Stark had to take over the Command of the Fleet as Admiral Davout was in hospital with an ulcer. As he sat looking out to sea Admiral Stark couldn't help but grin to himself, at the thought of the grumpy ill mannered Davout being forced to have bed rest.

"God those poor bloody doctors are going to cop hell" he thought to himself.

On the deck of the Massive CVN Blaise the first of the AWAC aircraft and their escorts prepared for take off. Further out to sea the Admiral saw the massive fleet shake itself out into shape now they were free of restrictions caused by the Northern Islands.

The SURTASS ships capable of reading under water conditions hundreds of miles away were already well ahead and out to the flanks, searching the layers for hidden submarines.
Even the Surtass had extreme trouble locating the Duke class hunter subs that were operating that far out ahead of the fleet.
The Duke subs was to the sea what a stealth fighter was to the air, and the Admiral had both if he needed them.

Back in Rechburg, he knew Admiral Ney would be galvanising the Rechburg Military into action, already he had noticed new recon and sigint satellites were coming on line.

The roar of the first AWAC being hurled down the deck, brought the Admiral back to the job at hand, looking aft he could see the others turning and preparing for takeoff.

ooc: Still waiting on a proper edit of Edonia's post.

ooc: once I get a response to this I'll start.
Where is the head of the team that created the space station?

OCC
Sadly I have decided to pull out of this RP, so just assume Rechburg decided against becoming involved in military action