NationStates Jolt Archive

Prime Minister King was having issue after issue as her weak majority government was being battered on all sides by The Lord’s Loyal Opposition, and if not for the momentary reprieve the scandal that had been keeping Opposition Leader Rev. Nikolai Gibbons busy. The accusations from the Hispanic housekeeper had come at an incredibly fortuitous time, as negotiations increased in intensity between the various North American states.

But this still meant that she had to take stock, her embassy had been the sight of a massive attack, and subsequent massacre of the attackers in Africa. Tensions were still high in Tamil Elam and Europe, and though the various military arms deals were seemingly stalled in process, she felt that the USQ was effectively making its presence felt in the world.

To the North, a Constitutional Crisis had seen the minority Conservative Party of Canada under Harper save their skin by proroguing Parliament, only to see mass demonstrations against a proposed coalition government that would have encapsulated the Opposition Liberals and the socialistic New Democrats with support from the separatist Bloc Québécois. Harper had responded with a deficit budget, breaking the progress of a decade and half of balanced budgets and the Liberal Party has ousted their own Leader, electing another, Michael Ignateaff. Things appeared stable for now, and that pleased her just fine, as the last thing she needed was another election up north dealing with a culture and issues that she admittedly did not totally understand.

But even in her inexperience, she did understand one thing, the need for a muscular security and foreign policy. She was sitting in the Oval Office, stunned by the latest intelligence briefing. The list of nations that seemed to be encroaching on all sides was staggering. She would never admit it, but on foreign affairs, she was out of her depth. And so, she did what every human did when they felt afraid of the world around them. She prepared to lash out and regain some control.

She reached over and hit the button on her phone, calmly saying, “Get me a meeting with the Joint Chiefs as soon as is humanly possible.”

WWJD
Amen.

OOC: Hey, cool. My dad knows Ignatieff, and I have to say that what I hear and read about the guy seems pretty positive.

As might be expected, London payed a fair bit of attention to politics within the former Dominion of Canada. The recent turnover of leadership within the Liberal Party there was noted with a fair bit of interest; Ignatieff seemed to be a supporter of British foreign policy, broadly stated, and his notions of "necessary evil" and what in his own words was termed "Empire Lite". Taken together, the Foreign Office suggested, these two policies pointed to a moderately interventionist, faintly imperialistic political bent that was overall friendly to London. This Ignatieff would bear watching, it seemed.

OOC2: Sorry for the crap post. Drunk. Meh.

Prime Minister King, without the benefit of her Defence Minister, who was working out some major details in regards to European Defence and touring that part of the globe in order to ensure the security and stability of that region through Quinntonian military might backed and approved by the national entities involved, and without her Foreign Minister, who was vainly trying to begin major conversations as to the relationship that nation of India would have going forward with her administration, was moving forward with a major proposal to her Joint Chiefs.

She began; “The intel reports that I am receiving are of a staggering magnitude, with attacks and instability on the continent of Africa, and reports of insurgency and Communist conspiracy in our own back yard, Latin America! Simply put, this will not be allowed to continue.” She sipped from her ever present mug of warm coffee and continued, “Thus, I am making the creation of NATO and the conference that this will entail the top priority of my administration. But the people of Quinntonia are crying out for stability in the world, and for too long Quinntonia has stood by and allowed the world to go to hell in hand basket while we put up a wall and protect ourselves first and only! I will not stand by when it is within my power to move.” She slid the dossiers to the Chiefs who tore into them, scanning the contents for important details.

After a long, uncomfortable pause, the Coast Guard Commandant looked up and said, “Madame, shouldn’t you speak to the Foriegn and Defence Office before doing something on this scale? We could upset a good many people in the international community with intervention on these fronts.” She took another sip, this one long and thoughtful before she simply said, “Commandant Jenkins, I will have your resignation on my desk in the morning. You are dismissed. Are there any other questions?”
There were none.

Elsewhere, in Virginia, Marines and Naval assets began to prepare for a trek across the Atlantic, towards Africa. And in the Gulf of Mexico, assets were being instructed to change course and begin to converge on Latin America while preparations for something larger began Stateside.

WWJD
Amen.

Strainist observers watched Quinntonia’s increasing military activity with great interest… while they had always viewed Washington with some trepidation (London had always seemed the more politically capable of the two, and the USQ’s religious nature had always put it a shade too close to Kiev and Rome in Spyran eyes), it had long been acknowledged that Quinntonian military-industrial might would be of great importance when the time for war against the feudalists finally came. The idealized goal of the Popular Front, after all, was to see British, German, and Bedgellen troops marching into Kiev while Spyran and Korean forces stormed up the Japanese archipelago and across Siberia, bolstered on both fronts by North America’s military machine.
When signs began to point out the direction in which the USQ was mustering its forces, there was some disappointment… deployments to the European theatre might have indicated that the final battle with the feudalists was near at hand. Movement into Africa might still produce positive results, if Washington sought to assist groups such as DANLA in ousting the feudal-aligned regimes of Bungussi-Djanvallaland, but (other than Mexico) South America had been trending in a positive direction. Quinntonian efforts directed to curtail leftist progress on either continent would be a blow to the Popular Front policy of the Progintern, and would serve as a distraction that would eat up the attention and resources of the USQ, further delaying the long-hoped-for destruction of the feudal menace.

The fact that Quinntonian preparations began suddenly, in the absence of key government officials, did not go unnoticed, and many in Spyr wonder if this was a sign of internal conflicts within the PCA.

----------

While the British might be pleased by the selection of Michael Ignatieff, Sithin was rather disappointed with recent events in Canadian politics. A brief hope that the left-leaning wing of the Liberal Party might form a coalition government with the progressive NDP had been dashed, with many Strainist analysts blaming its failure to secure popular support on an inability amongst the Liberals to properly communicate their message (the same failing that many in Spyr thought had contributed to their poor performance in the last election). Emergence of Ignatieff (widely considered the candidate of the Liberal right wing) as party leader made further Liberal-NDP alliances far less likely, and meant the two parties capable of forming federal governments in Canada now stood to the right of the Progressive norm.
Still, neither the present Conservative government, nor an Ignatieff-led Liberal regime, were likely to impose undue restrictions on trans-Pacific trade, so there was little cause for immediate concern.

South Atlantic

Vice-Admiral Andrew Highfield was on the bridge of his flagship, the USS Kitty Hawk, when the encoded orders came into his possession. He was commanding the 2nd Fleet from sea, and personally leading the Battle Group, Matthew, in the South Atlantic. He took a long pull off of his stogie, blew the acrid smoke out into the wind on the balcony of the CIC, and walked back in, barking orders.

Since all three Carrier Battle Groups of the 2nd Fleet were out at sea in response to the tensions in Europe, he simply ordered them to change course. The Moses was ordered to continue to stay vigilant in the North Atlantic, with a watchful eye towards both Moscow and Rome, parallel to the Western Coast of France. The Mary Mother of God was ordered to make haste for the Western Coast of the continent of Africa, with all speed, towards the embattled portion of that coast, to make secure those waterways, and finally, he was to make north past the coast of Brazil towards the Gulf of Mexico. All of these things were done without any fanfare, without any explanation from him, and without notification of any international bodies or governments or persons.

Guam

A full division of Marines, part of the 17th Army Group, was being prepared for re-deployment, to an as of yet unknown theatre of operations. To move the 20,000 troops and their equipment, the full cooperation of the 7th Fleet was being utilised, and civilian transport was being contracted from the region to help with the essentials. It was felt that the division could be to blue water within the week.

Alexandia, Egypt

The 26th Army Group was placed on alert, and combat drills were begun in earnest, focusing on semi-arid equatorial forest conditions. Transport planes and ships were being routed into Cairo for “re-deployment readiness exercises.”

Manama, Bahrain

The 12th Army Group was activated and placed on alert, and an exploratory report based on long-range re-deployment logistics and readiness for long-term self sustained combat operations was ordered.

WWJD
Amen.

OOC: Moscow is the capital of Kievskaya Rus just like Toronto is the capital of Canada.
I guess you could turn your eyes to Moscow but my capital is Kiev.

Here I stand? nice.

South Atlantic, Mary Mother of God

As the massive Carrier Battle Group made for the African coast, they went into full battle formation with high alert patrols, sonar fields, and CAPs. They were in formation already, and were heading to the African coast as fast as they could possibly get there and keep formation. Satellite imagery would show that missile bombardment drills and sea asset hunter-killer drills were being mercilessly drilled, along with the constant aerial activity both at day and night drilling the pilot teams for surface bombardment.

The marines on board the various ships were doing what they could to plan and train, but with all of the other activity and lack of a parade ground, what they could do was limited.

These were also met with fully equipped ships from the Marine Corps:

5 Tarawa Class Amphibious Assault Ships
5 Austin Class Amphibious Assault Docks
4 Whidbey Island Class Dock Landing Class Ships
4 Harper’s Ferry Class Dock Landing Class Ships

Gulf of Mexico, St. Matthew

This Carrier Battle Group was rendezvousing with many of the supposed “free elements,” those elements that were unattached to a CBG, and began to spread out what was an incredibly large area of action. It seemed to begin to surround the island nation of Cuba, with the regional command of that portion being the USS Ohio, one of the last two Battleships of the line, and they started encircling that place like sharks.
The other focal point was Vice-Admiral Highfield’s Carrier, which was making haste for the coast of Nicaragua, with most of the elements of the CBG spread out along the Latin American coast.

Meeting the CBG St. Matthew in the Gulf:

1 Iowa Class Battleship
4 Ticonderoga Class AEGIS Cruisers
2 Arliegh Burke Class-guided missile destroyers
8 Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigates

Washington, D. C.

A subdued notice goes out to Quinntonian citizens and travellers that Latin America and Cuba was being declared a “dangerous zone” and it was suggested that travel to these areas not take place.

WWJD
Amen.

Kiev - Kievskaya Rus
Mikhailhof - The White Fortress

It was hard to hear exactly what was going on in the central communication room of the White Fortress, the historic headquarters of the *White Army. Men and women were scrambling to asses the situation. Polkovnik (Colonel) Zaitseva has just submitted her resignation, siting her gross negligence that lead to White Army being one of the last modern forces to see what was happening in the atlantic. It wasn't until a satellite being monitored by the Space Forces (one of the many that vigilantly tracked the skies for incoming missile strikes) picked up a frenzy of activity over the Atlantic that the army noticed the massing of Quinntonian forces. The recently promoted Polkovnik Korolyov , now head of central communications, had quickly briefed the heads of all divisions of the massing and movement of US battle groups in the atlantic adding that if proper procedures had been followed this would have been noticed 18-24 hours earlier.

As more data came in from satellites, patrol submarines and an unmanned surveillance aircraft that was doing a trial flight circumnavigating africa came in, people began to breath easier as they could now clearly tell that the group "Mary Mother of God" (spitefully code named by Kieven intelligence "Woman of Babylon") was in fact not heading to the Mediterranean, but rather to the west coast of africa. Never the less, as per standard, co-ordinates were calculated and launch codes for were wired to fifteen launch sites who pointed all warheads to locations all around 15 miles off the coast of africa.

*White Army does not only refer to the Kieven Ground Forces but includes all 5 divisions (http://z7.invisionfree.com/A_Modern_World/index.php?showtopic=100&view=findpost&p=17395945) of the military.

Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany

Still caught up in the aftermath of a near-war with Beth Gellert and up to their ears in preparations for the formation of a European command structure, allied officials did not pay much attention to individual, friendly carrier groups. However, as the incoming messages about Quinntonian forces gathering mounted and some reinforcements for Europe suddenly headed back to their home bases without even leaving the airports, Frank Diercke wondered if they had missed something. So, during a lunch with the higher ranking allied official after discussiing a further possible chain of command for the future "NATO", he mentioned this to secretary Schneider: "Oh yes, Lena is doing fine. She will graduate this summer and wants to study, what was the name, environmental engineering afterwards. Maybe in Bremen or Munich. It will be strange to have all the kids out of the house, but what can you do?" He smiled, thinking of his daughters for a moment. "Anyway, what is this sudden fuss about, Tim? Carrier groups gather, marines excercise... You didn't mention this at all during this morning's briefings. Some sudden excercise maybe?"
Frank interrupted himself to cut another slice of grilled chicken breast, put it in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. I will have to make time for Kais concert as well, or my sister will be all over me again.

Qasarian, The Democratic Federation of Baltic States

President Karl Volterov stared down the intelligence report he had been given, his advisers all waiting around a large oval mahogany table for a response. Volterov was hoping this wouldn't happen. Since the Baltic Federation had been invited to join NATO all the leading members of government had been in almost perpetual celebration, all except Volterov.

It wasn't that he didn't want to join NATO, he definitely did (it was the best way to secure the country against Russian invasion) but he knew there was potential for something to go wrong. He knew the American government were uncertain since the crisis in Canada and there was one thing all American governments do when they are uncertain, they do something reckless.

Another thing he knew was that Skandinavia wanted to stay neutral, if there was any chance of getting them into NATO then there needed to be peace up until the conference in Bermuda finally came around. This was something that was especially useful for the Baltic Federation due to their geography.

Volterov looked up from the papers, blank faces stared back at him, it was as if the members around the table were not capable of acting until the president fed them an idea. “Well?” Volterov, asked in a harsh tone “what the hell are the Americans doing?”. “We... we don't know” replied one of the officials near the other end of the table after a brief pause. “Pass this on to the Council. And ring London, find out what they know” Volterov answered decisively. “I'll ring Washington and find out what they are trying to do, we don't want a bloody war starting”.

Berlin

Defence Minister Tim Schneider without thinking of it, answered in his continued flawless German, “Yes, it will be quite an adjustment...” then he stopped. It struck him, he had been briefing this man every morning on everything worth knowing about Quinntonian military movements, the only CBGs that he had mentioned were from the 5th and 6th Fleets, in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, and those were standard, show the flag and remind the Commies who is in charge kind of stuff. What could he be thinking of? “Excuse me, what were you saying, what troops movements and Carriers?”

He hoped for just a clarification, but when he began to told about the movements of the 2nd Fleet, exercises in the Gulf of Mexico, etc., he began to become very red in the face. He simply answered, with as much aplomb as he could manage, “Oh, don’t worry about that, I will have a full briefing on all of those movements either tomorrow or the next morning, all of the details just need to be processed.” Damn, now he had to go to receive Confession and Absolution. He sighed and continued, “To tell you the truth, I am not certain as to which movements you are speaking about, but I do promise you that I will find out and let you know.”

After lunch, he asked for an hour to get ready for the continuance of the meeting, it was fascinating at just how much work had been completed in such a short time, but Germany, Cassanos, Canada, and the USQ wanted to show everyone else invited to the NATO summit that was coming up in Bermuda exactly what could be done in regards to muli-lateral integration. The document that he had almost killed himself writing had been taken as almost a constitution when working out the various processes that they were running into, and his staff had grown to almost a hundred people in Germany as he had been coordinating the massive amount of logistical details that were to be the framework for the largest alliance of free states that had ever occurred in the history of the world. Many would be surprised to know that the Roman Empire’s model of cooperation and relative regional autonomy had provided the matrix against which he produced his model. And during all of this time, he was always receiving detailed reports from his Deputy Minister, who was in constant contact with the Joint Chiefs and the Pentagon. But he hadn’t heard about this stuff. He had been subsisting on four hours of sleep a night in preparation for Bermuda, and hadn’t noticed a major military operation occurring over the entire Atlantic Ocean using the freaking 2nd Fleet! Someone was fired!

Qasarian, The Democratic Federation of Baltic States

Calls to Washington come up short, getting the run around for hours before getting mysteriously cut short, and a meeting with the ambassador to the Qasarian mainly consists of gaping eyes and blank stares.

When an official finally gets through to the Foreign Ministry, they are told that the USQ is conducting “training exercises.”

South Atlantic, Mary Mother of God

The entire armada that was the CBG and its additional assets were moving relentlessly towards the African coast.

Gulf of Mexico, St. Matthew

Reports start to appear that civilian and commercial shipping and flights are being warned off by the Quinntonians, usually with threats and escorted by F/A-18s. Mexican news reports a sighting by fishermen of a cargo transport flying Angolan colours off its coast being destroyed by some kind of long-range missile. It is also reported that this ship may have been under investigation for arms smuggling.

WWJD
Amen.

South Atlantic, nearer the African Coast, Mary Mother of God

With intel reports from high altitude fly-overs in conjunction with satellite information was allowing a very accurate read for the shorelines and naval assets as they were coming along. They were actively plotting a landing sight for their Marines, and had as of yet still not explained themselves.

On the ground, several mercenary groups that had been contracted were setting the groundwork for an incoming amphibious landing, reporting forward ground conditions in real time and puuting together cell-centred teams for sabotage.
Nearer the coast, the Seawolf Class Attack Submarine was tracking converted merchantmen called, “The Monteville.” Then, without warning, a single torpedo was fired after achieving full lock, which was soon followed by a massive explosion.

About that same time, teams of three F/A-18s each fly in on three of the yachts that were further away from the coast and when still outside of visual range, locked and fired in unison, each team firing independently but in conjunction and under the direction of the command of the Mary Mother of God with each other. Thus, on each yacht, two Harpoon’s were suddenly incoming, with a third being fired a few seconds later, if necessary.

Gulf of Mexico, St. Matthew

After having moved into position, the USS Idaho, one of the last two battleships left in the US Navy, under heavy escort, has had its field agents in the Communist Latin American island nation that it now is offshore, “radar paint” the main compound of a group of very militant terrorists that were allegedly planning to attack sites within the USQ. It radioed and assured itself of air support. Then, it moved its main guns into position, and began to fire. The first time since WW2, these guns roared to life.

Then, near the Latin American Peninsula, a series of air strikes began to take place, with ammo caches, equipment, vehicles, and buildings being targeted. For the most part, they were fired at from beyond visual range and the attackers bugged out before any opposition from the sitting governments were able to be scrambled. And those governments were just not willing to take on an entire CBG off of their coast.

In addition, submarine attacks began to begin in earnest on vessels that were well known for moving arms and war materials to insurgent and Communist groups, as well as long-range missile attacks based from the many ships that were in the area began to take place.

In all, it would be over in less than 24 hours. Maybe only 150 strikes and attacks in all would occur, but all of those groups and people that the CIA knew were planning against the USQ and just laid low in these nations “knowing” that Quinntonia would not dare attack them in a sovereign nation, were now very afraid, at least those that survived.

Manama, Bahrain

The 12th Army Group was reporting that they were ready to move whenever they were needed, and military transport was being routed to the base and tasked with transporting them as far as Geata, Italy or Alexandria, depending on circumstances.

Alexandria, Egypt

The Quinntonian Commander of the shared English base in Alexandria placed a not-so-routine request on the British Commander’s desk that asked for permission to bring between 20-60,000 Quinntonian troops to Alexandria for “a time no less than two weeks and no more than five months.”

He also started to make arrangements for transporting his troops off the base as soon as he should need to. This also resulted in a request for British help, could they offer military long-range transport, say, to West Africa?

Geata, Italy

During the weekly meeting between the local Roman Proconsul, the Bishop, and the various Roman commanders of the legion and the commanders of his base, Vice-Admiral Andrew Hoffman was busily explaining the need for Geata Military Base to take on tens of thousands of new troops, and that this was in no way a threat to Roman security. It was apparent that the Romans were having trouble buying it.

Further, he was obviously moving a lot of naval military transports into the Mediterranean from the North Atlantic where they were previously tasked to the German issue. This, seemingly, didn’t help.

Guam

The full division of Marines from the 17th Army Group was now out to sea and making with all haste towards Latin America, under full escort of the 7th Fleet.

WWJD
Amen.

OOC: If you invade Latin America with your marines, you'll provoke an AMW version of a constitutional crisis. Please don't. Post coming soon, since I've been writing for AMW for the last hour and a half and need to go be a human being.

Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany
20 minutes later

Chancellor Ahler was not amused. "They did WHAT?! When? Frank, are you telling me that the Quinntonians started bombing or shelling or otherwise blowing up places around the world without telling anybody before? That's great, just great. Damnit, I want Schneider and the Quinntonian ambassador, and I want them NOW! I suppose they have some things to explain to me, right?" Diercke had weathered the storm so far, knowing that Ahler would calm down shortly and get to work. "Ahm, Jo, I'm sure Schneider will be glad to give us all the help he has, but as it seems, he knows as much about this whole affair as we do. He seemed to be... Flabbergasted." Ahler started to laugh, then realised that Diercke had a crude sense of humour, but would not joke about something as huge as this. He calmed down and sat silent for a few moments, contemplating the situation and its implications. He came to a conclusion. "Scheisse."
"My thoughts precisely, Jo", Diercke answered drily.

Warsaw, Republic of Cassanos
At the same time
Prime minister Katarina Edelman had received the same information at the same time, and also came to a conclusion: "Gówno."
"My thoughts precisely, Madam Prime Minister."

Some minutes later
In Germany and Cassanos, the ministers of defence, foreign affairs and internal affairs met with their respective heads of government. Shortly after, the Quinntonian ambassadors in both countries were "invited" to the centres of government. Before their arrival, chancellor Ahler and prime minister Edelman briefly discussed the situation via telephone, trying to form a common position. They both also called the British and Baltic governments to get information on their stances.
At the same time, the German and Cassanotian ambassador in Washington asked for an immediate joint meeting with prime minister King.

In all areas of the globe where fighting had occured, Germans and Cassanotians were informed that they should prepare to leave the respective countries at short notice.
If possible, their governments arranged chartered civilian aircraft. West Africa was a different case, though. After the attacks on the western embassies, the diplomatic personnel and civilian contractors and businessmen in the USAR were gathered at the joint German/Cassanotian consulate in Freetown, and the Friedrich Ebert amphibious force left the eastern Mediterranean and steamed towards Gibraltar.

Sorry for short posting and bad style, I hope that the important information is provided. I'm tired and drank a little this morning (due to the carnival), but I'll try to get something more elaborate up shortly. All in all, Berlin and Warsaw are flabbergasted. And somewhat pissed.

Qasarian, The Democratic Federation of Baltic States

After finally receiving word from Washington and having sensed that some sort of action in the USAR was soon to happen; Volterov ordered 3 Batallions of marines to be put on standby and prepared for deployment. The Council however; were eager to stress that war was not by any means desirable, leaving the government in an inflexible position.

After the attacks
"Mr. President, we have a problem" shouted an anxious looking aide whose demeanor was similar to that of a startled child who had just found out Santa wasn't real as he stumbled towards the president. "What is it now?!", the aide passed across the report on the situation in Africa.

The president stood wide-eyed as he read the document, murmuring under his breath, he read it again. "The bloody maniacs! I thought they were going to do something stupid but this is beyond a joke! Who else knew about this?" the aide looked up hesitantly "I don't think anyone did sir, the Quinntonians seem to have done this themselves".

Before Volterov could think of a reply his secretary called to him, "its Cassanos" the young blonde said in a soothing tone whilst holding out a phone, "they want to know what we think of the situation".

Geata, Italy

To say that Proconsul Decimus Duccius Marsus and Bishop Philippus were less than impressed with Admiral Hoffman's request could have been considered the understatement of the century. If any more troops would be allowed in Geata, the military transports would have to return to Germany and even then, only another 4 000 troops would be allowed into the base and an extra legion of Roman troops would be placed around the base and absolutely no planes would be allowed to fly over Roman airspace. Or, the transports would be allowed to stay if the Quinntonians told the Romans what they were doing there, their precise course and the timetable for how long they would be in the region, but no additional troops would be allowed anywhere near Roman soil. These transports would also not be allowed to dock at Geata, and such an act would be interpretted as an act of war and Rome would have to respond in kind.

Quinntonia would have to decide right now how serious they were in creating an international crisis that could bubble over into war.

Atlantic Ocean

The presence of an entire carrier battle group was a great concern to Rome, especially since it was coming in the general direction of the Mediterranean. The Rubis class submarine Julius, from the Urban II battle group, monitored the battle group deep below the surface, and would continue to monitor the group until it was certain that it was headed for Africa. It would not be certain until the battle group parked itself off the coast of Africa. The Julius would then return to its patrol off the entrance to Meiterranean. Once the battle began to go home once again, they would be under the same scrutiny.

Hail Caesar!

London

With most of Britain's senior leadership abroad, the capital of the British Empire took rather longer to respond than most of its opposite numbers. Though modern communications allowed Strathairn to remain informed, most of the actual decision-making fell to Deputy Prime Minister Weatherly.

Michael Weatherly was a career politician. Slightly balding and not terribly impressive, he was a quiet man known to few outside of the Liberal Party. When word came that Quinntonian naval assets had been mobilized across the globe, Weatherly had been at dinner with his family. Tied like most politicians to his Blackberry, he received the e-mail and went back to his steak. Certain things, such as nuclear war, could interrupt the Deputy Prime Minister's dinner. This could wait. Steak finished and apologies to his wife made, Weatherly retrieved his coat from the hook and made the short walk to 10 Downing Street. It was a rather typical February night in London, with a heavy fog and an oppressive feeling of rain soon to come. At each end of the street, Weatherly could just make out the heavy gates and the sentries that separated the offices of government from the rest of London, indistinct through the mist. He climbed the steps to No.10 and let himself in, nodding in reply to the uniformed policeman that stood guard.

He was greeted by a rather alarming hubbub, several aides confronting him immediately with news of naval deployments, troop activations across the globe, and the apparent shelling of a few small countries. Weatherly climbed the stairway into the Prime Minister's office, sorting out as he went the apparent unilateral escalation by the Quinntonian government. Obviously, there were telephone calls to be made. He strode into the office that, at least for the next week or so, was to be his, and took a seat in the large leather chair.

"Summon the Quinntonian ambassador," he said, arranging papers. "It seems that we have things to discuss. Mister Jackson, if you would be so good as to provide me with a line to Washington? Please inform Ms. King that I desire to speak with her at her earliest convenience." Weatherly vacillated for a moment, considering his next move. "Mister Prynne, please contact the Prime Minister and apprise him of the situation. And Miss Sparks, inform the Admiralty that we may be requiring their services." Weatherly leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. This was all very alarming, and it was imperative that something be done to clarify exactly what was happening before things got completely out of control.

Alexandria

The base Commandant, General David Pearson, reacted with no small surprise to the communique that appeared on his desk bearing the arms of the United States Army. Twenty to sixty thousand troops? That was more than twice the number of British soldiers in Egypt/Sudan at any one time, let alone Alexandria. While the base could certainly support the number, it would be a strain on the local logistics systems even if the Quinntonians provided all necessaries. Pearson frowned and began penning a reply, requesting information regarding the mission, supply requirements and vehicles likely to be involved. Would he have to support armored regiments? Marines with their associated helicopters and landing ships? Where were these troops bound? If the Quinntonians required British assets from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the request would have to go through London and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, of course, and while Pearson was more than happy to host Quinntonian troops–a lie, but not a large one–certain information would have to be provided as a matter of course.

OOC: Just so everyone knows, the attacks on my country by the USQ are essentially frozen in time because the events that would lead up to it, which take part in The Soil of Africa, are in a different, slower time line. Until the two time lines are caught up, this thread's actions in that theater are frozen. The events may even be overwritten if conflict does not break out, say if the kidnapper's demands were met.