Beth Gellert
25-02-2009, 03:06
The celebrations had already begun, and economists were labouring through the first hangover of their nightmare season. While half the nation flew wildly out of control, as only Celts can do, sinking economic output across several sectors, the other half worked doubly hard, as Celts can only do when there's liquor at the end of it, to prepare events to come, sending other areas of the economy through the roof.
Background
February. While much of the world looked forward to the 14th and decorated its cities with red roses and love hearts, the Geletians ran up the red flag for the 15th, the day that bathed 1989 in the blood of revolutionary martyrs and reactionary villains.
This year's celebrations marked the 20th anniversary of the infamous Geletian Spring and the season of new birth that came early to this part of Europe. Beddgelert sprouted from the blood and bones of old Geletia that were scattered on the 15th of February, 1989, by the Young Igovians, egged on by Igos Graeme and Sopworth, and by Chivo.
And now the BDR would celebrate little more than its political isolation from the world, for people were taking to the streets in remembrance of, amongst other things, the slaughter of not just one enemy but of Christians, Capitalists, and so-called Frontists, those followers of the Strainist Colonel Kezo who advocated forum with those other elements on the international stage, and peaceful engagement with the threats they represented domestically.
The most obvious marker of this isolation also traces its roots back to that fateful day, and stands now in reinforced concrete form along every inch of the Democratic Republic's 3,780 kilometres of borderland.
The Wicker Wall, as it is informally known -sometimes Clawdd Chivo in the BDR, and officially the Anti-Christian Defence Perimeter-, takes its name from the impromptu checkpoints erected at border crossings during the unrest. Raised by Young Igovians, these barriers, supposed to stop would-be emigres pilfering the nation's cultural and economic wealth for private gain, were in some cases built according to traditional methods including wattle and daub, but today the Democratic Republic is encircled by a massive earthen dyke as much as 20 metres wide where topography allows, and consisting of a ditch, the earth dug from which is piled on the Beddgelen side and topped with a wall of concrete slabs strung with barbed wire and overlooked by watchtowers and electronic surveillance posts.
Now, with twentieth anniversary celebrations in full swing, the wall's decoration is becoming ever more elaborate, on both inner and outer faces. In places, concrete pillars are set with the skulls of revolutionary enemies, both local class enemies and remains of exhumed Russian and German soldiers who fell during the war and, of course, some few Roman skulls brought up from Greece by the Cornovii after 1980. Elsewhere red streamers are entangled on barbed wire and murals depicting feats of revolutionary heroism and solidarity have been commissioned by comrade Vera Igo's Cultural Council and painted on the big concrete drawing boards.
Akink, Durcodi Territory, Beddgelen Democratic Republic
Though far from the fullness of Beddgelen society, it was hardly likely to be a surprise to anyone that the National People's Guard was heading celebrations of the Democratic Republic's twentieth birthday. In fact the scale of the military's involvement had been dramatically increased in the weeks leading up to major festivities as GSIC observed worrying developments in US foreign policy and increased aggression from the imperial sphere, demonstrated from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic.
Moving through the broad streets of Akink, sailing through its blue-grey skies, and steaming up the Danube, the NPG was cheered on by vast crowds. Foreign observers previously unfamiliar with the realities of Beddgelert would be struck by the progress of the arrayed infantry, which did not march in step but strode along at an impressive pace, feet falling in anything but unison. Some sections wore camouflage fatigues in various patterns, while those in what amounted to dress uniform were fantastically colourful.
Commanders wore chainmail polished to a blinding sparkle and steel helmets topped with huge and ornate crests fashioned stylistically after domestic fauna, the leader of one unit having a lynx, the next a brown bear, then a grey wolf, and then a wild boar, and so forth, with dragons not being neglected. Heavy capes were dyed in garish colours and fixed with large bejeweled broaches, and many carried curved falx swords such as had been used to butcher entire Roman legions in antiquity. The bulk of the men wore traditional fabrics hand-woven in elaborate patterns, loose trousers and tunics, styled according to the colours of their tribe's traditional leading clan (attempts to favour the patterns of the clans from which contemporary leadership was elected had to be abandoned for practical reasons, as this leadership was too changeable). An authentic Geletian equivalent to tarten, this saw men wearing browns, reds, blues, yellows, and other colours most commonly in cheques but also stripes, hoops, and other fashions. Many of these men also wore capes, but their fixings tended to be less expensive though barely less ornate.
All wore metal torques, materials differing according to duty but chiefly being gold or silver, usually ornately crafted, and always defiantly asserting the freedom of the Celts and the broken nature of the planned Christian noose that Geletia saw as the primary motive for Rome's invasion of Greece.
In Heroes' Square, remains held to be of the standard of the Praetorian Guard, and artefacts carried off after the obliteration by Geletian warriors of the Legio V Alaudae, were brought out for a rare public showing, a skull reputed to be that of the Praetorian Prefect killed in that war in the first century of the common era not least amongst them and displayed on a spike, as were the cranial remains of wartime Fascists and later Principality collaborators of note.
Overhead, waves of Tu-16-BG-VG Badger bombers and related tanker planes passed, Airfox and IAG-330 helicopters filling gaps before the next aeroplane types formed up for their fly-overs. Savov-1 twin-engine turboprop transports and a trio of Il-76BGM heavy lift aircraft, then more helicopters. IAG-99 Soim trainer/attack jets, IAG-93D Vultur fighter bombers and IAG-40 Boglin close-air-support aircraft, then, always, more helicopters. Finally, IAG-95 Hobgoblin light tactical fighters, driven by afterburning turbojets and set-up for dogfighting and short-range interception missions, representing the lion's share of Beddgelen air defence strength, and joined by a wing of IAG-101 Redcap, the Hobgoblin's big brother, visually distinguishable by its twin upright tail fins and powered by an afterburning turbofan, capable of greater multi-role operation, the likely face of the future for Geletian fighter pilots.
...Unless they were amongst the elite few to fly the air display's finest piece. The IAG-102 Zmeu's first public appearance was made in a screaming high-speed pass low over the packed square by two of the twin-engine multi-role fighters.
Not content with displaying enhanced airmobility and the first modern medium fighter (though the NPG called it a heavy fighter) ever constructed in Beddgelert, nor indeed thousands of soldiers in national 'uniform', enhanced TB-85M2 and TB-125M battle tanks, and a new 76mm anti-aircraft gun recently deployed in secret to Tamil Eelam, Akink saw Chairman of the Council of Ministers comrade Braeden Apcarr announce the deployment to Tamil Eelam of the final components for a major space launch by the BDR, and the renting from the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth of several plots of land upon which to establish facilities for space missions and all that is necessary to their security.
Province of the Tectosages
Here, the largest shipyard in Geletia and one of the most impressive in Europe. Off shore, the naval review that saw the acceptance into service of the first Trincomalee Class frigate and the congregation of three large Mãrãsesti Class frigates, but it was the declartion given by Vercingetorix of the Averni that would really raise eyebrows.
Directing attention to the smaller of the facility's two massive slips, he declared that the hull slowly forming there was not that of a new bulk container for the nation's merchant marine, but, "...as would soon become clear to the expert eye" that of an aviation cruiser, which will before long be joined by a second vessel, this time to be built at the larger slip and to enter service as, "...a strategic projection cruiser".
Vercingetorix, a little known commander with an ambitious nom de guerre, was announcing the BDR's intention to project power beyond the Romani-Russian noose.
Back in the capital, Chivo chewed his lip and eventually allowed himself a smile as he watched a squadron of bombers sail overhead even while scores of tanks and air-defence vehicles rolled by in the streets below his balcony vantage point. Let the foreign ambassadors see this and dismiss our economic model, he said to himself.
Background
February. While much of the world looked forward to the 14th and decorated its cities with red roses and love hearts, the Geletians ran up the red flag for the 15th, the day that bathed 1989 in the blood of revolutionary martyrs and reactionary villains.
This year's celebrations marked the 20th anniversary of the infamous Geletian Spring and the season of new birth that came early to this part of Europe. Beddgelert sprouted from the blood and bones of old Geletia that were scattered on the 15th of February, 1989, by the Young Igovians, egged on by Igos Graeme and Sopworth, and by Chivo.
And now the BDR would celebrate little more than its political isolation from the world, for people were taking to the streets in remembrance of, amongst other things, the slaughter of not just one enemy but of Christians, Capitalists, and so-called Frontists, those followers of the Strainist Colonel Kezo who advocated forum with those other elements on the international stage, and peaceful engagement with the threats they represented domestically.
The most obvious marker of this isolation also traces its roots back to that fateful day, and stands now in reinforced concrete form along every inch of the Democratic Republic's 3,780 kilometres of borderland.
The Wicker Wall, as it is informally known -sometimes Clawdd Chivo in the BDR, and officially the Anti-Christian Defence Perimeter-, takes its name from the impromptu checkpoints erected at border crossings during the unrest. Raised by Young Igovians, these barriers, supposed to stop would-be emigres pilfering the nation's cultural and economic wealth for private gain, were in some cases built according to traditional methods including wattle and daub, but today the Democratic Republic is encircled by a massive earthen dyke as much as 20 metres wide where topography allows, and consisting of a ditch, the earth dug from which is piled on the Beddgelen side and topped with a wall of concrete slabs strung with barbed wire and overlooked by watchtowers and electronic surveillance posts.
Now, with twentieth anniversary celebrations in full swing, the wall's decoration is becoming ever more elaborate, on both inner and outer faces. In places, concrete pillars are set with the skulls of revolutionary enemies, both local class enemies and remains of exhumed Russian and German soldiers who fell during the war and, of course, some few Roman skulls brought up from Greece by the Cornovii after 1980. Elsewhere red streamers are entangled on barbed wire and murals depicting feats of revolutionary heroism and solidarity have been commissioned by comrade Vera Igo's Cultural Council and painted on the big concrete drawing boards.
Akink, Durcodi Territory, Beddgelen Democratic Republic
Though far from the fullness of Beddgelen society, it was hardly likely to be a surprise to anyone that the National People's Guard was heading celebrations of the Democratic Republic's twentieth birthday. In fact the scale of the military's involvement had been dramatically increased in the weeks leading up to major festivities as GSIC observed worrying developments in US foreign policy and increased aggression from the imperial sphere, demonstrated from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic.
Moving through the broad streets of Akink, sailing through its blue-grey skies, and steaming up the Danube, the NPG was cheered on by vast crowds. Foreign observers previously unfamiliar with the realities of Beddgelert would be struck by the progress of the arrayed infantry, which did not march in step but strode along at an impressive pace, feet falling in anything but unison. Some sections wore camouflage fatigues in various patterns, while those in what amounted to dress uniform were fantastically colourful.
Commanders wore chainmail polished to a blinding sparkle and steel helmets topped with huge and ornate crests fashioned stylistically after domestic fauna, the leader of one unit having a lynx, the next a brown bear, then a grey wolf, and then a wild boar, and so forth, with dragons not being neglected. Heavy capes were dyed in garish colours and fixed with large bejeweled broaches, and many carried curved falx swords such as had been used to butcher entire Roman legions in antiquity. The bulk of the men wore traditional fabrics hand-woven in elaborate patterns, loose trousers and tunics, styled according to the colours of their tribe's traditional leading clan (attempts to favour the patterns of the clans from which contemporary leadership was elected had to be abandoned for practical reasons, as this leadership was too changeable). An authentic Geletian equivalent to tarten, this saw men wearing browns, reds, blues, yellows, and other colours most commonly in cheques but also stripes, hoops, and other fashions. Many of these men also wore capes, but their fixings tended to be less expensive though barely less ornate.
All wore metal torques, materials differing according to duty but chiefly being gold or silver, usually ornately crafted, and always defiantly asserting the freedom of the Celts and the broken nature of the planned Christian noose that Geletia saw as the primary motive for Rome's invasion of Greece.
In Heroes' Square, remains held to be of the standard of the Praetorian Guard, and artefacts carried off after the obliteration by Geletian warriors of the Legio V Alaudae, were brought out for a rare public showing, a skull reputed to be that of the Praetorian Prefect killed in that war in the first century of the common era not least amongst them and displayed on a spike, as were the cranial remains of wartime Fascists and later Principality collaborators of note.
Overhead, waves of Tu-16-BG-VG Badger bombers and related tanker planes passed, Airfox and IAG-330 helicopters filling gaps before the next aeroplane types formed up for their fly-overs. Savov-1 twin-engine turboprop transports and a trio of Il-76BGM heavy lift aircraft, then more helicopters. IAG-99 Soim trainer/attack jets, IAG-93D Vultur fighter bombers and IAG-40 Boglin close-air-support aircraft, then, always, more helicopters. Finally, IAG-95 Hobgoblin light tactical fighters, driven by afterburning turbojets and set-up for dogfighting and short-range interception missions, representing the lion's share of Beddgelen air defence strength, and joined by a wing of IAG-101 Redcap, the Hobgoblin's big brother, visually distinguishable by its twin upright tail fins and powered by an afterburning turbofan, capable of greater multi-role operation, the likely face of the future for Geletian fighter pilots.
...Unless they were amongst the elite few to fly the air display's finest piece. The IAG-102 Zmeu's first public appearance was made in a screaming high-speed pass low over the packed square by two of the twin-engine multi-role fighters.
Not content with displaying enhanced airmobility and the first modern medium fighter (though the NPG called it a heavy fighter) ever constructed in Beddgelert, nor indeed thousands of soldiers in national 'uniform', enhanced TB-85M2 and TB-125M battle tanks, and a new 76mm anti-aircraft gun recently deployed in secret to Tamil Eelam, Akink saw Chairman of the Council of Ministers comrade Braeden Apcarr announce the deployment to Tamil Eelam of the final components for a major space launch by the BDR, and the renting from the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth of several plots of land upon which to establish facilities for space missions and all that is necessary to their security.
Province of the Tectosages
Here, the largest shipyard in Geletia and one of the most impressive in Europe. Off shore, the naval review that saw the acceptance into service of the first Trincomalee Class frigate and the congregation of three large Mãrãsesti Class frigates, but it was the declartion given by Vercingetorix of the Averni that would really raise eyebrows.
Directing attention to the smaller of the facility's two massive slips, he declared that the hull slowly forming there was not that of a new bulk container for the nation's merchant marine, but, "...as would soon become clear to the expert eye" that of an aviation cruiser, which will before long be joined by a second vessel, this time to be built at the larger slip and to enter service as, "...a strategic projection cruiser".
Vercingetorix, a little known commander with an ambitious nom de guerre, was announcing the BDR's intention to project power beyond the Romani-Russian noose.
Back in the capital, Chivo chewed his lip and eventually allowed himself a smile as he watched a squadron of bombers sail overhead even while scores of tanks and air-defence vehicles rolled by in the streets below his balcony vantage point. Let the foreign ambassadors see this and dismiss our economic model, he said to himself.