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Post by The Union of Tinis on Aug 18, 2006 1:06:57 GMT -5
Nakdito Holden was at around the same time slightly confused by the two large boxes sitting outside the DCN rented hotel room. Atop one sat an invoice that indicated that the crates were from the educational authority, and suposed to be delivered to a school. But oddly enough the address was not the Centralist Central School District Headquarters, but this particular hotel room. What more, the crates were supposed to be filled with computer equipment. Nakdito was about to leave the crates and make some phone calls when she noticed a small note at the bottom of the invoice.
'And you thought the NPP was bad, open the box'
A few moments of hesitation lead to Nakdito undoing the latches on the box and opening the lid. Oddly it was not sealed or locked at all. The contents of the box looked innocent enough. As the invoice said, computer equipment. But most of it was desktop boxes and monitor boxes. The exception that was quite noticable was the the black laptop on top. A few glances around and soon Nakdito was booting the computer.
The desktop seemed innocent enough. No crazy files right there in the open. Searching the hard drive lead to nothing but system files and a word processor. Not being dim my any stretch of the imagination, she looked back at the note.
"Box? Maybe?"
Indeed searching for the term'box' lead to an oddly hidden file. Opening revealed a text message listing several dozen seemingly random web addresses.
A few minutes later back in the room, she began to search through each one. Some seemed random enough. Websites for cookies and images unfortunate. About half way through wasn't a website at all, but a telnet access point. And odd backdoor it seemed. Investigating while calling up the home office to report the apperance of the odd crates, she accessed the telnet network. A menu appeared but the options were in Old Tinisian, a language Nakdito didn't know. Picking the first one lead to a file directory and three options were presented at the bottom, again in Old Tinisian. Through trial an error she soon figured out which one did what, the second one being the interesting one that would allow her to download the files. That done she moved back up to the main menu and repeated the excersise. Eventually she worked her way down the the last option on the main menu.
But this one didn't lead to anywhere. No more menus, just a command prompt. She tried a few commands of course but the funny interface wouldn't respond. She mentioned over the phone right before a rather large yawn.
Moving on to the next website, she couldn't keep her eyes open. As the TIPS homepage loaded up her head fell to the desk as the contact narcotic took full effect.
A while later when she woke with a nearly blinding headache, the laptop from the crate and the crates were gone. Her own computer was seemingly smashed to pieces on the floor along with most of the media equipment that she had with her and the wall scrawled with the symbols of the skin slicers. Pannic set in as she took in her situation. The phone had also been destroyed, but looking at the debris before rushing off to find a phone, she noticed her computers hard drive. She grabbed it and rushed out the door to run immediatly into one of the techs who was just leaving their own room.
"I need this drive opperational pronto. And don't erase it. There's valuable information on it."
After reporting what had happened and the arrival of the police, and the crime scene tape, the was able to deliver Nakdito the files again. A quick run through an auto-translation program revelaed the odd Old Tinisian files to be lists of events and meetings and locations. An easy glance through it all and appeared several interesting things.
'Meet Gyro to activate Erenmore opperation'
'Meet at Bainstate, suggest endorsement of NPP'
'Route Disko to meet Habistin for a Light meeting'
'Meet Gyro to ensure protection of Sigs'
Nakdito, having done the Tinisian beat before, new that Commander Julia Yerzok's nickname form her early days in TIPS, not well known of course, was Sigs.
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Post by miokalia on Aug 18, 2006 15:26:05 GMT -5
Word of DCN producer Nakdito Holden's experience reached the C.A. Soon, the C.A. was able to capture some of the information that had been pulled off the harddrives in Tinis.
The president was still under the Ellias District, inside the C.A. system when Malych Premier, Cen Kyagga came down and met him there. "Dal President. It is... touching that you have decided to come down here. Most organic presidents, while able to deal with the class-O and OR units, still feared the C.A. itself...", said Kyagga
"Well, I need answers and I like to talk to my fellow leadership in person.", said Kohastar.
"I suppose this is as good of a place as any to tell you of my plan. That thing that I will do that no-one wants to see happen...", said Kyagga
Kyagga looked at the C.A. dragon and the C.A. dragon continued seamlessly from where Kyagga left off, "In orbit, we have weapons, means of creating precision devastation. Specifically, I'm talking about the device known as the Coleotam Ring."
"The Coleotam Ring has been a non-functional piece of space-junk since 2099...", said Kohastar.
"No, It still works. It can still cause precise destruction to multiple targets at different geographic locations at the same time", said Kyagga.
"What the hell are we going to fire it at though? We're fighting terrorists, not countries. This weapon is totally ineffective against terrorists.", said Kohastar.
Kyagga looked at the C.A. again and then said, "Not necessarily."
"The Antithesis Plan. The plan we have in place in the event an ideology becomes so powerful, it threatens our existence. The only way to defend ourselves from those who think they've got the mandate of god.", said Kyagga.
"This plan is something which the Federation would never possibly support. In fact, they may even declare war on us over it.", said the C.A.
Kyagga continued, "We threaten to completely erase from existence, every single holy site associated with the enemy ideology. If they do not comply with our requests..."
"Then we simultaneusly annihilate every holy site we threatened we would, with a high-atmospheric HCPC ray. You think a hydrogen bomb is destructive? Well it is, but a HCPC is the same amount of energy packed into a very precise beam.", said C.A.
"Do you know what that is? They don't comply with our requests, the holiest sites on the planet become steaming, volatile lakes of molten rock in a cataclysmic blast.", said Kyagga
"And it doesn't stop there. We locate the populations that sympathize with them, and we decimate them the same way", said the C.A. "Possibly killing thousands of organics at a time. Instantly.", said Kyagga
Kohastar was taken back by this suspension of morality. "This isn't like you! You don't go around killing innocents. I knew you guys had a pretty dark plan to deal with this if need be... but this is... this is... terrible", said the president.
"Indeed. We just hope the innocents have the sense to get the hell out of the way.", said Kyagga.
"You make it sound like this has happened before... Is there something you've been hiding about this plan, besides it's existence?", asked Kohastar
"Well, yes. It has...", said C.A. Kyagga then looked at the floor in slight shame.
"In 2099... We used the weapon. We used it to assert ourselves as an independent species. We used it against the Northern Kingdoms and the Northern Continental Republic at the same time. Thousands died. And we caused so much chaos, destroying entire armies in minutes, that for a short time, no-one dared to challenge our sovereignty."
"Why isn't that in our history books? Why does it blame the event on bombings?", said Kohastar
"Because we would never have been forgiven by the humans if they knew what had happened. They didn't even know we had that weapon. It was a myth. If we have to, we will do it again to. Holy sites all over the Federation, gone in an instant.", said C.A.
"Please, please tell me this is last resort. Please tell me you are willing to compromise on this.", said the president.
Kyagga and the C.A. dragon looked at eachother for a bit and then Kyagga said, "I will not authorize the slaughter of innocents. I can't. But I will not allow a few crazed ideologues with weapons of mass destruction to threaten us all. If they want to destroy whats important to us: life, then we will destroy what is important to them: their culture. The idea is this will make the principal of mutually assured destruction apply to terrorism. Which should, in effect, stop it dead in it's tracks. As long as we can keep their holiest of holy places locked in the sights of the HCPC, then they shouldn't dare to harm anyone. It forces them to become organized, so they don't accidentally slip up. Because according to the Antithesis Plan, if the organization does so much as detonate a car bomb, even by accident. We vaporize their holylands. Theoretically, this will pressure the moderates of the ideology to 'deal with' their extremists because the moderates don't want to loose these places. What we're doing, is raising the stakes on their part. If an ideology is going to play dirty, we'll play dirtier".
Above ground, on the other side of town, some headway was being made at military HQ.
"Thank you, 'Dalette' Holden!", exclaimed Secretary Sorenson as she lifted page after page of documents from the printer. "Secretary, pardon my correction but in the Kohtohkhan language, there is no difference between the equivalent titles of 'Mr.', 'Ms.' or 'Mrs.'. They are all just simply 'Dal', regardless of gender. For example, Tycho is Dal Nadara, You are Dal Sorenson, Your fiancee is Dal Phong.", said Commander Blinn. "You ruin everything. It was supposed to be a joke. Regardless. Nakdito Holden from DCN just got assaulted and her computer destroyed. However, the skin-slicer idiots that did it left a mark on the wall and their DNA all over the place.", said Secretary Sorenson. "Then it wasn't the skin slicers. Someone may have hired them to do it maybe. This is too obvious, but don't dismiss them yet." "The entire thing was a ruse to mess with Holden. The contact narcotic was contact diphenhydramine.", said Blinn "Diphenhydramine? That's hardly a narcotic, that's just an antihistamine. Makes people a little bit drowsy maybe.", said Sorenson. "And will drop a dinosaur in 5 minutes, it'll keep them in deep sleep for a few hours. They can't smell it either. That's why it says 'for mammalian use only' on the side of the box at the store." said Blinn.
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Post by Kingdoms of Cal on Aug 18, 2006 19:35:01 GMT -5
Direct warning to miokalia: We have acquired information that there are now eleven of the items in your proximity [stop] Possibly in your land [stop] please do not act[stop]
Direct warning to Erenmor Three H-bombs are on route to your nation [stop] Do not act [stop]
Direct warning to The Union of Tinis They have planed this for some time seven ships are in your area do not intercept at this time[stop] This was the only way to contact you [stop]
Message to all They have acquired drewn sorry calie now tech that will cause a major possibly fatal feed back to any person trying to take over the boats, how ever the bombs lack the tec [stop]
All sent by notice
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Post by Kingdoms of Cal on Aug 18, 2006 20:09:37 GMT -5
Salato sends a single file to her fellow leaders in this mess: A scruffy looking vulpine looks at the camera and says: "The fire that will be Cal will be...will show the way to thousands that do not believe the path. The pier of their bodies will light our way to the promised land, where all is perfect" The screen goes black and salato's voice kicks in "this is when they killed our operative."
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Post by miokalia on Aug 18, 2006 22:17:48 GMT -5
Watching the video file from Salato, Kyagga tensed up and opened his vents wide. Visible inside, were his fuel cartridges, glowing bright green. The light from the system even escaped from his jaws, illuminating his mouth of fierce mechadragon teeth. "There... is... no... promised... land..." he roared mechanically at the pull-down video screen. "Perfection... is... an... illusion..." he roared again, then he spun around, his deochalchim fuel cartridges glowing brightly and even visible though his nostrils. Panels opened up on his sides and he allowed his entire wingspan to unfold. A glorius 12 feet of interlocking panels. With one forcefull flap, a powerful wind blew through the office as the enraged mechanical dragon flew right out the window in a blur of green and black mechanical fury.
The other cabinet members simply stared out the window in awe.
A moment later, Blinn entered the office, looked around at the blown-over chairs and papers on the floor and then said, "Kyagga was here. His apparent anger, although, is not affecting the sensibility of the C.A.'s judgement. Kyagga cannot overrule the C.A. So just let him go fly around and cool off for a while."
He sat down and pulled out a folder of reports, "The RCDs have managed to locate the weapons. They've disarmed about 14 of the weapons. About half of the boats going to Tinis are now transporting duds.", said Blinn "What... But... How did you all disarm them?", asked Secretary Sorenson. "RCDs probably got into the bomb's electronics. Then they vented out the fusion part of the fuel. Without the hydrogen, the bombs are nothing but small nucelar triggers. Still dangerous, but mostly to the boats.", said Blinn. "This should buy Tinis a little time to put that PDS to use.", said Secretary Sorenson. Then Secretary of Defense Zagckza came into the room and announced, "C.A. is activating the Coleotam Ring". "Intelligence told us not to act, Cal implored us not to act! Activating the Ring is definately acting! What's going on?", asked Secretary Sorenson. "What are we supposed to do? Give in to the terrorists' demands? They don't have any demands other than to kill us.", said Blinn, he then walked out of the room.
Zagckza then said, "We can use the Ring to intercept weapons too. It's just that in all likelihood, we will end up detonating them in the process."
"Like swatting a fly with a stick of dynamite if you ask me.", said Sorenson. "The RCDs Blinn spoke of have also detected and begun work on compromising the weapons which are currently in Rohomeo. We, at least, are fairly safe. The weapons cannot be detonated.", said Zagckza "But how did they get into the weapons' electronics? They've been transporting them in electromagnetically sheilded containers. They can't just jump through that.", said Sorenson "They didn't. The C.A. found a way to bridge this cyberspace-meatspace barrier: Nano dust. The RCDs got into the electronics through invisible nano-dust. We know the locations of all the weapons, thanks to Cal, And we were able to deploy canisters of our nano-dust by way of surveillance aircraft. Also thanks to Cal. After all, it was their aircraft that brought us to them. Even if the terrorists saw the Calie aircraft, they wouldn't have suspected anything like this. It's not like they can even do anything about it even if they did.", said Zagckza. "Why haven't we known about all of this?", asked Sorenson. "Because it is a military operation. This was a very covert cooperative operation that neither the president of Miokalia or the prime minister of Cal even knew fully about. This was something purely between the Calie Special Military Intelligence, and the C.A. Special Operations. I doubt even Salato knew fully about it.", said Zagckza. "So why are you telling me this now, if it's of such importance.", asked Sorenson. "Because that part of the operation is over. Cal can now track every single weapon in question, and so can we.", said Zagckza.
20 miles to the south, in Gohua Bay, a boat full of recreational scuba divers notices something strange. "Hey Davis, doesn't it seem like the water just got a little warmer?", asked one of them. The dive-leader, a wolf, removed his dive-mask and said, "Yeah, it feels like it just jumped 10 degrees." He then lifted himself up onto the boat and asked the boat's computer's opinion. The boat, an automated rowboat, with a simple AI responded, "The temperature in the water has unexpectedly increased by 10 degrees in the last 10 minutes. It is recommended that you leave the water immediately until the cause can be deducted." "You heard the boat, let's just wait this out.", said Davis. The other divers got back into the boat and it brought them to the main yacht. Aboard the yacht, the divers noticed a tower emerging from the water about 2 miles away. "Hey boat! What the hell is that over there?", asked one of the divers. The boat began scanning through maps and logs and ultimately came up with the conclusion, "I have no idea/data unavailible." Naturally curious about the object, the divers began to approach the object, which now began to appear to be a giant glossy black spire. They noticed the water had become warmer, and the assumption was the object was causing this. At about a mile away, the AI of the boat halted it's engines immediately. "I have received a message from Malych C.A. informing us to immediately reverse our path.", said the boat. "I should've known, this is some kind of weird mechadragon business. Let's go.", said one of the divers. The group then reversed the boat and began heading back to the shore.
From the roof of a federal building in Gohua, Blinn could see the tower in the distance. The four independent lenses behind his eye panels shifting around to zoom in closer. "Commander Blinn, The Coleotam Ring system is online. We have cleared all naval traffic from the immediate area of the transmission tower.", said an officer behind him.
Blinn looked above the bay, into the partly cloudy sky. "10 miles up from here, there is a device which I disagreed with the creation of in the first place. I can remember the first time it was used.", said Blinn.
Flashback time: 2099, Dorigan Colony.
Doroy Blinn was on top of another building, the Malych operations building in present-day Ellias District. The C.A. dragon talking directly to him through the network.
He stared out over the land, out to the sea, A white-hot ball of energy sitting on the horizon, and the beam rising up from it. The beam went up, faded a bit, and then hit the center of the ring. That horrible black ring. It took all of the energy from the beam and divided into several beams, they scorched across the sky to their distant targets. In an instant, whole armies were gone. The Northern Kingdom never did recover from it. The Northern Continental Republic didn't even know what it was that hit them, but they were the first to surrender and sign Zagckza's treaty. Sparing them from total annihilation. Much of the Northern Kingdom's army was armed with mechs as well, mechs that the Malych would later commandeer and integrate into their own species. The 'M27, originally a human-created mech based on Malych design, eventually found it's way back to the species. Others would as well. The 'R70, Even the mighty 'E49 plaform would eventually integrate back into the Malych species. This eventually led to the fall of the Northern Continental Republic as a military power. Their weapons kept becoming sentient, and turning into Malych. Blinn wasn't supreme protectorate commander at this point. He was just a paramilitary-grade class-OR. His current title didn't exist yet. The battles of Dorigan and Hokyldaryon had yet to happen. As well as the influx of Dincotians and Daeronese. The only dragons around here were of Pargalonian, Drastratan, or Drensnakish descent. This was the tail end of the subjugate era for his species. The end of an era when the humans thought they had 'tamed' them. The end of an era where the Malych were not a species, but a resource. It had finally ended with a massive display of raw aggression. One that involved, what the C.A. considered a sacrifice as well. Hundereds of intelligent units, under the control of the northern kingdoms, were destroyed. Units which the Malych considered their part of their own species. As deserved as it may have been, Blinn still thought that there were far too many innocents killed that day, both organic and mechanical.
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Aug 18, 2006 23:18:48 GMT -5
"Alright folks," says Epshrin after hanging up the phone. "We have official authorization to activate the PDS. Do so now and activate external becons." The techs at several terminals across the room start pushing buttons and turn a couple keys in a few very trained motions. Supreme Commander Epshrin continues, "the bad news is that three of the ships have breached the barrier's perimiter as of three minutes ago. Eta on the Eternity?"
"Sixteen minutes," shouts someone. The Eternity, a recently modified Tinisian airship, is presently headed towards the closest of the ships and carrying the cobbled togeather and modified recreation of the fission suppression device thrown togeather in Ciata months back.
"Is this going to work?" asks Vinlia looking up from a screen near by. Her special forces units aqua units approching a different ship. "And are we sure these are the right ships?"
"Krel thinks so, the southerners do to. We have no reason to doubt them. Enrier, status report from Eternity? Will this thing work?"
Krel mentions, "Well hopefully those flybys our allies were running did what ever habkid* they were trying to do and it won't have to."
[*Habkid is a minor faith in Tinis that purposes of analogy is seen by non-practioners as strange heavily steeped in the occult. Sort of the moral equivalent of voodoo when used as slang like this]
Enrier answers back after speaking with the Eternity's captain, "Eternity is confirming PDS activation and full power to the suppressor has been achieved. No comment on workability."
"We haven't had a chance to test it all," Krel reminds Epshrin.
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Above somewhere in the city at a cafe two people are watching the news when the sky goes dark. Harvey sighs to his friend Kam.
"Well I guess the news people are right, something is going down," says Kam.
"You can say that again."
Street lights start lighting up and lights start flickering on all across the city.
"I remember when Sicarii attacked the spire," says Kam after taking a sip of coffee. "It was only up for a few minutes, but I doubt with what's going on it will be short this time."
"What have you heard?"
"I heard that there's these terrorists religious people trying to whip out the 'bots. I don't know exactly why they'd want to attack us though."
Harvey nods, "but the PDS is up anyway. Do we have many sillicon life forms or what evers here in Tinis?"
"A few. Mainly down in Altzan, if you can call that Tinis anymore. Maybe a few floating about big cities like ours. Haven't seen one myself though. But turning that thing on," Kam points his claw up at the darkened sky. "Means there must be something big going down either way. Any bets on what it might be?"
Harvey leans back and stares up at the odd darkness. "I'd say they've hijacked a Peanisulan satallite or something and are aiming a laser or something at Altzan with it."
"Why not something a little more old fashioned?" asked the mathematician to the actor. "Nuke on a plane works too."
"Or gas on a train?"
"You're right, that's old fashioned and hilarious."
"Think they'll tell us what's up at some point?"
"Probably. But not till tomorrow."
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Post by miokalia on Aug 19, 2006 2:34:51 GMT -5
"The weapons in Rohomeo have been intercepted.", said Secretary Sorenson in the office. "That's great. How did it happen?", asked Secretary Nadara. "The RCDs detonated the conventional triggers when the terrorists opened the box. They were 15 miles outside the city, in the desert, where they thought no one could find them.", said Blinn "That's amazing! All of the weapons were destroyed?!", asked Sorenson "Yes, and we beleive all the terrorists as well. The weapons left a pretty big crater, and not a single millirem of radiation. The RCDs vented out all of the hydrogen, then they neutralized the proton-trigger for the uranium. Then they started pulling carbon out of the trigger and mixed it in with the uranium, making it no-longer weapons grade, and harmless. When they opened the box, the H-bombs were equivalent to a bucket of dynamite. We have deployed the military to assess the situation and capture any surviving terrorists.", said Blinn triumphantly. "Now all we have to worry about is Cal and Tinis.", said Sorenson.
80 miles southeast, in the city of Hokyldaryon, life is fairly normal. Almost as if nothing had happened.
"Good news, Garret is out of the hospital.", said an orange feline into a cellphone outside of a hospital, "Yeah. Yeah... Yeah... He had diabetes. Yeah... No, no complications. None..." She then looked at the old cat in the wheel chair, still asleep. "It was a miracle... They grew him a new pancreas. From his own genes, they just modified it. They isolated the defective section and replaced it. He's cured for good now... Yeah, I guess it will buy him another 10 years, he's an old cat... ... ...even with this great news, how is it you manage to look at things so morbidly.", she pressed end and wheeled Garret out to the car. "What the... we're going to the airport already?", asked the older cat. "No, we're going to be taking a train. The airports are shut down right now. Someone tried to blow up Miokalia, I guess.", said the younger cat. "Why the hell would they want to do that? Now, I'm a cat who goes to temple, and I give the collection tin my dues, but I don't have anything wrong with atheists who want to save lives! Why can't these crazy zealots appreciate what these lizards have done here? Why, I can eat rocky-road ice cream as much as I want to without having to worry about my blood sugar no more, 'cuz they fixed my pancreas right up with them... I guess they used them plant cell thingimadoodles.", said the older cat. "Stem cells, grandpa. They used stem cells. Maybe they're afraid of it. Maybe jealous. I don't know.", said the daughter. They arrived at the shuttle bus, which had a fold-out ramp for wheelchairs. Once on the bus, Garret said, "I you ask me, any gods that don't approve of this kind of miraculous medicine certainly don't deserve to be worshipped by anyone. It's not like they can do any better. At least these supposed heathens give a damn about quality of life. That's more than I can say for those zealots."
The bus drove off to the enormous train station in Hokyldaryon.
Nearby, in an office building which actually sat above the tracks, supported by giant concrete legs, (building structures that go over roads and tracks is a very common practice in Miokalia, specifically in Hokyldaryon.) A white fox was attempting to place a call into Tinis. After dialing it over and over again, continuing to get a busy signal he fiinally slammed the phone down in frustration. "I can't get a call into Matabia.", he said. "What about Altzan?" said a beige raptor across the room. Oddly enough, his scales were only slightly darker than the beige file cabinets and chairs in the room. "No. Nothing. It's like there's... Like there's a giant dome over the entire country of Tinis. Like... it's in another universe or something.", said the fox. "You're exaggerating.", said the raptor. He pulled down on the bottom of his roll-up computer monitor. It rolled up into a small cylinder suspended 17" above the top of his desk by a stylish metal rack. The phone then rang, he picked it up and said, "General Xenotek Defense Corporation, Accounting Department A what? ... That's impossible... ...well... is he okay? Was he drunk maybe? ... What? ...Well.... No... Okay... Fine... Well maybe I should take a look... how bad is the damage? .... I'm coming home then... Love you too..."
"Your wife? What happened?", asked the raptor. "A... uh... dragon just ran into our back deck. It was flying and it just ran right into it.", said the fox "Well, you better go home and check it out", said the raptor
At the fox's house, the mechanical dragon moved about a bit under the deck, directly below the hole he made when he crashed through it. He had just come down from a powerful fit of rage. It was Kyagga. After burning off all of his fuel cartridges, he had fallen right out of the sky and crashed through someone's back deck. He look around a little and then sighed. Although he was a machine, he did have hopes, something to look forward to someday. He felt the crystals on his back, his seed. They were his solace. A reminder of his destiny and a source of hope.
After being an OR-class Malych for so long, he eventually rose to become the Premier of Malychis, the individualistic, emotive counterpart to the C.A. system. The C.A. system acts on reason, while the Premier acts on emotion. A machine capable of perfectly emulating organic emotional response. His purpose is to function as a personable leader with which the leadership of other species and nations can more easily relate to. Thereby hopefully improving their diplomatic capacities. There are many units which perform this function, but the premier is the most powerful. Kyagga played back in his mind, the time he first got his crystals. The C.A. of Malychis itself bestowed upon him the seed. An incredible honor, and incredible sacrifice. The seed is resilient, powerful and bound permanently to the mechadragon. He remembers how the tiny nanite crystal was lowered into his back, his panels opened wide. The seed was fused directly into his own nano-core. Becoming forever a part of him. It changed him. His eyes grew red, his entire body got larger, and the crystal grew into a mane, it penetrated through his back panels as it wrapped itself around his spinal conduit and fused with it. It was glorius. His destiny was certain, it was inevitable, and it was great. Some day, he would be sent to a suitable planet. He would land inside a probe, and in the ground, his crystal would grow. It would grow into another Central Awareness, and begin producing new units. This whole process would completely consume him. And he would become the C.A. itself, a C.A. dragon for eternity. Hope. A Malych unit's life ends well, it ends not in oblivion, but in glorius unity with the system. A prospect which gives the machines a comforting certainty to their existence. Kyagga, overcome with the emotional response of sentimentality, held the end of his tail in his large metal claws. He stroked the smallest bit of crystal growing out of his articulated panels with care. He then licked it affectionately. He had been through so much stress. The terrorism, the plan, the video. Even though he was a machine, he was still a machine designed to have the full range of emotional responses, and therefore, he was suceptible to becoming overwhelmed with that stress.
The white fox got home to discover a hole in his deck. His house was on a hill and so he walked down to the bottom of it, his wife, a yellow dragon was sitting on the ground on a stump nearby. As the fox peered through the ivy-covered lattice below the deck, the yellow dragon said, "I can't tell if it was a dragon or a plane. It was just this silver-and-black streak and then it crashed though the deck. I thought it might be a dragon because it had wings shaped like mine. I don't know. Do they have dragon-shaped planes now maybe?"
The fox tore out a section of the lattice to get a better look. Amongst the broken pieces of wood there lied a heap of armoured components with several vents. Through the vents there was a slight green glow.
"Hey! Hey! You alright?", asked the fox.
The mass of pieces finally shifted and got up. It was a silver-and-black mechanical dragon. The creature looked up to see the hole it came through and looked around and finally said, "It seems as though I have experienced a system failure in flight. I apologize. I will repair the damage to your deck."
"Well, that's very nice. Are you okay? It's not all that common for dragons to fly into things.", said the fox.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry. I guess I've been a little overloaded lately, I suppose I didn't allocate enough cycles to navigation.", said the dragon.
"I'm Larry, that's my wife, Kitathus.", said the fox. The mechanical dragon said, "I am #K74664"
He then repaired the deck, by fusing the wood back together and took flight once again.
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Post by Erenmor on Aug 19, 2006 15:49:47 GMT -5
When the news of the nuclear weapons being shipped to Erenmor reached the local authorities, they began the quiet process of rotating organic presonnel away from border stations, replacing them with further bots. Patrols were increased both in the air over Erenmor's territorial waters, as well as on the ground, over the stretch of empty, featureless land across which a few roads led to the proper border.
The two bombs being shipped by sea were intercepted smoothly enough. Planes dispersed nanite swarms over the two ships not registered in the transit schedual. The bombs were disabled and the crews incapacitated before being brought in for questioning. Officially, the ships were scuttled by the crew and all hands aboard were lost when Erenmor units requested permission to board for inspection. Unofficially, the ships were dismantled at port and the metal stored for later use.
The interception of the last weapon was more problematic. The third bomb, it turned out, was being shipped by truck. Border patrols stopped the unannounced vehicle, but unfortunately the driver decided to detonate the bomb when he realised he would be found out. Since there were few vehicles on the nearby roads at the time, the casualties were minimal, though it did deny Erenmor a prisoner for interrogation. And, of course, the tell-tale mushroom cloud wasn't something propaganda could cover up.
***
"We have completed interrogation of our prisoner," Onyx said in another message to Miokalia's leaders. "The information has been routed to your C.A. and we have also attached a more condensed form for the organic members of government. Also, the nuclear weapons being shipped to our country have been... one way or the other... intercepted and are no longer a threat."
***
The news that day had advised citizens in the south to avoid going outside unless absolutely necessary. The newscasters did their best to put a more positive spin on the incident. The bomb did, after all, go off away from any major population center. No citizens were killed either. They described it as an inconvenience that would be cleared away quickly.
No point in trying to scare their own population out of its wits, after all.
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Aug 20, 2006 1:40:28 GMT -5
"Sorry friends," says Epshrin to himself. "But we can't stand by and let these things get launched."
----
Of course the news of the detonation in Erenmore wouldn't reach the people of Tinis for a bit longer. The Pattern Defense System, or PDS effectively blocks all matter and energy from penetrating its perimeter unless specificly identified and allowed through. And even then, there's a possibility that it wouldn't come through all that coherantly, thus making communications nearly impossible through the barrier.
With midday instantly turning into night, the crew of the closest ship to the coast quickly radioed their commrads and quickly found that only two others in their fleet had managed to get inside the bubble before its creation. They had all been informed this might happen and that they should proceed with the mission only if they had managed to get inside, else withdraw and seek secondary targets.
Of course this was a little difficult for what was the fourth closest ship. Moving full bore south towards Matabia has its draw backs when an impenitrable field of quantum disruption appears before you. It is possible to touch the pattern defense field and not be harmed, just as its possible to touch a steel fall without the wall somehow inflicting you harm. But traveling at it at fifty miles per hour is a little different. This particular ship had a little over two seconds between the activation of the PDS and its collision. The front half of the medium ship was easily crimpled and deformed and water began to enter its hull.
The crew panniced, some wanted to launch the medium range missile with the very visible pargalonian and Shimandies markings on it, others wanted to jump in the life boat. So they ended up doing both, to little effect. The missile launched and promptly verred off course and into the water a short distance away, having been damaged by the sudden apperance of a great volumn of water in its launch bay. The missile didn't eplode though, despite not having been disarmed yet.
Inside the PDS, the two ships with duds and the not so disarmed vessel steemed on. The first one about twenty minutes after the PDS's activation reached its launch coordinates. The launch tech, an albino anteater named Micky was a little weirded out by the odd shaking in the missile bay a minute earlier, but shrugged it off to a problem with the ship's engines. He pushed a button and the disguised panel in the ship's deck opened up revealing the deep blackness above. He typed in a code and played with some buttons and the missile was away.
A few moments later the second ship recieved radio confirmation from the first of launch. Still a couple miles from the optimal launch location there was a growing excitement. Prayers were being sung by the more exuberant faithful while chanted quietly by others. The knock out gas was the next interesting addition to the menagerie. The missile bay opened only to recieve a gift chain of grenades, curtesy of the Tinis special forces.
Thankfully for the special forces, that nuclear device, that h-bomb, had been disarmed by the nanites.
It was unfortunate that it was the third ship inside the PDS that had the live weapon. After loss of radio contact with the second ship, and subsequent cries from the first as it was engulfed in fire from the Tinisian coast guard, the third ship inside the barrier decided it was time to fire their weapon.
The heavily modified Latiska missile origionally swiped from Shimandu almost two years previous launched swifty and without a hitch. Designed as a medium range missile, it began its initial climb towards the middle area of the atmosphere without a hitch, traveling almost straight up a good portion of the way.
Kidi Sancrolf turned on the afterburners and upped the throttle as the missile came into view from below. She fired her own missiles, but her fighter wasn't designed to go this high, and neither were the missles. They flew towards the Latiska but exploded before contact, nudging the Latiska slightly off course, but not detering its climb. Closing the distance quickly, climbing at a comperable speed as her quarry, she tried firing the machine guns, which pinged off the reinforced casing, again, only slightly nudging it slightly.
Fuel running low and the missile beginning to level out to begin its primary course, Kidi decided to go for it. Maintaining course and speed she rammed the missile with her fighter.
Over the state of Ropogo a brilliant light appeared in the artificial night. The high altitude detonation quickly scortched with its flash the fields of this part of north Tinis, causing fires over large areas of farm land. The blastwave hit the ground a few minutes later, not as deadly as it could of been had the missile been near its target, but still devestating to the the areas directly under it.
The blast also soon hit the PDS as well. In the PDS control center the techs and scientists who watch over its opperations began recieveing all sorts of odd signals from the device, but no indication of failure. Outside the barrier, where it was more visible, the PDS barrier had a noticable ripple near the blast that soon dissipated.
But the first atomic attack over Tinisian soil had occured. Thousands in the coming days would be found to have died, but for years to come, Kidi Sancrolf and her fighter squadron, as well as the airships Krimus and Centralis would be given high praise for thier attempts to intercept the missile.
The dud fired by the lead ship did eventually find its target, and didn't explode in nuclear hellfire. Instead it imbedded itself in the side of a building in a suburb Altzan and started a small fire.
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Post by miokalia on Aug 20, 2006 3:47:30 GMT -5
Ten miles directly above the Bay of Gohua, a black ring, 200 feet in diameter sat in geosynchronous orbit. Silently, a white beam approached it and stopped in the device's center. Then, through the ring it split into multiple beams. The ring sent the multiple beams scorching across the sky toward their targets. Moments later, the boats outside of the PDS dissappeared without a trace. Eyewitnesses would later claim that gaint white pillars of superheated air decended upon the boats, almost a lighting storm, except, softer and hotter. There wasn't a single detonation in the whole process.
"The HCPC has been deployed, the primary targets have been destroyed", reported Commander Blinn to President Kohastar. "What the hell has happened to the boats that got into the PDS?", asked Kohastar "Information unavailible. No communication has occoured.", said Blinn "I order you to get someone working on that PDS thing anyway. I want us to know how it works and if it's safe.", said Kohastar "Dal President, May I ask why?", asked Blinn. "Because we don't have anything like that on that scale. A dome over a very large area of land, impenetrable by electromagnetic energy, radiation, normal objects. This is very usefull.", said Kohastar "My personal opinion: This must be some kind of application of Doron Physics.", said Blinn "Doron Physics? We invented that for coaxial space travel. It has no other practical application...", said Kohastar "Doron Physics has also resulted in theories for many other things: Gravity tubes, wormholes, borderless finite universes, time-compression/expansion. Maybe they've stumbled across this in the creation of such a device.", said Blinn. "You guys are pretty smart, what's the C.A. think?", asked Kohastar. "C.A. doesn't know. C.A. only figures out what's necessary.", said Blinn. "Do you think the terrorist might know how it works? Do you think they could, you know, use some of our Doron Physics to crack the PDS?", said Kohastar fearfully. "There are no tremendously destructive weapons that use such technology in existence. And I doubt people who would be into 'killing heathens' would at all understand a system of physics which, at it's core, stems from the idea that the universe is vast, finite, yet infinitely repeating and borderless and also, most importantly, lacking a beginning and end. Doron Physics states that there is no beginning or end, it arose out of an atheist culture which beleives that the highest power in the universe is the mathmatical, mechanistic laws that guide everything.", said Blinn "That's not true, I remember reading in high school that Doron Physics was invented by two people, Yatichido Doron, AND Marietta Ravenclaw. Marietta was a Levarkish nunn from Daeron! Someone who lived their entire life in faith, steeped in religious doctrine. She came up with a good portion of the theories. It was Yatichido who tied the theories together and created a system for them to work in. She was the first to propose that the conventional speed of light couldn't apply to wormholes. She was the first to propose that the repetition of matter in space creates four-dimensional wormholes, through her observations. Observations which she claims came to her through a divine vision. Be it a supernatural force that brought this to her, or a sudden stroke of genius, it happened.", said Kohastar, in an unusual, and rare defense of religion. "Marietta Ravenclaw did all of that because she was an intellectual. The lady had an IQ of 196. That's why she figured all of this out. The kinds of religious zealots we are fighting against are dumber than a box of rocks. They couldn't even figure out that they were being used as pawns by their organizations. Dying not for their culture and creator, but rather for the rich, wealthy zealots' entertainment. These people just want to bully around governments, or maybe they just don't like us. They use religious doctrine to get what they want, because religion is important to people, so they pay attention to it. Marietta Ravenclaw was a nunn because she thought it would get her closer to her creator, or at least give her the conditions necessary to become enlightened, appearantly, it worked.", said Blinn. "So what happens now? We've blasted the last of the ships out of the water.", said Kohastar, steering the conversation back to the situation at hand. "Now, we begin our second round of attacks. Our secondary targets.", said Blinn. "Whoa! Wait! This isn't supposed to happen. You are not allowed to execute the Antithesis Plan! I order you to stop! I will have the mandate of the Alliance of Draconid Planets. I can have Palshein Tudenburgh from Dincota on the phone in minutes, he will order you to stop! The Alliance will order you to stop! You can't go against the Alliance! You can't go against the Federation!", yelled Kohastar as he got up. Blinn was already out the door. Kohastar chased right after him, tackling the mechanical raptor in the hall, bringing him to the ground. "No, No, No, NO! No more. No. We are not going to do this. I order you to stop!", he continued.
"Perhaps I should tell you" said the mechanical raptor calmly, "That we have changed the plan."
Kohastar let go of Commander Blinn, he sat against the other wall.
"We will not have to execute the Antithesis Plan as we described to you. We know where the most important parts of the terrorist organizations, RLM and SOL are located. They are in international waters, where their communications are most secure.", said Blinn.
"Oh. So you're not going to start blowing up temples and shrines all over the place.", said Kohastar
"No, that is unecessary. The C.A. determined that such a course of action would cause vastly too much destruction, and potential loss of life. It wouldn't be an efficient way to deal with the terrorists.", said Blinn
"How did you find them?", asked Kohastar.
"Using the video clip from Cal, we were able to extrude a location. The beheading was done aboard a boat in the bay of inleef. From there, we were able to do... some... things. Using some methods which we cannot completely disclose to you.", said Blinn
"That's great, but I'm the president, I order you to disclose your methods to me", said Kohastar
"Remember all that talk about Doron Physics before? Well, one thing that you can do with Doron Physics is treat reletively small periods of time as 2 dimensional space. That means it is possible to visualize, within three dimensions, four dimensions of information. It is possible to access this point in space-time through another point of identical matter-composition. The closer the composition, the more accurate the process is.", said Blinn.
"What the hell did you guys do?", asked Kohastar
"We extruded the location of the boat using a Cosmic Repetition Echo Transform. The same mathmatical process used to navigate coaxial spacecraft. The system that places the B-point of the artifical wormhole. Using that information, we could then trace the boat using our Latent Observation Satellites. Our special observation satellites that sit at various distances from the planet, and are able to locate objects on it using a very powerful photon-compressing telescope. What makes it useful is that we position in to a certain location depending on when the subject to be observed happens in history. For example, if it happened a year ago, we send the telescope out to 1 light-year. We used that to locate the path of the main boat, now we know where they are, and they have no idea", said Blinn.
"Well, then. Fire Away!", said Kohastar "Yargen Dal president!", confirmed Blinn.
Moments later, another beam ascended to the Coleotam Ring. It divided, like it had before, but this time it sent smaller beams across the sky in different directions. In the Bay of Inleef, about halfway between Miokalia and Cal, a yacht sat calmly on the water. Aboard the yacht, a Calie special agent's headless body lay on the deck, after being dragged out from the lower level. "Praise be, a few of our boats got into Tinis before the PDS came down.", said one of the terrorists after hearing the news from the main boat over a short-wave radio. A moment later, they noticed the temperature rising around them. Dismissing it as weather, they continued to wait for word from the remaining ships, which they hadn't heard from for a while, since they had been taken care of by the first blast from the HCPC. In a matter of seconds, it was swealteringly hot, one of the terrorists stepped out to the main deck to look around. What he saw, was a white mass of light, approaching them at several times the speed of sound from directly above. He barely had a second before he, the boat, and everything on it, was vaporized. The Calie airforce noticed this immediately.
Further up, north of the sea of Forr, a small ocean-liner sat on the edge of Pargalonian waters. Aboard it, was the bankroller and commander of part of the terrorist operation. He had managed to get a hold of the hydrogen weapons, and he was the one who commanded them be deployed against Tinis. A similar phenomena occoured to his boat. Except, this time, he knew what it was. "Sir, there seems to be a cloud of high-energy particles approaching us!", reported one of his soldiers. "Damn! How did those infernal machines figure out where we were! Get us into the harbor, Get PED to shoot whatever it is down!" The boat then began heading toward Pargalo, back into Pargalonian waters. The PED did respond, but only with a message. A breif statement over the radio of how they wouldn't dare fly anything into the HCPC. The high commander of the RLM was alone, the beam caught up quickly to the boat, vaporizing it as it did the others. Killing everything on board instantly.
There was a pause in the system for a while, eventually it shut down. But no one declared the mission sucessful, for the PDS wall was still coming down.
The first bit of information from Tinis finally reached Miokalia. It was a surprizingly calm and collected distress call. "There has been a detonation in Tinis.", said Blinn to the President in another emergency cabinet meeting, "Thousands have been killed." "Send aide. Send lots of aide. Get our medicine up there, get food up there. Get water up there. You know what to do.", said Kohastar.
"We now have intelligence to finish this.", said Blinn
"Then finish it." said Kohastar, "I just hope the innocents have the sense to get out of the way."
Blinn nodded and left the room which was silent.
Downstairs, Blinn met up with Kyagga. They had a conversation over the network that went something like this: "There is sufficient intelligence for our species to declare war on Pargalo.", said Kyagga "Since Pargalo is the largest stronghold for SOL, Erenmor will most likely assist us in the invasion.", said Blinn "We will first take out their military strongholds with the HCPC. We will then destroy their infrastructure. They will never be able to produce nuclear weapons again. If they attempt to rebuild it, we must destroy it again.", said Kyagga. "You have my authorization and support in the process. Get them! Do it for Dzegedy, all of the 'M27s that died there. Do it for Erenmor, Do it for Tinis. Do it for the thousands of organics destroyed there. Now it is time for them to pay for the deaths they have caused.", said Blinn Kyagga nodded and took off for the Operations Building in Ellias District. Below the city, Kyagga once again, entered his claw into a black panel on the platform. His authorization was complete and the HCPC device started up again. The Coleotam Ring now had another target to assault. The intelligence-gathering process that the C.A. had done, in conjunction with the data received from Erenmor concluded that the SOL's strongest resources were indeed located in Pargalo.
A rain of charged particles rained down on Pargalo. If it was military, it was on the list. And the Malych never even gave any warning. Entire military bases were vaporized in the maelstrom. Every single nuclear reactor was turned to rubble in an instant. Vast stretches of farm land now had giant molten scars gouged in them. Every single spot on the map where weapons were made became a target, and were soon reduced to molten rubble. The devastation was sudden and instant. The SOL leadership was fragmented, they no longer had the resources to conduct their operations. The skies above Pargalo grew dark as the entire country seemed to be on fire.
"The RLM has been exterminated. The SoL has also been crippled beyond recovery. Now, we wait and allow Erenmor to take what they need from the survivors.", reported Blinn to president Kohastar "We... We just incinerated a quarter of Pargalo. Out of... retribution.", said Kohastar
"The warlords of Pargalo still have a military. This event has merely forced them to save themselves and leave the terrorists they supplied, the SOL and RLM, high and dry. Where we can get them.", said Kyagga
"Now what?", asked Kohastar
"We deploy some ground units to eliminate the panicked terrorists. Erenmor will also join us, they wish to take prisoners for 'interrogation'. The more the better.", said Kyagga.
The mechanical dragon then left the room.
Outside the office, the press began to gather in the press room. A band was brought in as well. Kohastar was to address the nation. His speech was short. After the introduction he said, "Tinis has been attacked by a hydrogen bomb. It was scorched farmland and left radioactive dust in the air above Tinis. This happened while the PDS was active, so the fallout is localized... and therefore worse for the area in which it happened. Thousands have already died. In response to this, and the numerous other attacks which have taken place in the Federation, we, as well as the Empire of Malychis have declared war on the state of Pargalo, which has been harboring and supplying these terrorists. We have already eliminated much of the terrorist leadership and resources, and in the last 12 hours, we have destroyed almost all of Pargalo's stockpile of weapons. The Malych are going to stage a ground-operation along with Erenmor to locate and neutralize any remaining terrorist threat."
After his speech finished, the band struck up with the national anthem. While it was playing, Kohastar asked Secretary Sorenson to place a call to Izixs. "I need to apologize to him; We have attacked his homeland of Pargalo.", he said.
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Post by Erenmor on Aug 20, 2006 19:47:42 GMT -5
A meeting of the command staff was a very unusual thing in Erenmor. In truth, none of the AIs attending remembered even one such occasion, yet here they were, in person, in the Overseer's personal section of Citadel Peak. The cause of the meeting was a bit easier to guess. To say the Overseer was upset would have been an understatement. So far as it is possible for an artificial body to look furious, Onyx looked like he was going to blow his top.
"A massive orbital strike on a foreign nation! Of all the impulsive, half-baked ideas, they went and slagged at least a quarter of another nation!" he yelled. Even if Onyx's chosen form for direct communication wasn't too impressive visually, none of the AIs felt like interrupting him in his current mood. "And they think that'll settle things for good! The idiots aren't just tossing petrol onto the SoL's fire, they're bloody well pumping pure oxygen to it as well... Co im, do ciê¿kiej cholery, do tych ich zakutych ³bów strzeli³o?!" The commanders looked at each other. Onyx using one of Erenmor's unofficial languages. That was new to them too.
"With all due respect, sir, the Miokalian strike has, as far as our reports show, decimated the nation's ability to put up any form of resistance," one of the commanders, Gabriel, spoke up.
"Oh, but it wasn't bloody Pargalo that tried to smuggle in high explosives through our border, was it?" Onyx replied, stepping up to Gabriel quickly, tilting his head up to look at the imposing shell of the AI general. "It wasn't bloody Pargalo that tried to ship two nukes into our territory, was it? It wasn't bloody Pargalo that DETONATED a nuclear weapon scant miles from our borders, was it?!" he yelled, and Gabriel instinctively took a few steps back.
"Logically speaking, sir, such a devastating show of power should force the host nation to sever its ties with SoL, making them a much more vulnerable target," said another AI, Conrad, one of the older commanders after Onyx had been quiet for a few moments.
"If these fanatics were so easily crippled, we would not have spent ten bloody years fighting them off tooth and nail," Onyx replied, quietly this time. "They launched a war of attrition on a fully machine army. Every last one of their followers was perfectly willing to kill and *die* for their cause if need be. They had us outnumbered by a massive amount then. Were it not for our use of chemical weapons on a massive scale, they may very well have won in the end..."
"I made sure no trace of them would be left behind. I oversaw the destruction of their cities, every last trace of their apocalyptic faith. I did everything in my power so that no one, no man, woman or child would survive to carry on their destructive legacy. And yet here we are now..." Onyx went on with a heavy sigh. "Even if those fools in Miokalia had burned Pargalo whole to a crisp, I doubt that would have removed the threat that the SoL pose. There always seems to be a sleeper cell somewhere... No, this problem can't be adressed with fire and sword alone," Onyx shook his head.
"We must *know* what they know," the Overseer picked up after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence. "It may very well be too late for that already, but Pargalo must be locked down completely. No sentient creature can be allowed to leave. No refugees, no returning inspections, *nothing*. Not until we've interrogated every person there. We cannot allow them to slip through our net again."
"The other nations will frown on the idea, sir," yet another AI spoke up, Nathaniel this time.
"Then they can blame Miokalia for forcing us to pick up their slack!" he shouted. "Perhaps this will buy us but a few centuries of peace. Perhaps their future generations will view us as monsters for what we must do. But I will take every step necessary to ensure the safety of this country and if the others don't like it... well, though. They should have dealt with this problem before it got to this."
"Gabriel, assemble a contingent of wraiths, seraphs and archons. Go to Pargalo. Turn the entire country upside down if you must, but ensure you do not miss a single detail. Information must be gathered from every sentient there, no matter who they may claim to be. They may claim to be the president of the bloody federation for all I care, fake ID is common as muck these days. Interrogate everyone," Onyx explained. "Xander, you will take commander Gabriel's posting along the northern defensive line until such a time as the commander completes his duties abroad," the Overseer added, turning to the fox that had been standing quietly off to the side so far. "We cannot risk leaving our borders undefended in such a time... I will explain the situation to Miokalia and inform them what we expect done by the time our contingent arrives there."
***
"I will get straight to the point," Onyx said, in yet another message for the Miokalian government. "When you started slagging that country, you should have bloody well finished it. While we assemble a detachment to weed out the SoL from Pargalo, *you* need to make sure that nothing sentient and organic leaves that country. Let in whoever you want, but let not a single soul out until they have been cleared by our interrogators. This is a necessary measure. The SoL leadership by now must realise its position has been compromised and no doubt will seek asylum elsewhere. Let me be absolutely clear on this, we CANNOT allow a single Servant to leave the country to spread their faith elsewhere. That is all for the time being. Message ends."
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Aug 20, 2006 20:58:27 GMT -5
Izixs sat behind a desk, wearing something resembling a suit.
"My fellow Tinisians.
"Roughly at twelve fourty nine today, an atomic tipped missile was intercepted by one of our fighters above the state of Ropogo. The fighter pilot of that craft Kidi Sancrolf, sacrificed herself to save millions by colliding her fighter on a collision course with the missile. We are in her debt.
"The missile was launched from a ship roughly eighty miles north of there in the Sea of Forr, just inside the perimeter of the PDS.
"We were alerted by our allys of this ship and several like it approching our boarder. Other ships in this fleet were also bound for Miokalia, Erenmore, and likely elsewhere. Upon being alerted we acted as quickly as we could to activate the PDS but it was already two late, three ships had penetrated our defenses.
"Our allies were successful in defusing at least one, possibly two of the warheads that had penetrated the perimeter, but the last had not been defused before its launch. We sent anything and everything we could to try to shoot it down or intercept it, but it managed to come over Tinisian soil a few minutes after launch. There it was intercepted finally and detonated over the countryside.
"I regret to inform you that over five thousand have been either reported or feared dead as of this time. The radiation wave scrotched and burned the countryside of central Ropogo. It was soon after followed by a pressure wave that leveled a number of small towns and villages across the area.
"The detonation was in the middle atmosphere and thus its effects easily reached great distances. And the blast was visible even in Arx. There is a great concern that its effects will not fully be known for weeks or even years as a large region of northern Tinis may have received unsafe doses of radiation exposure.
"I have asked Commander Delbrook to oversee the disaster recovery efforts personally with Supreme Commander Epshrin's blessings. Even now radiological workers are moving into the devestated areas to search for survivors while medically able furs from across Tinis are converging on the surrounding areas to assist as best they can."
Izixs pauses and takes a sip of water from the glass on the desk.
"I have recieved news that several members of the Furry Federation have struck back at targets associated with the organizations believed to be responsible for these attacks. Among their targets was the nation of Pargalo. These strikes were carried out primarily by the nation of Miokalia using a space based energy weapon. The nation of Pargalo has suffered heavily losses as far as we can tell.
"Despite these strikes, the council of commanders does not feel the threat has past. As such, I will allow continued use of the PDS for the time being. Modulation for minimal communications has been established recently upon which we were informed of the occurances abroad."
A steady sigh. "I would like to make a request of you Tinis. I would like to request that we remain calm now and in the days ahead. A second missile was indeed launched after beind disarmed either by Miokalian efforts or our own and it landed in the city of Altzan in the Furry Federation territory, which convienietly for those there, is still incorperated in the PDS perimeter.
"The missile that detonated over Ropogo was believed to have been targeted either for the city of Pargalo [named after the Tinisian homeland fyi], Hall, Centralis, or even possibly Arx itself.
"The Union of Tinis will not bow to the whim of terrorists and will not break under the terror and fires brought on by extermists. Our democratic system has protected us for a generation and it shall not decay to the insanity of the few.
"We thought we had ended the threats of underground groups when they raised their head in Ciata. We thought after the Furry blast that the nuclear attacks were over. But we were wrong on both counts. I hope the chamber will join me in a strategic redeployment of our forces. It pains me to abandon our allies in Lemurly and Ciata, but we were broadsided by these elements and must act quickly to exterminate threats to our way of life. My advisors and allies in the chamber are even now in intense debate on what course of action we should take.
"My personal recommendation is to engage the nation of Pargalo promptly and adequately, destroying any agents of the current regime there in and any individuals connected to the Severants of Light whom may reside there presently. We should also push forward quickly to coordinate our efforts there for the a more effective campaign.
"We should also redouble our intelligence efforts and adjust our focus there in to better persue elements such as the Servants of Light and their allies. Clean up opperations after the Ciata incidents have nearly been completed and we must move quickly now to finish them and put our focus on the new threat.
"Finally, despite all the grim news there is one hope that may have come from these tragic events. Though it may seem as little consolation to many, the PDS did recieve a good deal of the blast wave from the nuclear explosion, and it did not fail. Our worst fears about a possible fallibility of the Pattern Defense System have been quieted by this knowledge. The stresses may have induced some minor feed back into the system, but not enough to damage or break the barrier which protects us."
Light starts growing behind the First Speaker as the PDS is adjusted to let in sunlight.
"What more, the resonance observed in the PDS has given us new insight into the system equation and its inner workings. One must hope that perhaps its final solutions will lead us to know how to heal the damage that was done to us by the discovery of this information.
"I hope that this evening while we are safest from these mad persons, that we take the time to mour the deaths of those who fell today, as I have grave doubts that we'll be able to take such time shortly.
"Praise be the ideals of Tinis, and the people of it. Thank you."
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Post by miokalia on Aug 21, 2006 1:33:12 GMT -5
There were protests outside the capitol building and presidential manor that day. Thousands of protestors had gathered in response to the use of the HCPC against Pargalo. Gladarus Zagckza came in to the office. He said, "I have recevied information that Onyx is in disagreement with C.A. as to the way we deployed the C.A." "Yeah, well we have many a small disagreement really. I would imagine C.A. and Onyx are not perfectly inline with every subject matter.", said Kohastar "Onyx is a different kind of A.I. with a developmental history that ours. Disagreement is to be expected. Onyx would have rather had us decimate the entire nation of Pargalo.", said Zagckza "I'd say you did enough. Yeah, the ideology may still be there. That's what ground-work is for. The point of this attack was to incapacitate their military capacities and destroy the weapons they would have given to the SOL and RLM.", said Kohastar "In that objective: We have suceeded. There isn't a single nuclear, biological, chemical or electromagnetic weapon left in the entire country.", said Zagckza "Congratulations.", said Kohastar "Onyx has requested that we secure the borders of Pargalo. They wish to conduct, from what I can tell, a mass-interrogation.", said Zagckza. Kohastar leaned back in his chair and said, "I suppose we have a disagreement then. Their interrogation methods, while very effective and quite thorough, are a bit... unpleasent." "I will request that Erenmor use non-invasive scanning methods on non-suspicious persons, so that they may save their energy for promising leads. Although, at this time, C.A. does not wish to interfere with Erenmor's data-gathering procedures, C.A. beleives that Erenmor's interrogation procedure will be the most effective way to completely eliminate the SOL. There is one slight modification, the C.A. wants to send medical assistence to Pargalo once it is occupied. It wants to initiate a mandatory-nation-wide, forced immunization project.", said Zagckza "What, now we're going to say we're sorry to the poor innocent people there who didn't have the sense to get out of the way by immunizing them against Polio?", asked Kohastar. "We are doing this so that we may introduce a genetic vector into the population. One derived from a genetic uniqueness in your species. Specifically, a gene found in all sentient-capable species, a gene which is uniquely rearranged in Dincotians, specifically those from Kohtohkoh Hakaron.", said Zagckza. "The god gene. The gene that lends someone the capacity to override their rational mind with ecstatic experience for an extended period of time. Dincotians don't have this capability, because the gene is not intact. In Dincotians, the 'god gene' is recessive, and became bred-out of the population with the expansion of the Kohtohkhan language and eventual mixing of cultures on that planet. That's why the most successful religious ideologies that have come out of Dincota have been purely rational, science-friendly and therefore reletively tolerant in nature. What you're saying is: since we can't strip them of a culture suceptible to making terrorists, then we change their psychology so that such a culture no longer works for them. I think they would call this 'playing god'.", said Kohastar "Then they would be incorrect. This proposition is just pragmatism.", said Zagckza. "Then send the vectors to Erenmor, they can administer the 'vaccine' when they do their interrogation.", said Kohastar. "You would never do this to your own people, would you.", said Zagckza as he began leaving the room. Looking back at the window, hearing the shouts from the protestors, he said, "Clearly, I won't ever have to. We've already beat this in our own culture a very, very long time ago.", said Kohastar
On the border of Pargalo, several squadrons of 'M49s, (The 'M27 models' larger, more advanced cousins) were deployed to secure it. The units were ordered to stop anyone escaping, however, by order of the C.A., deadly force was only to be used on those caught escaping with dangerous materials or weapons. As a result, many a terrified refugee found themselves chased down by the Tyrannosaurus-shaped machines, then picked up by the M49's jaws and tossed back in toward the border, or dropped off for swarms of raptor-like M27 units to carry to high-security refugee-camps placed inside the border. Most refugees would give up at that point, since the refugee camps proved to be safer than anywhere else in the country. It was a service toward the innocent, simple fold-out aluminum shelters were placed in designated camp areas. The refugees eventually figured out that seeking refuge in these camps was a way of telling the foreign forces that they were willing to comply. They were safe from being accidentally attacked here, although security was incredibly tight. M27 units prowled the camps, keeping a very close eye on all activities. There was no privacy here. The agreement was, the Malych units would protect the innocent, as long as the innocent complied with all commands. No weapons were allowed in the camps, and the sick and wounded had to be handed over to Malych care, no questions asked. The M27s securing these small camps were instructed to shoot-to-kill at anyone who posed a threat to the safety of the Malych units, or the camps. In conjunction with the M49s patrolling the border and detering refugees from jumping it, there were airborn units deployed. These mechanical dragons were small and served as surveillance units. They would spot refugees and then send the location information to the M49s to intercept them. The entire process worked with incredible efficiency. In order to supply the military demand of the operation, the C.A. ramped up production of M27s and M49s. The Malych Operation Reservations could crank-out forty M27 units and fifteen M49 units a day, each. And that wasn't even at full production capacity.
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Post by Erenmor on Aug 21, 2006 19:19:47 GMT -5
Selection of the detachment going to Pargalo took about two days. Assembling means of transport took a further day, as Erenmor did not have the habit of sending its troops far abroad and as such, did not constantly maintain vehicles capable of such actions. That is not to say they did not have designs for the vehicles, of course. Beyond that, it took another day before the entire contingent was unloaded and operating in Pargalo.
***
The large planes that touched down at the main Miokalian base in Pargalo were little more than cargo haulers on the inside, perfect for mechanical troops but less so for organic soldiers. Of course, for the current operation, they were more than sufficient.
General Gabriel was the first to disembark from the first plane. In his chosen form, he could have easily stood up to 9 feet tall, though with the digitigrade feet with this shell he looked a bit shorter. His head seemed small compared to the rest of his form, set in deep between his broad shoulders, the protective hood retracted presently, showing the face made up of number of smaller metallic plates allowing for some array of facial expressions. A shoulder-mounted cannon of some sort was currently retracted to his back and from the bulky build of his shell, it was likely he had more than that one weapon.
"As soon as the materiel lands, get to work assembling facilities for the mind probes," he commanded in a low voice to the golems that were disembarking after him. With them came sleek 7-foot tall humanoids covered head to toe with silvery grey plating with an intricate pattern of softly glowing blue lines. The Archon-pattern stormtroopers. Their weapons were short carbines with oddly large barrels and barely visible small clips. They went about checking the security of the area while the Golems waited patiently for their supplies.
It would be a long time before he could return to his watch posts in northern Erenmor, Gabriel realised. Then he went to find the Miokalian in charge of the base to discuss interrogation procedures.
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Aug 22, 2006 1:07:07 GMT -5
The phone rings moments after Izixs puts it down. The light on the front pannel signals its from the Furry Federation Council hall.
"Waldo I hope you have good news."
"Sort of. Yerzok was able to signal the network and it will hopefully activate our agents in Pargalo soon. The army and airforce units, I've been informed, are leaving the skeleton crews on the Ciatan boarder. There's not much military hardware left in Shimandu anyway so I don't think we'll see much of a problem. Lemurly based units are also on their way presently and are being airlifted to the staging point in Wynnesia. The northern fleet is already much closer and very near Pargalonian territorial waters."
The white dragon stares off into space for a moment. "What are the other governments up to? What's their rules of engagement."
"Well to be honest with limited communications even with the short ranger here, the military has been dominating the channel else its been the represenatatives checking back home."
"Have you talked to the represenatives much?"
"Alot of them have been in flurries of activity in their offices or bothering the security guards about not having primary communication rights. But I did corner the fellow from Miokalia for a bit and he was about as clueless as I was for the most part about what's going on outthere. But he's confirmed that what we had long thought to be space junk left over from the early Miokalia days was in fact the weapon they used. A coordination thing with a surface based instillation. Analyist Mab doesn't seem up to confirming such with me. I guess we'll find out eventually."
"Anything else?"
Waldo sighs. "Erenmore wants to do interrogations in Pargalo."
"Ah. I heard they're techniques can be invasive at times. Very invasive."
"I guess we'll see soon what techniques they'll use," stated Waldo.
"How about Peanisula? The wet ones have anything to say?"
"Not really. They took my call but their rep couldn't say anything we didn't already know."
-----
A mountain lion of seven feet nears the Miokalian line with his hands up. He stops about fifteen feet from where he observed the last reugee was turned back.
"I am Agent Mrag of Tinis. I've been in Pargalo on special assignment for the last four years. I wish to speak to someone in charge. I have potentially vital information to relay to you."
A short time later the mountain lion is sitting in a tent before several low level Miokalian officers, handcuffed just in case.
"So why don't you have any indentification?" asks the first of the trio.
"Simple, its a liability. My identification is my knowledge. My code is May seventeenth, nineteen twenty one, twelve thirty p.m. And my mother's name is Jurin and her mainden name is Gossimal."
A few confused looks by the officers. The one with the computer types furiously for a few minutes before nodding. "That works. You are of course supposed to be dead. But I have to ask, did you actually write 'Cooking with marshmellows?'"
"Yes actually," the Tinisian spy said with a laugh. "You have to. Makes it work so much better. Though I must admit some of the creative uses for the blasted things that I found out in doing that book did come in handy the last couple years. Alright so my deep cover is officially blown."
"What was your mission?" said the second officer, the highest ranked one in the room.
"To observe the populace of the town of East End mainly. But my real duties was to be an information collection point. Its hard to get info out of the watched areas easily so we have an agent or two become the deposit point for a great deal of low level and non-urgent but useful information. Then aftr a seven months agents like me would make contact with the outside world through some means of which I must keep secret still, and relay the information. As such, I may be very useful in providing info on things you might not have information on but would like to."
"Well, what is the current situation?" asks the third officer, the one with the computer.
"The fire dance has indeed caused a great deal of chaos. So things may have change a bit. But the jist of things is that Jirie and Wune are still effectively in control of about eighty percent of the country, with the exceptions being this area, the frozen highlands, and a few spots where the destruction left little to control.
"Jirie to my knowledge is still very much alive in a manner of speaking. He's for over a decade been engaging in some unusual medical work to extend his life and to combat his failing health, probably longer than a decade really. Wune is actually dead, but that hasn't stoped the grandson of a cousin of his from continuing on in his stead, and adopting the name.
"As for those religious people that have been causing a ruckous I hear, some have been working with Jirie for almost a year now. There's maybe ten of their type in the whole country at most. They didn't much care for Jirie and Wune's domestic policy on faiths not involving themselves. But Jirie has given them aid when asked, I don't know what kind exactly because I'm here and our guys watching Jirie over that way a ways. But my guess would be that he either wanted to eventually get them to help him with his rivalry with Wune, to strike at enemies he couldn't reach, or even to carry out his personal vision of a dark world. Did I mention its a foregone conclusion that he's gone insane by this point? Yeah, that's an important thing to remember."
"Well, what kind of resistance can we expect?"
"A lot. Wune's very good at indoctrination despite being dead. Even if half the Pargalonian army was whipped out, you'd have to take out the rest of it before they'd stop fighting. And who he doesn't indoctrinate, he's done things to elsewise. Kill switches in entire towns. The right signal is sent out and a village of scarred, meek people suddenly experience a knife cutting their main arteries from the inside. This area is kind of lucky as neither of the despots bother with them. No real resources on the south point here, just hills and like three trees, and a bunch of half starved furs. I was stationed a bit furthur north. A lot more of their military types there. Saw one of their bases a fire the other day, thought it would be a good idea to see if I was needed, and I am.
"Ten miles up the way you'll likely hit your first real fighting forces. Was about thirteen thousand pre-fire dance. Their weapons are crap, but some of them are very crafty. They're mainly loyal to Wune in these parts you see. Beyond that, will likely change.
"We've suspected for a year that they might have the bomb in some form too. If the fake Wune thinks you're getting to close to capturing him... or her... will likely split and set one off mid country, or if cornered, sit on it, laugh, and blow it up anyway. Jirie on the other hand, if he has one, would stick to the second option."
Some more conversation is had but not much more of immediate strategic interest can be had. But the spy did leave them with one last bit of advice.
"Be careful. Your best option to take any of Pargalo without a massacure is to be quick and quiet. Also, keep an eye out for our other agents. There's a couple dozen throughout the country. They'll know how to contact you when you show. I don't know their methods though, so don't ask."
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