Setting Up the Grid

[Ixnill]

Todesstadt, a bustling metropolis of economic growth. Throughout it, numerous skyscrapers and arcologies were erected to dominate the skyline. Ranging from bright silvers to dark steels, it was a truly marvelous sight, but not beautiful. Smog often lingered around the middle floors of the tallest buildings, often blocking sunlight from reaching the streets.

Todesstadt was amidst the only survivable land in Ixnill, a thin coastal strip that ran the length of the peninsula's tip. Further inland, nuclear wastelands left over from the very recent Revolution dominated the countryside. Only the most hardy of souls dared attempt to tame and live in that dead wilderness.

Now, within the Central Tower of Todesstadt, a great behemoth of a building that dwarfed everything else around it, a dark plot was hatching. The Leader of the Revolution, Kojiro Hollenfeuer, was looking over the final plans of her grand scheme. The highly voluptuous black jaguar sat in her extremely comfortable chair behind her huge desk that held the schematic printouts of Project Wargrid.

"The world will be our oyster once these are in the air," she said, a finger running gently over one of the sheets that showed the various profiles of the machines she and her government had designed. A small smile crossed her red painted lips. "No one will be able to do anything once their operational."

"Of course," stated Crocanna Fleshrend, head of Ixnill's weapons development complex. A scaled hand moved to brush back a few strands of blonde hair. "As expected, you'll have total control of the sky when they're up and ready."

Kojiro nodded to the woman. "Make it done then. Deploy the satellites."

Crocanna bowed. "Of course. I'll give the order myself."

She turned, and the echoes of her high heels sounded her departure. Kojiro was left alone with her thoughts and a swivel in her chair brought her to face the Toddestadt skyline.

Any moment, now, she thought to herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The control center for Ixnill's national defenses was a large chamber filled with high tech computer terminals and one master vidscreen and access panel. It was this master panel that Crocanna walked toward while her staff busied themselves around the chamber, taking their operation stations in case of emergency. Reaching the panel, the attractive crocodile entered her password and selected the file "Project Wargrid."

For a moment she stopped to think about the morality of what she was about to enact and all the billions of lives that would be affected by it. Certainly it would ensure that Ixnill would be safe and secure for all time, but it could also be easily abused. Nevertheless, she had her orders and after staring at the phrase "Execute?" for a few seconds, she finally typed in "yes."

Upon that command, numerous rockets were immediately launched from areas throughout Ixnill. At first it would seem to others that entire missile silos had been emptied, but that fact would have been more benign. The rockets passed through the sky and then the upper limits of the atmosphere until they achieved the vacuum of space. Each of them opened up and released a single high tech satellite armed to the teeth with antimatter cannons. Each one was safely cocooned in an energy shield that would ensure their protection from enemy warheads.

Quickly the satellites spread out around the planet, forming an intricate grid that monitored the world below. Each one was positioned in a perfect geosynchronous orbit. Project Wargrid was finally online after years of development.

[Kingdoms of Cal]

In Cal a test of the Silver Stat occurred, a new weapon, it was a very simple weapon. All it did was to send a projectile into counter geosynchronous orbit, it was targeted at an old communication satellite. The ex-boomer the HMS omega launched.

'Unfortunately' one of the new satellite's had moved into position between the uncontrolled projectile and the target. The projectile was travailing at 1.08 km/s it and the satellite had twice that impact speed, travailing in opposite directions as they were. The 500 kg projectile struck the shield and was deflected, sending the satellite careering into a massively eccentric orbit as hundred of several thousand joules of energy were transferred from the smaller projectile to the satellite.

Panic ensued in mission control as the satellite struck one of it's compatriots shields sending it into and equally eccentric orbit. Both satellites were out of control and could not be contacted. The mission experts predicted the orbits, both were going to manage escape velocity and be flung into space. The projectile was now being tracked as it had entered the atmosphere at massive speed and was heading to centre of the the continent. A few seconds later most of the fed nations registered what appeared to have been a meteor strike, or perhaps from the speed a small commit.

---
Salato (Cals PM) was informed of the 'mishap' she immediately sent a message to Ixnill command, it read "One of our test seems to have damaged one or more of you satellites, I offer a full apology.

I would ask how ever though that in future if you plan to deploy things over the southern ocean you please inform us and the other SOTO members before hand.

Yours
Prime Minister Eye Salato en"

---

After sending the message Salato asks "Do we have any more of those?"
"Twenty three" Sea lord Za replied "But we have more in production, The Omega is our only one at the moment but the HMS Vengeance and HMS Destruction are being retrofitted to take them."
"Good... you knew they would work?" Salato says.
Sea lord Za (who is actually female, the title is asexual and translating them is tricky) says smiling "Well lobbing a lump of heavy hard stuff at things has never not worked. If in doubt use a bigger hammer, we figured a hammer that big would work on most things. If it didn't work we would just make a bigger one."
Salato smiles and says "Well at least the navy hasn't changed if in doubt make it bigger"
"Oh yes the HMS Sae and HMS Teu are due to be commissioned, you should see them."
"Why?"
"Have you ever seen a mile long dreadnought? "
"Ah"

[Ixnill]

Prime Minister,

We are fully aware of the situation. The satellite had still been moving into place when the situation occured. Foreign governments were not contacted about the project for reasons of national security. Currently we are working to remedy the setback on our project.

- Ambassador Petria Eksion

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kojiro was furious. Already she had the control panel for Ixnill's thermonuclear arsenal open on her desk and was ready to press the button that would send a number of warheads hurtling towards Cal. It was Crocanna who promptly put her claws in the way to block the attempt.

"Please, Fearless Leader, don't take this drastic action," the crocodile protested. "For all accounts and purposes, it was an accident... one that could not be foreseen. The magnetic lock had not been achieved on the two satellites yet before they were sent careening away. Had it been a few seconds later, this would not have happened."

Kojiro drooled a bit, salivating for carnage and destruction. "I... have... a hole... in my grid."

"Only a minor hole," replied Crocanna softly. She knew Kojiro had a fiery temper that knew no limits, but she knew it'd be disastrous if it led to a war at this moment. "We can retrieve the satellites on their current trajectory. Once we have them, we can place them in their proper positions and magnetic lock for the two devices will be immediate. The grid will be complete."

Kojiro narrowed her eyes for a moment, a low growl erupting from the jaguar's throat. Thoughtfully, her paw edged away from the panel and with a switch, closed it, the covering meshing with the rest of her desk as it had never been there. Finally, she sighed. "Send up a ship to retrieve our two wayward satellites."

Crocanna smiled. "At once, Fearless Leader."

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Ixnill's remaining satellites noted one of the super carrier groups, three escort carrier groups and two destroyer squadrons leave the blockade of K IX and simply disappear.

With them went three cruisers, a fleet was moving, as did a disturbance in the water that suggested another large ship was moving now, but disappeared soon.

The Calie navy was carrying out standing orders to ensure the protection of Cal no matter the cost.

Alarm bells were going off in miokalia.

Cals three remaining true boomer scattered and hid. They were not due to have their H-bombs decommissioned yet, Cal had stuck by there FF treat obligations as were removing there nuclear weapons....apparently Ixnill had not.

But Cal read targeted there remaining H-Bombs.

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Just as the crippled Ixnill satellites pass over the southern ocean contact is lost and they fall into the ocean, like they were hit by a meteor. Two minutes after two blasts were detected in Cal.

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Crocanna is approached by a quiet iguana who says "This can only lead to war."
Crocanna nods "things can be fixed, if you wish. but if you would rather not." it said
Crocanna looks quizzical and then does the maths. This was an epsilon agent, but she could not prove it, she knew there would be nothing to prove what is was and knew the agents never spoke even under torture as they never knew anything.

She had a chance to stop the escalation in front of her.

[Ixnill]

Kojiro Hollenfeuer stared at the Wargrid feed on the holographic screen on her desk. It was a confusing picture due to the two missing satellites, but what she saw raked at her rampant paranoia. She was half-convinced the world was rapidly moving against her for the satellite launch, concerned that they somehow might know of Project Wargrid's secret purpose. It was a ridiculous fear to have, but an itch at the back of her mind tempted to reopen her controls for Ixnill's thermonuclear arsenal... there was no Crocanna here to stop her now, after all.

Instead she opened the communications panel and opened a channel with her national defense center. "What the hell are they doing down there?" she asked frantically, almost revealing a hint of her paranoia. First humans had been the enemy, now the outside world... it would continue to scale upwards until there was nothing left in the universe to project her hatred towards.

"We're not sure, Fearless Leader," replied someone in the war room. "As far as we can guess, it's possibly a maintenance recall from their K IX blockade. Nothing to be concerned about."

Kojiro simply took in a deep breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Toddestadt's downtown starport, a Scythe-class scavenger ship was entering launch sequence. The crew had been briefed thoroughly on their mission... retrieve the wayward satellites and position them where they need to go. Captain Krilos expected it to be a simple, routine mission. He had little worry of anything going wrong.

When the launch sequence was completed, the ion thrusters powered up and took the ship into the sky and beyond. Moments passed, and Captain Krilos felt settled in his command chair. The vigilant tiger watched the viewscreen charting the paths of the satellites in space, and he lifted a brow in response to what he saw.

"Are those... re entering the atmosphere?" he asked one of his officers.

"Looks like it," responded one in puzzlement. "This is confusing, because they were on an escape velocity. But now they're on their way to the Southern Ocean."

"I suspect interference," Krilos stated flatly. "Take us back into the atmosphere and on their splash zones. We can't let those satellites fall into foreign hands."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Kojiro," said a familiar voice.

The jaguar lifted her head and met the eyes of her head of weapons development, Crocanna Fleshrend. She tilted her head curiously. "Yes, Crocanna?"

"I fear our security's been compromised," the crocodile responded. "There's a foreign agent among us. I'm certain of it...."

"Who?"

"Mr. Talon."

Kojiro grimaced, always thinking the iguana had a funny look about him. Immediately she placed in a call to security. "Apprehend Mr. Talon. We have reason to suspect he's a spy."

[Kingdoms of Cal]

The calie officers smiled, Ixnill intel was bad, they knew exactly where the remains of the satellites were. Under the southern ocean, their home turf, it was not like they were worth retrieving the impact with the sea had utterly destroyed them, though the blast had be visible for hundred of miles.

Cal quietly put it's forces on alert, TA regiments were being called as cal moved to a war footing. No announcement just a few calls, the air force quietly moved to alert, it all looked like an exercises it was a Friday night, when the TA and militia/tribal forces did these kind of things. It could easily be wound down and be put down as an excise.

Otherwise Cal had shown it's ability to move to a war footing in a matter of hours.

[miokalia]

The Doblaron Malych Ops reservation was about as fortified as Soulforge in Erenmor. It also featured a passive defense system, which automatically activated without confirmation.

President Phong had to be talked down from a seething rage by Salato after the long-distance air-traffic-control satellites found the orbital weapons over Miokalian airspace.
When the satellite moved over the Ops Reservation, 16 rockets full of tiny ball-bearing-like objects launched towards it.
Upon reaching a speed of 14,000 miles per hour in the vacuum of space, the rockets detonated with a shaped charge. Releasing millions of the ball bearings in a cloud, and sweeping the satellite off course.

In Dincotian policy, parking a weapons system in their territory was an unofficial declaration of war. Andertol declared that MSNADI be brought onto full capacity. Seeing as Ixnill was non-compliant with the nuclear weapons ban.

Andertol made a call to KZ to inform them of what they likely already knew about the weapon orbiting over Liger City.

Blinn, a mechanical t-rex gazed out the windows of the building known as the 'ice tray' in Zye.
There were colorful neoparisian canyonettes, townhomes and shops on the first floor. Thousands of bicycles and scooters and weird-looking little cars.
Salato could be irritating at times, there were things they did which were irresponsible. But across the bay, things weren't all that different. Salato looked over her charge. An ancient city with cobblestone streets and closely packed townhomes and apartments, streets filled with bicycles, furs, carts and tiny weird-looking cars. People who lived for the moment, and beleived in many of the same rights, in general.
"What right do they think they have to do this", he asked his board,
A grey fox, Lieutenant Chon, A brown mechanical fox, H4TC4, and a raptor, Secretariat Tycho Nadara.
"We don't hang shit over their heads, they don't get to do it to us.

Is MSNADI online?"

"Yes", said Chon

"Confirmed satellites?", asked Blinn.

"Over Eyla, the one over Doblaron has been moved off course. Liger City, I'm sure KZ is already working on that one.
I think we saw one on the western border of Tinis", said Chon.

"This is an attempt to destroy the world. Plain and simple there is no other logical explanation", Blinn said. He turned emotional response off before he started screaming, "An attempt to destroy the world goes against our purpose to preserve intelligence. This will be stopped."

"We were able to see that they have launched a ship to correct the tragectory of the satellites.", said Nadara, "Malychedar is sending something over. I think we're going to have 5 Haxxar-VI's leave coaxial above us. Doblaron has a Cetacion-III up at about 70,000 feet right now.
Phong has suggested that they follow orders to release mines."

"They nuked their own land to oblivion over a revolution which is apparently fruitless. They are not going to share their entropy with the rest of the world. We can't allow it.", said Blinn.

"Have we talked to them yet?", asked H4TC4.

"We will.", said Blinn.

"Fuck we will", said Andertol, entering the room,
"I want the MZS Ellis and the MZS Fhtagn in the sea of Forr now, and then once they are there, I want them to stop every single ship belonging to Ixnill. Get Cal and that navy they're always bragging about up there, if they aren't already.
Where the hell is Malychedar?"

"They're on their way", said Blinn.


----


Official message from the Socialist Technocracy of Miokalia.

The act of placing orbital weapons over our airspace is an unprovoked act of aggression and will not be tolerated.

We are in the process of removing all of your orbital weapons over our airspace. You are not permitted to enter the airspace over Miokalia or any Southern Ocean Treaty Organization nation for any purpose, and any craft you send into this airspace, which includes space, will be intercepted or destroyed.
Any deployment of Nuclear missiles will result in the deployment of the MSNADI defensive countermeasure system. And following that, Use of weapons of mass destruction without concern for life and property will be authorized.
We ask that you remove the entire system, as there are other nations which may react more violently and less reasonably.

[Ixnill]

OOC: Added to my post a bit to include your extra responses.

IC:

Captain Krilos' scavenger ship's shields glimmered on re-entry into the planet's atmosphere. Swiftly it soared through the sky, closing in with the Southern Ocean. It came to an abrupt and jarring halt to hover over the sea's surface by just a few meters, inertial dampers negating the Gs that would have been caused by maneuvers in lesser advanced vessels.

Captain Krilos stood and began shouting out his orders. "I want a team of men into the Hyena. The scout should be large enough to pull the satellites or their wreckage aboard. You have the trajectory, so it shouldn't be hard to locate their crash sites."

The command crew moved to relay the orders to the Hyena's scout team. The three anthros moved to ready their gear and boarded the Hyena, one of the four scout ships carried by the scavenger. The Hyena promptly debarked from the scavenger ship and descended into the water. Below, they would begin their search for the two satellites.

[Ixnill]

Message to Miokalia,

The satellites are no threat to you or any other members of the Furry Federation. They are part of Ixnill's international defense program. The weapons are designed to take out enemy projectiles from wherever the source, terrestrial or extra-terrestrial. There was strictly no malice intended.

- Ambassador Petria Eksion

[The Union of Tinis]

Supreme Commander Epshrin walked into an already assembled council of commanders. The First Speaker and National Auditor were also in attendance.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice," began the wolf. "Earlier today the nation of Ixnill launch a number of rockets that released satallites. Such events are highly unusual, even for such a disrupted nation. Strategic Air Command was alerted early and with good response time. They quickly determined the tragectories of the rockets was not in a ballistic missile configuration but were kept on high alert all the same. Upon the release of the satallites most of us were breathing easier.

"But our story doesn't end there folks. The satallites began to take up a grid formation around the globe, over our continent and others. Most saught geosycronis orbits. A couple were disrupted, likely by a Cal projectile. Observer two was in the area but was not oriented to view the collision. It was reoriented after our ground based tracking of the satallites lost track of it, and it was just in time to see the billiard like strike of the first missing satallite with another. Obviously Cal was in the mood of knocking these things out of the sky quickly and with style. Thousands of miles of seperation between pebels is quite a shot to make.

"Lenord?"

A fox wearing civilian looking clothing stood up. He was Command Ovrin Lenord, head of Tinisian space forces. "Observer 2 tracked both satallites after impact and observed some unusual things about their paths. After the collision the trajectories were not newtonian. External, or likely internal, forces were acting on them. As we didn't see any thruster bursts, one of our techs took at some readings from near by satallites and found unusual electromagnetic pulses that weren't there before. We're still analyzing but it could be some sort of locolized magnetic bottle system."

Lenord took a deep breath. Only the dragon in the room seemed to get the last part. "Its complicated but basically they have an interconnectedness using magnetic forces in a very non-standard way. I suspect system equation use for containing the gradients and curls so tightly. Thankfully no pucons were detected.

"There's also the issue of the intactness of devices. An impact like that should rip a satallite apart. But instead they bounced off whole. This implies there is more to these things than is obvious. We don't think its PDS type barriers, but some sort of shielding system may be in place."

"How do you know it was Cal whom fired the first one off?" asked Commander Vinlia.

"Backtracking the trajectories and a little inferencing. The initial bomp might of been accidental even. We don't know right now. Things are moving very quickly from what I understand so we haven't exactly got the right gal on the phone in Cal to ask about it. But Observer four has found a likely source of something that could of started the bouncing. And it may very well of struck again as one of the moving satallites decided to change coure radically near aphelion."

"Thank you," said Epshrin who was a little annoyed the fox was using so much jargon. "I've looked at the pattern the satallites are forming and it is a global network. I, and Yerzok's people, have looked at the images from observe one of some of these things." The old wolf tosses out a few copies of the pictures in question onto the table. "If that isn't a barell of a gun I don't know what else it could be. Short yes, but there's no optics inside it, and no route to an exhaust system or thruster. We can only assume these things are weapons."

Admiral Markos raised his paw. "The Cali seem a little worried about space weaponry just suddenly? I mean Miokalia has a big laser thing. Paenisula has a bunch of platforms. What's the deal?"

"I can probably answer that," answered First Speaker Izixs. "Paenisula doesn't place their platforms routinely in orbit above neighbors for extended periods of time, nor do they arrange them across the globe by accident. And Miokalia has just the one primary device there. They have other orbital machinery near by but nothing like their ring system. So everyone knows, I will keep near the phone until this situation is resolved in the event the PDS is needed."

Commander Krazgalesh nodded, "Should we call Meriko of Shikeishuu? This may be a good reason to have the federation wide Pattern Defense System on stand by."

"That might be a good idea, yes. I will do such after we leave this meeting," answered Izixs.

"But," added Lenord. "The continental sized PDS has one draw back, it exits the atmoshphere over a large region in the center of the continent. Basically, right over us, the centeral federation, and that includes Shikeishuu. I should check to see if a federation sized bubble would reach high enough to include these buggers. If they have their own means of making their pattern rigid then they might be looking to move to a close orbit very soon."

"Alright everyone," said Epshrin as he stood, his ears back and a grim look on his face. "Lets not have another Ropogo here. Everyone is to be on highest alert. Usil, Vinlia, Kraz, have your forces ready for immediate scatter if need be. Admirals, be ready for the same, but also prep all transports for military transport. I know a couple governors will be pissy with you for taking away their free shipping, but feel free to defer them to Nogitil here."

"Hey!"

"Yerzok, when can you have the complete files on Ixnill on my desk?" Epshrin continued.

"Thirty minutes," said the scared up horse. "Its being comiled now."

"And Delbrook, I authorize rule fifty nine emergency operations if they are needed. Dismissed."

Izixs stood up with the others and said, "I guess I have two phone calls to make."

-----

An aid carried a phone to Kojiro.

"What's this?"

"A First Speaker Izixs, head of state of Tinis is on the phone. Would you like to speak with him?"

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Captain Krilos receives a broadcast "This is corvette CF 563 to unknown craft you are in blockaded water. Hold you place. Any attempt to leave will result on you being fire upon. Is this understood?"

Krilos replied "No we......"
Five destroyers and a cruiser became visible behind the corvette.

Krilos was more than a little dumbstruck...where the hell had they come from. He had the feeling that they were not all that was about him.

"You shall be boarded and check for weapons, any resistance will be met with lethal force.

Provided you have an explanation for your presence your ships shall not be impounded." The broadcast said.

Krilos found his comms equipment jammed.

He was coming to the conclusion that the Calie were not space faring as they saw no need to be. The sea was there domain.

---
Mr. Talon smiled when brought before Kojiro he said "Oh I wondered when this would happen. Crocanna has been plotting you overthrow for a while, here is your evidence."

He pulled out documents that individually would mean nothing but to the increasingly paranoid mind of Kojiro made sense her 2 IC was after her. He bowed to her and said "I wish there was more but she did not fall for the agent ploy.

Crocanna is obviously too bright as they no doubt know that the calie use primarily female agents."

[miokalia]

Andertol gawked at the message and, speechless, pointed to it while looking at Blinn.
"Oh, so now they think they are doing us a favor?", said the allosaurus sarcastically, "Are they fucking insane?", he screeched.

"Well at least we're talking.", said Blinn, emotion still turned off, "They apparently aren't totally unreasonable".

"They sure have a terrible way of showing they care", said Andertol, "We're still going to intercept their ships and knock those satellites out of the sky.
It's just now I'm a bit more willing to simply escort them out rather than board them and take prisoners."

"Of course.", said Blinn, "The satellite over the Doblaron reservation is re-entering the atmosphere over the north of the Bay of Inleef, near Alba."


----


Official message from the Socialist Technocracy of Miokalia.


Intentions aside, it is not appropriate to sneak a weapons platform into Miokalian airspace. The remaining satellites over SOTO airspace will be neutralized for security reasons. SOTO is fully capable of defending itself, as we are well aware of the extraterrestrial threats in our vicinity, seeing as we are residence to some ethnicities with extraterrestrial origins.
Still: leave our airspace at once.

[Ixnill]

Kojiro Hollenfeuer was pulling at her long, black hair. With the aide bringing her the phone and the Ixnill Security (mockingly called the "Gestapo" by some) bring Mr. Talon before her and her Ambassador to the Federation relaying her reports from her office, one could see she was beginning to lose patience with everything around her.

Taking in another deep breath, she held a paw up to the aide holding the phone. "Tell Izixis to hold on the line for a moment while I deal with something of important national security," Kojiro said before turning her attention to Talon, whom was flanked by security, and Crocanna who stood in the corner of the room, quite visibly shocked by the iguana's accusation. Then she looked over the "evidence" that was piled on her desk. "This is very interesting information, Talon." She fingered at a few papers. "Highly suspicious."

Mr. Talon nodded.

"Unfortunately I still can't trust you, Mr. Talon," Kojiro continued, then turned her gaze to the security officers. "Take them both to Ixnill High Security Prison. A full background check is to be carried on them both, and if anything crops up in either of their files, you know who the true guilty party is."

Crocanna gasped from the corner as two officers moved swiftly to apprehend her while the others carted Talon away. The crocodile was carried away after him.

Perpetually alone now, Kojiro grasped the phone from the aide and brought it to her ear. "Kojiro speaking," she said into the phone. "How may I answer your questions?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Captain Krilos ordered his crew to stay put. He wasn't worried about the boats or the threatened boarding party. They would find that his ship's weapon systems were quite limited, the vessel being designed for scavenge and not assault. Furthermore, the ships defenses were more than able to withstand an attack if it was forced into a retreat.

All he was concerned now was the scout that traversed the ocean depths on the hunt for the crashed satellites. That was the mission, and nothing else came before the mission.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the Toddestadt starport, another scavenger ship with a fighter escort was launched. They were to retrieve the latest wayward satellite that Miokalia knocked out. Had the magnetic lock across the globe been completed, this would not have been a problem.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miokalia:

Please reconsider your campaign. This grid system could prove beneficial for the entire world. It would keep world-threatening dangers from even occuring.

- Ambassador Petria Eksion