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Post by aatuylva on Dec 6, 2010 19:20:38 GMT -5
Ulrik unclasped his hands, looking sternly at the upstart neighbors who spoke up.
"Last I checked, they came from space, not my country. They are not Aatuylvan natives. The only members of them that are Aatuylvan citizens are those who hail from the member-state of Tyr. Also, whether or not your claims are correct, and until Aatuylva sends investigatory teams, we will give the Aluezi the benefit of the doubt, the 'international' laws you claim would be broken would not apply in this case, otherwise the gypsies from the human lands would've been charged with war crimes. At any rate, those are the laws of the human lands, not of the Federation or the Confederacy, who are the powers you have to convince. The Aluezi are not 'settlers' they are refugees. Their homeland is so far away that there is no place to send them back to, and the lands that they landed their colony in after being helped by my people were inspected by Aatuylvans and were without civilization."
"To answer the Cali and the honorable Council of the Federation on their questions of locals inside Aluezi lands, I can personally attest that there are none, or that they are in such few numbers that they qualify better as an endangered species, not even numbering enough for a city-state. Why? Because nineteen centuries ago, according to the surviving scrolls, they invaded the lands of my people."
"As Tod may or may not have already stated, the only signs of civilization near their chosen colony were untouched ruins devoid of life, writing, and all valuables picked clean by scavengers. I don't think I have to stretch your imaginations too much as to how successful the counter attack was. But that is neither here, nor there, as the question of the matter is, do we accept the claims of the Aluezi, who, while at times misguided, are our neighbors, or the Salnai, who are relative unknowns who may be allied with outside powers who are not recognized here, but oft times interfere with sovereignty."
"My people are here because the Aluezi are the allies of a member-state of the Confederacy, and if I may ask a favor of the Cali representative, your people no doubt have aerial photos of the areas in question, taken when you overflew my nation, which was a few days prior to the Aluezi arriving? I'm sure they will be vastly different than the ones brought by this outsider."
OOC: Sorry if I'm not too descriptive with his actions, I'm better with dialogue...
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Post by Aluez on Dec 7, 2010 12:53:09 GMT -5
"According to our records, the member state of Tyr and Aluez are one in the same. Aluez is a 'colony' of this member state, and thus, are from your state by law of association." says Alexi, returning the stern look with a simple smile. "Regardless of being from space, regardless of claiming to be refugees, they're members of your nation, thus your responsibility." Zian slowly shook his head before looking at the Aluezi. "If I must say, they're very different in laws, but overall, still the same. They use the same language, same currency, have the same blood, and customs. They settled in the crash site of this 'ship', and according to OUR intelligence, 5 percent of the Aluezi remained in the citystate, making them a body of your nation." Tod snerked and laughed. "You two could be right if it wasn't a load of bullox you were throwing about. Your intelligence is wrong, yes, Aluezi live in Tyr, but it doesn't make it part of Aluez. IT'S NOT OUR CAPITOL! ALENIA IS!" he raises his voice before sighing and shaking his head slowly from side to side. "Yes, our flags, customs, and everything is similiar, almost the exact same... But we have differences. Tyr uses a Black flag where we use the colors. Tyr allows druggies where we arrest ours. Tyr allows nudists where we do not." "Now if you wanna compare my facts. Look at the United States and Britain. the US is a former British colony. Use the same color scheme, and for a while, used the same flag design in a way. Did this make them one in the same? No. The US was very different compared to it's mother. Now if you want to compare flags, look at the UK again, then back at Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Tavalu and Niue. All have the Union Jack in their flag, or at least some form of it. Does this make them one in the same? At one point, yes, yes it did. Because they were colonies of Great Britain. But now, they are not! Yet they still use some variant of their parent Union Jack. Even us Aluezi use it, and we are Aliens. So I must say, your logic is flawed." Tod sat back down, giving a wide grin to them. "Please, continue. I wanna beat your logic more..." Zian eyetwitched a bit before sighing. "Fair enough... but my point still stands. Your nation and Tyr are one in the same no matter how you paint one-another. Yes, if you declared independence and changed colors around or something, then maybe we'd not view you as the same thing!" Bulzia pinged in with a whistle. "If I may interrupt. Bulzia is a former territory of Salnai, and we still use a variant of her flag. We also use some of her language. But in no way are we the same thing. So I must agree with the Aluezi to a point... Tyr and Aluezi, until further proved otherwise, are certainly not the same thing." ----- After a little while the transmitter became decrepet and finally gave in, collapsing and sending out the following signal to the rest of the network it was linked to. CONNECTION DAMAGED. INITIATE SELF-DESTRUCTION EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELYThe following message was displayed on all other nanite-based lifeforms on the planet, before the transmitter exploded into a massive fireball, sending out a pulsar signal to the remaining connections for complete reboot. The signal itself going around the planet seventeen times within a matter of seconds before finally fading.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 8, 2010 0:41:33 GMT -5
Fourier didn't say a word. He was ordered to not defend the Aluezi claims per Qualt's mandate. And the initial scowls directed towards him in passing from the Aluezi didn't really inspire him to tell Qualt where to stick it.
But anyone in the room with access to credible maps had to have been seeing through this Salnai delegation's pitch.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andertol and A'risa seperated for a bit in the evening, she had to use a MacGuyver-style shortwave radio to get some codes into InSec in Aatuylva. Andertol figured he should probably try to do something similar.
Normally, someone in his situation would have gotten onto one of the shortwave channels and started sending codes in until the modem on the other end started feeling like talking. But he didn't have the codes for this system, it was piece of information that was on a need-to-know basis and as of when he left Miokalia, there was no reason why he would have to know it. So instead, he used the microwave devices in his mouth-cannon to try to get a line-of-sight signal out to a satellite, tuned to the channel block he knew from back when he was a professional red-herring for the RPA intelligence service. 600 Mhz got him into a block of so-called "numbers stations" separated by about 11 Khz.
He said, Calendar Schedule.
Emergency code word for non-combatant civilian.
On Wednesday, Sunny, High of 43
Reference to Civilian Code #628
Watermelon Testing
Inorganic civilian(s) involved, notify Dopblaron Internal Apparat of State
Twenty seven thirty four sixty two Alfalfa Street
Required meaningless filler line
Community Center
Contextual "end of header" statement.
It took a while, as they had to look up his ZMC identifier code. It would have taken longer if he weren't in a place which didn't have a significant number of his species around for hundreds of miles. But he finally heard a reply:
"Open bracket. This is the MZS Wolfmorganthaler. Nearest RPA Liason to your present location, now responding to a civilian and/or non-combatant emergency call. Please confirm that this is the correct channel, you may speak freely. Over."
Yes, holy crap get me out of here.
"It's good to hear you're still with us. Is there an inorganic availible who is capable of connecting over RHz to transmit intelligence which can be used to expedite your extraction?"
Yeah. Me. Just tell me what to do."
"That's... weird. Were you unable to connect via RHz on your own?"
Yes. Just patch me into the computer or whatever there and I'll spill it all.
"Your request will be delayed because we are going to have to treat it with hightened security protocol because your ZMC code was flagged by the Apparat of State.
You will now be transferred to the repository."
I don't care, just get me through to something
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RCVD 02:04 | FORMT: MBTL OVER-AIR ________________________________ from ZMC: HIY%IY%KE&sp&AN%DER%T&nond&%OL !!!nonstandard zmc syntax flag!!! ________________________________
""hello? help me! um. passcode ###### and ############.""
((ATTACHED: :./alpha.014022834928.hiy%%tol.mbtl)) CR-TDX-compatible, MBTL alpha interface steg file
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Andertol sent the file, then something started shuttering. Something was very wrong. He took a couple steps then fell over.
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The lieutenant in charge of the patrol ship, usually in charge of keeping trade routes secure, decided that whoever this was that he was just talking to, must have been fairly important to use the codes and the correct steganographic schema that they did. If it turned out it was some kid hacker pulling a very elaborate prank, then they were probably well in over their heads now. Either way, it was going up the chain of command to Qualt.
Qualt was not too happy about it. He looked over the file in an isolated module and said, "I think I need to replace Andertol. This is too weird even for him. He goes off and vanishes, then somehow transmits back intelligence data in the form of a steg-file as if he had a Malych following him around the whole time."
Secretary of Defense, 3Zk14L added, "I don't believe this, but I think this is Aluezi doing. I think they got in and actually broke into our system a bit. This file is very similar in scope to the that CGI thing they posted on their state news showing a genosauroid Malych ripping through a museum.
Unfortunately we don't have very good video. The analogue portion of the stream is not the best resolution or quality."
"Which suggests that it isn't hacked. Because nobody in their right mind would try to talk to computers using an analogue stream unless they were trying to hide something in it. And there isn't enough bandwidth to do that in this, because we're already using it for other things. It doesn't matter. Either way, we have to do something about it. If it's some script kiddie, then we follow policy. If this is a military effort, then I have some calls to make. If it's actually some RPA dick, then I guess it's going to be a happy home-coming.", said Qualt.
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Andertol was writhing and twitching on the ground all night. Something not unlike a seizure, as we wasn't particularly conscious for it. The nanotechnology that caused him to survive the vampire and allowed K24 to rebuild him according to it's previously supressed plan, was now attempting to kill him.
A'risa poked at Andertol a few times with a stick, after shouting at him. She thought about waiting until he ran out of power or finally zetzed-out, and then digging in and seeing what she could either find in, or fashion out-of him.
Inside him, K24 was trying to lock down the most critical things first. Drying out the analogue-isotropic-array and cutting-off the entire core assembly from as much as possible. It wasn't working. The last resort was to transmit a distress screech across all of the RHz channels, in hopes that there was something else like him nearby, then scram the betavoltaic power supply and eject it. Shutting down power.
Andertol's back opened up and the glowing-blue device was launched out of it. He tried to get up, then collapsed and shut down from lack of power.
A'risa kept her distance for a bit. It seemed that it was finally dead, whatever it was. She approached carefully, then backed away in surprise when various fluids sprayed out from it's vents. As though all of the hydraulic and other fluids were drained all at once. She approached again after a minute and then set to work.
She opened and closed his mouth, inspected the nozzle wave-guide of that mouth cannon she saw him use. She twisted the caps on various joint pieces and in-general, searched for some kind of weak point where she could strike something and then remove the armor and coverings. Figuring it couldn't hurt, she pulled on his head, bracing herself against his shoulders.
Much to her surprise, once she angled it right, it slipped right off.
Revealing some kind of definately organic creature underneath.
"A suit?", she thought
She looked at the inside of what seemed to be the headpiece. There were no screens, no controls, no interface. In fact, it looked like it had been corroded.
Andertol woke up a minute later. He tried to stand up, but couldn't. A'risa helped him sit up and from there, removing the parts was easy. "So you were in a suit the whole time. I want one of these", she said.
Andertol just sort of looked in a daze.
"How long have you been in there? It smells. We should clean it.", she continued. Once she got to the lower part of the body, she noticed that the leg armor was coming off, but the underlying parts weren't. Then she noticed all down his back were tubes embedded under his scales.
"You really have been in here a long time", she commented, "You're like a Cog. Back where I come from, there's these people who have lots of mechanical augmentations"
Andertol was still listless, but very slowly, his nicitating membranes slowly blinked. A'risa interpreted this as a good sign. "What the hell happened to you?", she asked. He was still unresponsive, just looking around at things.
A'risa checked where she thought his pulse might be found. Nothing. She checked around some more. Still nothing.
"Well, I can't tell if it's your heart or something, because I can't seem to find a vein on you. I don't know where your species has those things though.", she said.
A quiet whirring then came from somewhere along his back. A second later he convulsed. His pupil slits were now dialated. He came back up and seemed to be able to move much more than before.
"What the flaming fuck is going on?", were the first words he said.
"I don't know, you tell me. When you were in the suit, you were writhing around, then you seemed to calm down. So I took off the helmet so you could breathe and helped you out of the armor.", she said, although really she was hoping to score some exotic machinery to take back with her.
"Suit? This just keeps getting weirder and weirder.", he said, "Last thing I remember...", he was now thinking that the entire jaunt as a Malych was a dream, "I guess I just had a very psychedelic experience or something. I don't remember what happened before that. Nevermind.
I don't even know... what's going on."
A'risa looked at his legs, then back at him. He moved his toes and shifted a bit, then sighed and shrugged. "Still don't know."
"What happened to your legs and stuff?", she asked, "Sorry, if that's a bit personal. But seeing as I pulled your armor off for you, I figure I can ask some weird questions."
"Well I had regular legs when I came up here. Then some things happened which I'm still trying to figure out... and here I am.", he said, "Holy crap I'm hungry."
"Lucky you, I've got an extra something roasted on a stick, the wildlife here isn't used to Aatuylvan hunting prowess.", she said while handing him some unidentifiable, but somewhat sparse meat. As he started to bring it into his mouth, he hit something. Some object in his mouth which seemed to take up a lot of space.
He turned to A'risa and she recoiled a bit, "What the hell do they do to people down there?", she said in mild disgust, "That beam thing wasn't part of the suit? That's horrific.
How does...? What the hell are you?"
"What?", he said, "I thought we already established this: I don't know. Oh wait.
Ok... I guess the nozzle being in my mouth is kinda weird."
The next thing he knew, A'risa had her gun trained on him. "Alright, you're going to start giving me answers now.
What organization do you work for?"
"I'm the Sudo to the Apparateur of Miokalia", he said.
"I'm going to accept that for now, just because you are really weird and given the size of your government, I wouldn't put it past them to do this kind of freakish thing to it's people", she said.
"Thank you, I take that as a compliment."
"What was you mission up here and why are you accompanying me. InSec had no knowledge of any operatives who were supposed to rendezvous with me."
"I was attempting to conduct unofficial talks with the Aluezi. It didn't go very well.
Assuming what I remember is at all true: Someone tore my throat out. Then they attempted to dispose of me. Then something happened with nanite exposure and this spirit or being or something showed up in my head and claimed to have resuccitated me and made me into the thing which I at least thought I was 15 minutes ago. Wow this doesn't make sense at all, please don't shoot me.", He then took another bite.
"Who was the voice in your head?"
"It was this thing that all the robots in my country have."
"What was it instructing you to do?"
"Survive", he said, then took a final bite of the meat stick, "And get back home"
"Really.", she said incredulously.
Andertol then coughed up a horrible black substance. Once he finished he wiped it in futility and then said, "Yeah. Really."
"Whose aircraft is that approaching? Who did you contact before your little episode here?", she asked.
Andertol turned around, "Well, I certainly hope that's MRZF or RPA or someone who is a SOTO member country. Hell, if it's Tinis, I won't complain.
You know, otherwise we're both probably dead."
"If I get captured, I'm killing you first.", she said.
Andertol's eyes then glowed an orangey-red, similar to the Aluezi's. He stared at the aircraft for a bit and then said, "That's a Tri-S RZ10-10. It's from a SOTO carrier. Either KZ's or ours. So there's good news and bad news."
He turned around, his eyes were still glowing, "The good news is that thing is coming to save us and at the worst, they're going to just offer you a ride, if your policy permits."
Arisa asked, "And the bad news would be..."
"That a Tri-S is a fairly serious military aircraft, and this means that SOTO has a fleet in the area. And I bet Aluez is just going to love that.", he said.
Arisa lowered the weapon as the aircraft seemed to be slowing down on approach. "Oh gods.", she said
The boxy vehicle oriented vertically and landed. "Mr. Andertol", said a white-feathered raptor upon exit, "I'm Lieutenant Hnob, RPA. It's good to see that you're still alive. I see that you've made a friend."
Andertol looked down at his legs awkwardly, then replied, "Yes. This is someone who I accidentally ran into while trying to escape from Aluez. She was a tourist who got trapped when the policy changed up there. We both made it over the border and then radioed for help. Could you maybe give her a ride? She doesn't speak much English."
"Where to?", asked Hnob
Andertol then said, in very computer-like pronounciation, "wo Sie gehen möchten"
A'risa played along, seeing that Andertol was trying to protect her identity, and said, "ein Flughafen bitte" in an exaserbated tone.
"She says that she wants to go to a safe airport so she can get home", Andertol said after some mechanical cogitation, "Tinis should be fine. She's really been through quite a lot and I don't blame her for not wanting to be dropped off at an airport around here. And it's not like we can just take her up to the border. You know Aatuylva's border policy."
"Yes of course. We'll take her to Altzan.", he said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was straight to business once Andertol arrived on the carrier. Andertol was unceremouniously taken below deck and forcibly inspected. His glowing eyes were not working in his favor here.
It didn't matter to him. At least it was his military personnel that were poking, prodding and giving him a cavity search.
They kept him in a brass isolation cage for the entire trip home.
At home, and two cavity searches later, Qualt finally met up with him.
"What the hell was going on. Oh Christ, Malych legs and... What the hell did they do to you? ", he said, "You know as long as those nanites are Aluezi, you can't continue your duties."
"I figured you'd tell me up-front.", Andy said, "You know how I am about people keeping their issues hidden from me."
"This is not something that is impossible", Qualt said with an almost sinister tone, "You gathered some highly valuable intelligence, even if was because you were an idiot."
Andertol stopped before walking out of the room, he figured the Apparateur had something to say.
"I'll be cleaning my office out later this week. Maybe.", Andertol said,
Qualt started speaking to Andertol in the chirps and beeps of audible MBTL, "You have done a great service to your species."
Andertol replied, also with the same chirps and beeps, "That's nice but it looks like I'm done with this job here."
Qualt continued, "We can remove the Aluezi nanites.
We can't remove them from organic creatures, but you're no longer such. Therefore: there are things we will do.
I do not intend to loose you, Andertol. I need you."
"So that wasn't a helmet that girl pulled off was it?", he asked, "So K24 wasn't just a hallucination for those hours after I came back."
"Why do you think they did three cavity searches on you? You're full of Malych parts apparently. And the System is now highly interested in the data they've gotten from you.
But anyway.
There's a lot going on right now. We do have a fleet up in the vicinity of Harrison island right now. We're just monitoring the area for now, waiting for Aluez to come around and get their heads back on straight.
But right now, I think you should come with me..."
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Dec 8, 2010 5:11:24 GMT -5
The talk of Aluez being independent, or part of Aatu, or separated, or something else entirely did get Xovie thinking.
"Before I go further, I'd like to ask my good friend Alexi to not bounce the word Communist around as an insult. It is rude and implies a de facto hostility that should be better be expressed in arguments instead of petty banter.
"If Aluez is a nation that declared independence from the city state of Tyr, then the claim that Aluez has on the territory, if applicable, originates in Tyr. Since Tyr is a component of the Confederacy of Aatuylva, then any claims by Aatuylva with regards to the territory become important, even if they are now former claims and no longer apply to the current situation. Though I must admit my knowledge of history of the region is poor, if the counter attack by the Aatu was severe enough to have depopulated the land for centuries and no other powers opted to move in, then that would seem to be a recognized claim by the Aatuylvans by their neighbors. Ergo, the land had a de facto claim that was recognized by the neighboring nations and thus when the Aluezi, be they from space or Tyr, moved through Aatu territory to a different part of Aatu territory, and then peacefully made that bit of Aatu territory independent, then that claim shifted from the Confederacy to Aluez. And given that the Union of Tinis and many others already recognize the sovereignty of Aatuylva to be or split as they see fit, then the presence of the Aluezi seems quite legitimate. This argument still holds if Aluez is secretly still a part of Tyr. So enough of that nonsense. Keep to relevance if you can.
"Already the speaker here from Salnai has said that their claim extends back only a year. A year verses centuries is hardly a contest for the purposes of determining who has the more legitimate claim to me. I might not personally care for the Aluezi government's actions, but that doesn't mean they are not legitimate."
Xovie really wished he had some history books handy. Operating on the fly like this with only a loose understanding of the historical nature of the war Ulrik mentioned could be trouble if someone was wrong about it.
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Post by Aluez on Dec 8, 2010 16:44:34 GMT -5
Alexi gave a single, short laugh. "Fair enough, but the story of the Aatuylvan claim to the Aiin sector is not recognized by Yuna, Bulzia, nor the Commonwealth of Salnai. Nor is it recognized by the UN, or the Coalition of Citystates. The records could easily be forged on the fly as no 'existing documentation or settlements exist' as you would gladly put it. Well, other than a brief notation that a war occurred some centuries ago, and thus, destroyed the culture there. No claims are made by Aatuylva over the lands, so it was considered no-mans-land until a year ago." Alexi's attention quickly shot to the group of Aluezi when they all suddenly hit the floor, seeming to go into convulsions for a moment before finally stopping. "And... it seems they've died..." she gave a disturbed look toward them as her secretary moved over to check on them. "They're... barely alive..." says the secretary, looking about the council before pulling a cellphone from his pocket, dialing the emergency services number and placing a call for help. ----- Alueza couldn't help but twitch at the strange signal, before letting out a growl of aggravation and bouncing her signal to every nation of the world, delivering a very simple, very annoyed, and short message. I don't know who sent that signal and I really don't care who did, but if you do it again, I'm eating your hard drives, causing your missiles to launch in their silos, and reformating your souls into a pile of grey goop! - Alueza After she sent the message, she set out to hopefully re establish network control over the now disrupted communications network throughout both Tyr and Aluez. At least she could do that much and hopefully not lose the populace as a whole due to the strange effect it had on everyone with nanites in their bodies. ----- "What was the deal with the message just now, Alueza?" asks an A.I. from somewhere off in the reaches of the net, the silhouette of a human appearing next to her, green in color with red eyes. "That wasn't nice to say to people at ALL!" "They made me feel funny... plus they just knocked out 100,000 people... whoever it was" she looks at the other A.I. before holding out a virtual hand. "I am Alueza, head information controller for the nation of Aluez. And you are?" "Name is Indi, I am an Artificial Intelligence being tested in a remote location in the Middle East." "Ah, pleased to meet someone I can have a talk with, other than my subordinate Balto." she smiles, just as he appears on the other side of her. "Speak of the devil. Is the UC still operational?" "Mechanized divisions yes, everyone is out cold though... nearly had someone die down there" the wolf-like silhouette shudders before waving to the human. "Hello, I'm Balto, control for the Undercity."
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Post by miokalia on Dec 13, 2010 23:30:16 GMT -5
Another two entered the Federation hall. One of them was a blue feathered raptor in some kind of military uniform. The other was a silver Malych wolfptor with canid ears.
"Good day", the robot said and gave a friendly nod to the Calie delegation.
The blue raptor seemed considerably less proper.
"Excuse me, fine statescritters.", he said, "for interrupting your... parliamentary processes today.
But while we're discussing the claims of the territory generally referred to as Aluez, I feel that I should interject."
"Is he drunk?", Fourier chirped and beeped quietly to the other one next to him.
"I'm sure he'd rather be", said 323K14L, "We got Andertol back, and quite a bit of data as well. The perpetrator knows our laws and knows the protocols of the Zagckza Treaties and everything. They are trying to play us against the Aluezi. Among other things."
"What are the other things?"
"I'll get to that later. The main thing is: things didn't go to plan, and now they're trying to wrap it up quickly before anything else goes wrong."
"I assume this has something to do with the collapsed delegation"
"I would not put it past them."
The raptor posted a picture of a bike rack that Andertol saw at some point during his recent, ill-fated trip.
"The pictured bicycle securement facility is the sovereign territory of the Tajirates. Our claim on this tiny island territory is ex priori as it dates back to..." The creature paused a moment and then said, "30,000 years ago according to archaeological record."
He paused for a bit and stared at the Salnai delegation.
"But this is beside the point. Because Salnai is clearly simply trying to reconcile this issue with Aluez in a peaceful and reasonable manner.
Quite obviously, cooperation between the two is quite healthy indeed."
He unrolled another print and posted it next to the first one.
"That's why Salnai worked with Aluez on the development of endothermic weapons and let them test them in Salnai before testing them northwest of Cal.
As evidenced by this thermal image from a few months prior to the testing of the device which the Aluezi state news described."
He posted another picture, this one of the beta-voltaic core that Andertol used for a short time. "This image isn't really important, it just looks neat. It's something that Andertol saw a little while before he was almost killed by a Salnese, I mean Aluezi RFNP nano attack.
I think that was yesterday, wasn't it?
Funny.
Because Andertol experienced a hardware attack just shortly after those most capable of doing such kind of fell over and went catatonic. So perhaps it was an automatic, timed attack?
That's very interesting, because the attack against him was not against Malych software, it was against something else. The attack that was broadcasted effected nanovector devices used by the Aluezi mostly. It was very obviously not targetted. Clearly since Andertol is not catatonic right now. Like the rest of Aluez.
So then...
Why exactly would the Aluezi broadcast an attack against their own biological nanotechnology?"
The uniformed raptor left the council hall and 323K14L followed.
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Post by aatuylva on Dec 15, 2010 21:06:37 GMT -5
~1 hour Aatuylvan Command Bunker
"Sir."
"What?"
"The House of Horus reports that a SOTO fleet just got within strike range...uplinks suggest a carrier group."
"Wait, who again?"
"The Aluezi Intelligence, sir."
"Right...Are they within striking distance of Aatuylva?"
"Unknown, but knowing the technology of the Southerners..."
"I'll call the War Minister."
~45 minutes Stidham's Office
"Put me through to the Anean High Command...you know what I mean! New Gracaria! Get me whoever's in charge of their navy! NOW!"
Stidham began to pace, the dark green phone to his ear as he kicked his chair out of the way. He began grumbling.
"Oh? What's your-nevermind I don't care, look, we've got a SOTO carrier group right offshore and they've been buzzing us with planes for the past fifteen minutes. You tell IX, or whoever you work for, that said carrier group's aircraft were inside Aluezi and Aatylvan airspace. That's right. They are within strike range of Aatuylva and I don't like how close they are. At any moment they could decide to launch a strategic or tactical bombing ru- LISTEN TO me DAMMIT! I want you, to tell them, that one of their allies is being threatened. Get that fancy fleet of yours over here and get that damned SOTO group away from me! I've already been ordered by the Council to prep our IRBMs, and Gods know what will happen if we have to launch...you got all that? Good! NOW MOVE IT SOLDIER!"
He almost slammed down the phone, and began to pace again.
Dammit this isn't good at all.
~30 minutes Stidham's Office
Everything in his office had been rearranged three times. The wastebasket in the corner was filled with several bloody tissues from the cough. It was getting worse. It always got worse, the harder things got...
He opened one of the drawers of his desk, and pulled out a purple phone. It was one of many. By the orders of the People's Council, the Intermediary Ballistic Missile forces near the border were being fueled and prepped, and would be ready in twenty minutes. The ICBM forces, on the trains, most of them disguised as freight cars, could be launched at any time, only needing as much time as there was to arm and prepare them for cold launching.
The IRBMs were being prepped to launch at the SOTO fleet.
He had just been informed by radar teams that an aircraft had been sighted, landing on the border. He ordered the attack against it halted, waiting to confirm.
It has been five minutes since he was told that it did, in fact, return to the SOTO carrier group.
He picked up the phone.
"Put me in touch with Qualt as soon as you can."
He waited precious seconds as the Aatuylvan switchboards rush-transferred him.
It wasn't really a hotline, per se, they hadn't been able to install those yet, but at least on the Aatuylvan side, it was the fastest connection to the outside world.
When, finally, he was connected, he began to speak.
"You. Listen. Here. You cold-blooded bastard. You know very well that I am not a bluffing man, not with what I proposed to do during the Acronos Incident. You have five minutes before my IRBMs are fueled and ready to strike with explosive munitions on that fleet, to explain to me why you are within bombing range of Accallia. Do note that this five minutes was twenty minutes ago, so start talking. Otherwise, get those ships outside of range of Aluez and Aatuylva, or I will be forced to order the launch. I don't give a damn about what your beliefs are, but know this: I. Do. Not. Bluff. If you have an explanation worth my time, call me back."
What else that could be heard on the line is best described as several expletives and much coughing, and a rancid hacking, mucus noise, followed by the slamming of the phone.
~20 minutes
"Sir! Everything in Aluez just went dead!"
"What do you mean everything?"
"We've got nothing, just the automated responses!"
"Scramble the fighters, I want visuals now! Anything on the seismographs?"
"Nothing sir...fighters launched, they'll be over Aluezi airspace in about five minutes."
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"Just because a yard isn't used does not mean it is up for grabs a- What the deuce?"
One of the bodyguards stepped out.
"...as I was saying. The UN and the Commonwealth of Salnai are not recognized by Aatuylva, and I doubt they are much liked or known by this Council. Settlements or not, all what you've said proves is that you're squatters on land we were ceding to Aluez. If you would please, a moment? I need to make a phone call."
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A small machine in Wira's office began to activate. A small slip of paper was printed out of the side.
General Tod is down.
OOC Note: Though it hasn't yet happened in Rifts, Stidham would propose using a deadly bio-weapon of Aatuylvan design, and only the highest OFFICIAL powers in the gov'ts involved would know about it. Cal would not because while SOTO was involved, no Cali high command or sea lords participated. The scene he would be referencing would be the testing of it on a captured Pudrian, with gruesome results, as a show that it could kill them by destroying their biological components, to the other commanders. :3 Also note that the Aatuylvans are literally finding this out long after the Aluez knew about it, and this is around the time the nano attack etc etc
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Post by The Anean Star Empire on Dec 15, 2010 21:28:31 GMT -5
Marshal Vincenzo Soldavini, The Citadel Command Center
"Excuse me private?"
"Yes sir, someone came on and said that their allies are being attacked."
"Did he sound like a bitch?"
"Well, I think so sir."
"Then that's Stidham."
"Who is that?"
"Don't worry about it. Get me a printout of what was-"
"Already have it sir."
"Good. I have to talk with IX."
I ran down the hall and several flights of stairs and finally reached IX's office in the Citadel. I opened the door and he was passed out at his desk with a bottle of Talonian Liquor. I guess Nakhi is in charge.
I left and went one office down. Nakhi was in there asleep. At least he wasn't drunk though. I took out my pistol and fired a bullet. He woke up pretty quick.
He yelled. "What the fuck was that for!"
"Report from Aatuylva. Apparently Aatuylva is threatened by a SOTO fleet."
"Did you tell IX?"
"He'd have tried to drink it."
"Right. Alright, I'll contact Stidham. Move the fleet south to intercept. Give them a warning that we will fire if they refuse to back off."
"Yes sir."
Secretary of Defense Luca Rio, ANS Harbinger
Good thing we were already on the move when the order came in to move south. The New Astrapolis fleet will meet up with us on the way. Of course, you can call it a fleet if you can call 24 ships an armada.
At best, we should arrive down by Aluez and Aatuylva within 12 hours. With the Trotia, we might be in carrier strike range in 6 to 8 hours.
Chancellor Nakhi Welhan
As soon as Soldavini left, I picked up my phone and called the Department of Domestic Security.
"Yes Chancellor?"
"Move us to Defense Condition 2. Arm our nukes and be ready to launch. Begin evacuations to the Citadel."
"What happened sir?"
"I have no idea yet. Just do it." I hung up.
The Grodania submarine should have about 50 medium range ballistic missiles. Then the Citadel has another 100 or so Skirmisher IV ICBMs.
I picked up my phone again and called Aatuylva. "Give me War Minister Stidham."
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Post by miokalia on Dec 15, 2010 22:58:05 GMT -5
Qualt returned Stidham's call,
"In case you haven't noticed that Aluez is in the grips of some kind of coup. Our fleet consisted of a security observation force with the intention of monitoring the area because of the obvious instability going on to your northeast.
The fleet will be removed within the half hour, as it is abundantly clear that you seem to have a handle on the situation.
Obviously I do not like being threatened. Which is also why we are finished with trying to ascertain what just occured up in Aluez. Our resources are clearly better spent doing something else. In calling ASE, as I couldn't imagine there is any other reason why they would be mobilizing something down here without saying anything to us: you have exhausted my last ounce of patience."
"And if the ASE goes headlong into a strike against the departing fleet?", asked 323K14L.
"I don't suppose there is anything that can be done about that.", Qualt said, "This entire thing is a trap. There's nothing that can be done about Aluez. It doesn't matter if we can decode the attack against them...
Their allies are too much of a liability."
323K14L scowled at Qualt, "Because of Stidham?"
"When this is finished, I'm resigning.", he said, "I'm not made for this. Blinn should have never resigned to begin with. If he stayed on, then none of this would have happened.
Oh for fuck's sake, I can't allow myself to let that whole fleet get slaughtered while trying to evacuate. Even if we contact ASE, it doesn't mean they won't just go through with it anyway."
"I'll contact the Colony to inform them of the withdrawing of the fleet.
It is also the opinion of the system that we should begin threatening Salnai. Very publicly.", said 323K14L.
Qualt ordered the withdrawing fleet to make preparations to abandon ship once they were well out into international waters, and to use every plane they had to get to Fort Mogke, near KZ. Then contacted Alueza with a brief message:
"So it looks like your 'allies' are chasing us away from your country. Unless you want to have Salnai tromping all over your land and conducting nanite warfare against your people unchecked, then I strongly advise you to call them off. Unless you can do that, we can't help you.
That is assuming you are at all aware that Salnai is trying to make claims on your territory. They've kinda been making that obvious.
Of course, if all of this is because you're already offline, then I can't really blame you for not acting since you were unable and I'm sorry to hear that. If somehow you are able to read this because you're a ghost or something, then you can be assured that we will avenge your destruction with extreme prejudice.
-Qualt"
"That was a horrible message", said 323K14L, "I'm sending a seperate one."
323K14L's message to Alueza said, "Please inform War Minister Stidham that we had a fleet in the area to monitor Salnai's activities near your territory, and thus are acting in your defense. If you would prefer we leave you alone, then we will.
However given the current situation, it would be advisable for their to be a clear, multinational defensive presence in your vicinity to deter Salnai from attempting to simply take your land as they have been indicating is their intention to do.
323K14L (Ezekial) Maroa Secretary of the Apparat of Defense Federal Republic of Miokalia and the Tajirates of Talarine, Tasea and the Digasdans.
Cheers."
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Post by aatuylva on Dec 16, 2010 0:57:17 GMT -5
~15 minutes
"He didn't sound happy."
"Fuck him. I'm tired of the gods-be-damned southerners flitting about my airspace like they own it. Next thing from the south that doesn't have authorization...shoot it down. Use one of the new SAMs we bought from overseas."
Wira snarled, her tail twitching back and forth.
"They're going to send someone to kill you. I won't stop them."
"Make sure to deny that when the inquiry board hears the recording. How many spies have you caught today? How many escaped using foreign-weapon wielding terrorists? They all want to take advantage of us...the only ones who we can bloody well trust are-"
One of the now many phones on his desk began ringing, and Stidham scrambled to it.
"Yes this is War Minister Stidham speaking...Chancellor Welhan? Good to hear from you!"
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"What the hell?"
All around, in Tyr, and in Aluez...the Aluezian inhabitants were on the ground. The pilot of one of the tailsitter fighters that had begun production scratched his still helmeted head. Was it some kind of bio-attack? He didn't see any gases, and the animals were still about...
But they were all just....dead? No..that wasn't the right word..it's like they all just dropped into a coma.
He climbed back into the bubble cockpit, turning the cranks so it turned, righting itself, facing the sky once more. He locked it into position and started up the propeller. Command wasn't going to like this at all...
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"Hold on...I've got another call....yes?"
"Sir, we've got a possible Wraith's Bane in Aluez and Tyr."
"...mobilize. I want troops, airplanes, and artillery inside Aluez now, if there is anyone left to say anything then inform them that we are providing security and sending medical personnel...we should probably send medi-helis as well, so get on it. We don't want the Salnai to move in while everyone is out...transfer me back to the Chancellor................sorry about that, go on."
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Post by The Anean Star Empire on Dec 16, 2010 1:06:00 GMT -5
Chancellor Nakhi Welhan
"I want to know what the fuck is going on. It's as simple as that. IX was following things as they developed, but... well... he's now incapacitated and I know nothing. Then I get a report from you apparently telling us to move the fleet south. I am doing that, but I don't want to end up in one your schemes to drag us into some war.
"The whole colony is on alert. I put us on Defense Condition 2. People are SEARCHING for shelter against a possible nuclear war. Evacuations have begun to get people into the Citadel and yet I know nothing. I can't just call it off now. Not with this kind of fear.
"I need to know if what's going on calls for military intervention or if I should sit it out. If it needs intervention, how many and where and for what reason?"
I really could use a drink. I might be able to steal one of IX's bottles and get back before Stidham responds. Nah, not worth it.
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Post by Aluez on Dec 16, 2010 14:35:51 GMT -5
"You are correct on the peace part, but cooperation to develop an ice bomb?" asks Zian, perking a brow toward the machine beast. "No, we haven't tested any endothermic weapons in our territory, nor would we allow a fledgling state to develop a weapon of such power under our watchful eye. Now I ask YOU, raptil, why would we be stupid enough to do that lest it be a lie?" he merely smiled at the raptor, almost a chestire smile. Alexi cleared her throat. "Perhaps they were testing a weapon on their own populace like Saddam did to use in the event of a full uprising against their leadership?" she shrugs. "It's not uncommon for states such as Aluez to test weapons on their own kind to see the results. We see it every day in dictatorships across the globe." she looked at the raptor "Good examples are pre-war Iraq, Iran, The Soviet Union when it was around, North Korea, China, Cambodia... The list goes on for miles and miles." Zian nodded. "Indeed. It could of been very well that" He looked toward the medics that were hauling the Aluezi out of the council hall. "And seeing our opposition has seemingly died... or is near death, I suppose we are the winners of this debate, don't you think? Unless of course, Aatuylva would like to confirm the Aluezi membership in it's Confederacy, despite them being from another world" Zian looked toward them, before waving to Yuna and Bulzia. ----- Somewhere in the webAlueza was scanning through intelligence sites and different sources of information before brushing across something. "Missle control..?" she mutters to herself before trying to access it, only to blink when she was booted and seen it disappear. "Nasty firewall..." she mutters before moving on. New Harrison IslandA bright flash was seen from the Salnese island on the eastern part, before a mushroom cloud slowly rose into the sky, which was about the size for a large ballistic missle going off. A few moments later, several blue beams cut across the water, opening fire on ANYTHING off the coast. the beams went out as far as three miles many of them not striking anything, but one managing to hit a ship... who it belonged to, was unclear, but whoever it was, it split it in half and damaged another near it. Broadcast to any vessels near by the island"Attention all ships in the area. We were just attacked by an unknown force and have retaliated against it. Be aware that we will NOT tolerate attacks against our people, our bases, or our lands. All military vessels within range of our island will be sunk, and civilian ships routed away from our island."
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Post by aatuylva on Dec 16, 2010 15:14:44 GMT -5
"You want to know what's happening? SOTO has a fleet that, while they seem to indicate they are leaving, that is capable of launching an attack. A nation by the name of Salnai is pushing for the removal of the Aluezi from lands that rightfully belong to them..the Aluezi, I mean. I know that, for some goddamn reason, a reptilian matching Andertol's description booked a passage with a known smuggler pilot, parajumped into Aluez, and wasn't heard of save for some snippets of random destruction and an aircraft from the SOTO fleet that arrived around the time that almost every single skyship and vehicle in Aluez dropped as, to use the information the Arbitor at the Aluezi-Salnai summit in Arx says, 'they suffered from a viral attack on their nano-software' and now General Tod and anyone in Aluez with those little buggers is now in a near-coma and I've had to move troops in to keep the Salnese bastards from moving in and slaughtering them a-"
The shutters on his office window closed, metal sheets falling down as all the lights were off and emergency red lights came on.
"Dear gods someone's set off a nuke. Not in Aatuylva...not in Aluez...paper's just coming in...Sifus's balls, Chancellor, do you have sat footage? Tell me you know where that was?"
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Post by The Anean Star Empire on Dec 16, 2010 15:51:40 GMT -5
Chancellor Nakhi Welhan
"I'm putting you on hold. Be back in a minute or two."
I set down the phone, after putting him on hold and left the office. Of course, the Citadel's alarms went off. I jumped over the rail so I could get down the two floors to the command center.
The doors slid open for me and I looked around. About the only one keeping his composure was of course Soldavini. On the screen, I saw what looked like lasers and some mushroom cloud over an island. Thank the gods the Battlestation is at least partly operational.
I never should have responded to Stidham earlier.
I picked up the phone again and got Stidham. "It looks like someone set a nuke off in Salnai... at least I assume that's what it is. There were also some sort of laser fired."
I turned the phone on speaker.
"I'm hard pressed not to launch my missiles right now. However I wi-"
IX stumbled in. "What... what the fuck is going on?"
"We're at DEFCON 2. Apparently there a nuclear detonation northeastish of Aluez. From what Stidham tells me-"
"Stidham? You mean that crazy bastard in Aatuylva? He probably launched the damn thing."
"No he didn't. Anyway, from what he tells me the people with those nanite things in Aluez are in a near coma now and they are moving soldiers in to prevent an invasion by Salnai."
"What the fuck's a salnai?"
"A country that, while you have been drinking, has more or less threatened Aluez."
"Why don't we invade them then?"
"Because that's not how this works. Anyway, I am going to wait for further orders and send an NGDF battlegroup to Aluez."
"I am going with them and bringing along another legion of Megamantics mercs."
"But you're drunk."
"Hungover. And you know war sobers me pretty damn quick."
"Right. Have fun then."
He left and I issued the orders. Immediately, the soldiers should be boarding the 500 Shuttles. Five for the NGDF and IX will send 10 for his people.
Soldavini said, "What are we doing about them?"
"Good question. Leave that to Luca."
"Who?"
"The Secretary of Defense."
"Oh that Luca."
Holy Emperor Isaiah Xaimoungkhoun
I had to force my soldiers through the crowds of people coming into the Citadel. Damn Nakhi for putting us on DEFCON 2. I only have 500 soldiers leaving the Citadel, but the rest should be leaving from the New Gracaria fortress soon. The 5 500 shuttles will be flown in from both the Worldport AFB for the NGDF and Megamantics is already boarding at the headquarters near New Astrapolis.
Once we all get aboard, it should be about 3 hours to Aluez at full atmospheric speed.
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Post by Aluez on Dec 16, 2010 18:40:55 GMT -5
OOC: Just a note, no, that was not a nuke... only radiation picked up would be from the Ion cannons firing at whatever the hell it fired at ----- Aluez would slowly start to come back to life after it's crash and burn, it wasn't instant, but merely a few people in a handful here and there. The same would be seen in Tyr, and of course... ---- Tod gasped sharply and raggedly as he woke up in a hospital room, shuddering hard as he looked about in a panic, nearly ripping the equipment off with his thrashing about "Tod calm down," says Tisra from the bed beside him, smiling softly as she held a newborn kit beside her, also hooked up to a drip and a few medical machines as well. "We're safe... apparently we collapsed from something and nearly died" "We... did?" he blinks and rubs his head. "Where're the others?" "Elsewhere... probably still asleep"
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