Tyrant of Apolyton arises

[Guardian]

GNS Excalibur

The two helicopters spent the better part of an hour examining the designated search area, but the area was too big for two helicopters to see everything and they failed to relocate the mystery vessel. At one point, they thought they had him, but upon closer inspection, that contact turned out to be a decoy bouy which could have been placed in the water several hours ago. When activated, it transmitted mock signals and successfully diverted the attention of the Guardinians for almost 15 minutes before they realized they were being spoofed.

Captain French checked his watch. Almost an hour and a half had passed since first contact. He cursed softly. That damned thing could be miles away by now.

He turned to his comm officer.
"Get on the horn with Navy Command", he said. "Tell them we've got some sort of stealth ship snooping around out here and that we need some air support to help track him down."
"Aye aye, sir!"

Slipping away from two helicopters was one thing.
A long range maritime surveillance aircraft was a totally different story...

[Rasputin]

Arrivals

The plane landed with a bump and grind and slowly taxied off the runway over towards the main terminal.

Prior to connecting to the main terminal a mobile stairs was driven up alongside and the doors opened.

Three armed guards entered the plane and their glances and their extended guns made sure no one moved.

A group at the back of the plane slowly stood and grabbed their bags from the overhead lockers. They all looked very similar, very muscular bodies and short cropped hair. They left the plane and entered the waiting trucks on the tarmac.

The armed guards left the plane as silently as they had entered and the plane continued to the main terminal.


The first Auldonina Military Advisors had arrived........

[Rasputin]

latest gopvernment policies

Due to the ongoing wars in neighboring countries, a recent rash of illegal immigrants have been caught at the borders of Auldoninna, prompting many citizens to call for tighter immigration laws.

The Government response ,,,,,,,,,

"Hold on there, hold on people!" says Prudence Dodinas of the Auldoninna Broadcasting company, "We don't have to take either extreme, all we have to do is make a TV game show out of it! We put deadly obstacles on the border and monitor it with television cameras! Those that make it across win freedom and citizenship, and those who don't, well, lets just say that our buzzards won't starve. We could call it 'Who Wants to be an Immigrant?'!"

[ceroomaster]

INS Fable, international waters, east of Frankychanland

"Well, Frankchanland said that they had submarines, and we are close enough now, maybe it's one of them, sir".
Commodore Ross smiled wryly, "this could get interesting, we thought that was a hollow threat- who have they bought these subs off?"
"The Excalibur said they couldn't detect anything, it's like there was nothing there".
"Shame this fleet hasn't got a few subs with it, or an aircraft carrier," Ross joked, "Lieutenant, signal the other ships- I want everyone carrying depth charges to prepare them- just in case"
"Yes sir".
"Contact the INC [Ceroo's Naval Command] on a secure channel and put it through to the briefing room, I want to speak with the Vice Admiral".

Cerooan Open Transmission, FAO: President Frankychan, From: Cerooan Foreign Affairs
Sir,
It appears even nations friendly to yours, specifically Auldoninna, are not treating refugees, or as you would put it dissidents, humanely (re: Who Wants to be an Immigrant on the Auldoninna Broadcasting company's channel)- which concerns us greatly.
We propose that the Frankychanland navy allow any who wish to leave by sea to do so, and Ceroo will assist them in reaching civilised nations who are willing to accept them. Nations such as San Antonio Bay are in desperate need of workers, and we consider such an agreement to be mutally beneficial.
We await your response...

[Rasputin]

The Transport plane arrived at the newly setup base in southern Frankychanland. A hastily built training barracks and ranges were all in camoflage.

Many of Frankychans finest were being instructed in the usage of many modern weopons that only a large nation could afford to buy. For a small price the Auldonina Government had setup a new business of Weopons Exports to the Newly liberarated people under Frankychans leadership.

Already being rush built were the next batch of ships, subs and planes that Franky had ordered.

Soon Frankychan would be able to stand on the world stage , knowing it could defend it self against the ravishes that other nations may through tis way.

[Guardian]

OOC:

Oooops.... whatever happened to the joint fleet not being headed for Frankychanland ?!

I thought, as per our earlier statements, that the joint fleet was still pretty far from FCL waters and that the Excalibur was part of a smaller group which was closer...

Anyway, in light of the recent escalation brought about by Auldonina, Guardinia will be happy to move the joint fleet closer to FCL waters. -But give us some time to issue a statement first so we won't look like a bunch of liars...

Oh, and wouldn't it take longer to build stuff than to move a fleet anyway?!?

[joncha]

Twenty-five Kilometres Northwest of Frankychanlandian waters

The Jonchastani light frigate JPS Revolution slowed considerably as it neared the small fishing vessel. The Revolution was returning home from its goodwill tour of the Eastern Continent, but there was one last visit that needed to be made. A dinghy from the fishing boat, the Ali'i City registered Mempachi Eyes, approached the frigate and the four fishermen onboard traded places with four similarly clad people from the Revolution. Once the dingy was clear, the Jonchastani frigate increased its speed and headed for home port.

[Basus]

"Basus's national military advisor Peter van Schilfgaarde has instructed the joined admirality of Basus to assemble a small defensive escort for the to hospital vessels the "antonie van leeuwenhoek" and the "Freule van westerloo" . "

Within the Basus's goverment the call for a court of arbitrage or a regional defence organisation grows.

Margreet Kats journalist for the Daily Courant :

Basus's officials are increasingly concerned about the Frankychanland conflict that threatens to distabilise Apolyton. The High chancellor has ordered the safety advisor to assemble a active medical taskforce under a flag of truce. That can be dispatched to the conflict zone in a matter of hours.

[Frankychan]

BREAKING NEWS!!!

The government of Frankychan, due to the recent escalating tensions internationally as well as internal "reshuffling" has implemented new security measures. The main one is as follows:

Citizens are (or will be) barcoded to keep track of their movements

We have already barcoded a sizeable amount of the Frankychanland population. Any Frankychanland citizen that is not already barcoded, please report to the nearest police station to be barcoded and logged into the national database.

[Guardian]

[OOC: Okay. With the actual location of Frankychanland finally settled, the board is set and the pieces are moving! Now, for the joint Cerooan/Guardinian fleet and the issue of whether or not it approaches FCL waters, I am now making the following assumptions: The joint fleet will be sent closer to Frankychanland, officially for reasons which will be explained in the following post. However, given the location of Frankychanland, I think it would make more sense to have the joint fleet move into position somewhere along the FCL west coast, seeing as how Guardinia would already have the east coast pretty well covered.

-And yes, there is a non-OOC post coming in a little while. Just need to write it first... ]

[ceroomaster]

OOC:

Originally posted by Guardian
The newest orders left little doubt in anyone's mind: They were to push right up to the edge of FCL national waters and take up positions just half a mile outside.

We, er, caught up. There's strong currents in the western seas...
/

N3 (News)
The combined Cerooan-Guardinian fleet is apparently circling Frankychanland, our sources close to the government all believe this mission is purely to show the combined might of two of the largest, most powerful naval forces in the region- to deter the unstable dictator of Frankychanland from getting any ideas about claiming further territory- you may recall the former Empire of Azan has be claimed by Frankychan, much to our government's objection.

(minor edit: cross-post)

[Guardian]

[OOC: Oops... okay, I see where and how the misunderstanding happened. I also confirm the last known position of the joint fleet. Perhaps the N3 news aren't so far off after all. Of course, the joint fleet's orders must have been changed several days ago in order for it to have gotten this far north by now, and no statements denying any linkage between the joint naval exercise and the FCL crisis would have been made since that time. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak...]


GNN Headline News

Confirmed sightings now place the joint Cerooan-Guardinian fleet approaching the northernmost edge of Frankychanland, where it will probably turn west to circle the northern edge and then head back south along the west coast. Other Guardinian naval forces are moving in to cover the east coast and southern approaches. Tonight it appears as though the 1st Fleet is in the process of being fully mobilised and deployed.
Naval surveillance has been stepped up considerably during the past 48 hours, following the news of Auldoninna's mobilisation and offers of military aid to Frankychanland, which is now officially seen as a threat to Guardinia. Intelligence sources report that Auldoninna military advisors have already arrived in Frankychanland. While this is in itself relatively unproblematic, it is suspected that weapons shipments will commence shortly, and this could prove much more problematic. The worst case scenario is that the combined forces of Frankychanland and Auldoninna begin the deployment of weapons of mass destruction capable of striking Guardinian cities, in which case Guardinia would be forced to respond...


GNS Indiscriminate Justice, approaching northern edge of Frankychanland

Activity was being stepped up. The fighter air patrols were going right up to the edge of FCL airspace. Helicopters were darting around like angry wasps on ASW patrol while larger surveillance aircraft were busy taking in the bigger picture. The fleet's own aircraft were being supplemented by land based Guardinian aircraft. There were rumours of a limited mobilisation of the Guardinian Air Force...


GNS Excalibur, further south along the FCL east coast

Captain French was informed that a maritime surveillance aircraft had located an unidentified ship about 60 miles northeast of where his unidentified contact had been. Fighters were closing in to investigate...


Edit: Corrected the position of the Excalibur.
(FCL east coast, not west.)

[joncha]

JPS Revolution, en route to Jonchastan

Merrill Stubing was annoyed. He didn't like being Captain. He hadn't even wanted to accept the nomination before they left port, but to decline would have been poor form--superstition and all that. Besides, it was just a diplomatic mission, right? Show the flag around the region, make some speeches, be nice to ruling classes in the ports-of-call. Admittedly, all stuff he was good at. It didn't mean he had to like it. His new uniform didn't even fit right.

And now he had this damn mission to deal with. The "passengers", as the command staff liked to call them, had come on board shortly before they left Jonchastani waters. For most of the trip--all of it until Saturday morning, fact--they really were just passengers. Then came the activation order from the Committee for Public Defence. And the unscheduled stop off Frankychanland. And these four new passengers that it was his duty, as democratically elected captain, to deal with.

The "fishermen" that the Revolution had taken on earlier in the day weren't fishers by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, only one of them, trade union leader Glenn Miyashiro, had ever worked a day on a boat in his life. The others--Frankychanland Communist Party leader Dr. Kaulana Emeliano, editor of the FCP newspaper Edwin Garcia, and TV news personality Pamela Leung--looked distinctly out of place in their yellow rain jackets and over-sized rubber boots. They also looked very, very relieved.

"Welcome aboard, comrades."

[Rasputin]

OOC ..

Yes building the new military equipment will take time, but was posted to show we replacing our current equipment that we are sneding to frankychanland. Auldoniina is just expanding its production to meet the dmeand for new weopons, we may be fascist but we see an oppurtunity for income too

[Rasputin]

Auldonina Navy moves into the Territorial waters of Southern Frnakchanland to conduct joint military exercises.

Auldonina sets up major training camp on islands of west coast. Frankychan military being traiined in new weopons.