Tyrant of Apolyton arises

[Rasputin]

Message Broadcast by ABC from the President, Roger Ramjet.

My fellow Auldoninna people. You will have heard lately of the claims of the Guardinians and the Cerooites of plans by the Auldonian military to set up missiles in Frnakychan land, this is just a blatant lie. This government has simply joined a fellow free country in open ties. We are building an economic reltionship with the people of Frankychan and have sent only military advisors their to instruct them in the usage of the weopons we have sold them.

As part of this training we are conducting a joint naval exercise in the waters off Frankychan , we of course mena no harm to the neighbours of Frnakychan , but feel that as Frankychan is a small nation they should be armed and aided as best suits the situation.

With world tensions rising i have put out industrial might into overdrive building new tanks and guns for supply to the frankychan people. Also i have blockaded all waters around our nation of islands. Any forgieners entering this area without prior approval will be deemed to be aggresive.

[GeneralTacticus]

SRC Argus

"Captain, the helicopters are moving away, and the Excalibur is turning north, away from us. I think we've lost them."

Well, that's a relief, now, hopefully, we can get back to what we were-"

Hyram was cut off by a loud ding from the main radar-seekers as they registered two more contacts; survelliance aircraft, by the power level and location.

"Oh, ****," he muttered, "is nothing going to go right today. How far out are those aircraft?"

"Several hundred kilometres, sir. We may be able to get away, but it would mean moving towards Frankychanland's waters, violating our primary directive, or else moving towards and past the Excalibur."

"A double bind, I see. Oh well, the President did say detection by the Guardinians wouldn't be the end of the world. Set us a course northwards; maybe we'll get lucky, and maybe not."

[Frankychan]

Off the western coast of Frankychanland
Within FCL waters

The submarine Sentinel sped through the waters, chasing a suspected seacraft that was harboring refugee's. The captain stood at attention near the periscope and looked at his watch.

Estimated intercepted time was 30 seconds.

The captain opted to remain submerged until the last second, where he would have his craft breach and rise alongside the refugee boat. Hopefully that would scare the captain into compliance.

"Captain, we are ready to breach. We are running alongside the craft."

The captain nodded and immediately the sub began to rise.
------

The Waipio Bay chugged along on it's path to international waters. 20 refugee's crammed on the small fishing trawler, hoping to get to anywhere but Frankychanland.

The captain of the trawler wiped the nervous sweat from his brow. He was suddenly jarred from his tiny pilot house by the enormous wake caused by the Sentinel's breach.

The captain, obviously shocked, cut the engines in a panic.

Guards from the submarine immediately started to line up on the hull alongside the fishing trawler. One of the guards held a bullhorn, flanked by more men with machine guns.

"Attention Illegal Craft, your ship is in violation of Frankychanland law. All citizens aboard will surrender immediately and comply with FCL security forces. Upon boarding, you will present your barcodes for inspection, then transfer aboard the submarine. Your boat will then be scuttled and the captain of said vessel will be arrested for treason."

[Guardian]

[OOC: Ooops... here I go posting stuff about major events on the east coast of Frankychanland and then I discover that the interception is happening off the west coast... Of course I have to edit, so it looks like I just invented another Guardinian naval group, which is currently off the west coast of Frankychanland. I'll make this a small group for now. Just a couple of destroyers and 3 frigates. The one which is close to the interception is the Vigilant. ]


Guardinian radar plane Hawkeye 4, off the west coast of Frankychanland

"Sir, contact Skunk 7 appears to have stopped.", a radar operator announced.
Captain Henderson looked up from the situation update brief he'd been reading.
"Is he being intercepted?"
"Hard to say sir. Don't see any other surface vessels closing in on him, but there could be a submarine... If the sub surfaces right next to Skunk 7, we might not see him from up here. We'd have to check with our ASW guys."
Henderson sighed. His aircraft was too far away to be able to properly distinguish between objects that were really close together, especially if a new object appeared just "behind" one he was already tracking.
"How far is he from international waters?"
"About 2 miles, sir."
Henderson cursed softly under his breath.
"That's too far. Damn! The guys on the Vigilant are going to be frustrated. They can see this, but they can't do squat about it."


On board the ASW aircraft Sierra 5

The Sierra 5 had been orbiting lazily just outside the border to FCL national waters for the past 30 minutes, listening in on its' sonobuoys one by one as it passed over them. The aircraft had dropped a line of these little passive sonar buoys just outside the border to FCL national waters half an hour ago and had been monitoring them since then. Things had been quiet so far. Suddenly, the sonarman sat bolt upright and spoke in a high-pitched, urgent tone of voice. "Transients! I have metallic transients and other noise on number 9. Sounds like a submarine surfacing, sir!"
"Where is he?", the pilot wanted to know.
"Sir, it's difficult to tell yet, but he seems to be pretty close to Skunk 7, sir!"
"Radioman! Inform the Vigilant! Now! Tell them we're turning around and making another pass. Sonarman! Drop an active buoy! I think we can ping this guy!" The crew scrambled to obey as the aircraft began to turn around...

[Note: Sonobuoys are small sonar buoys that are dropped from planes or helicopters on ASW patrols. Once in the water, they unreel their sonar equipment in the bottom and a small antenna on top, allowing them to transmit information back to the "mother" aircraft. The sonar on these buoys can be active or passive. Active sonar is the kind that "pings", ie. transmits noise and listens for echoes. Passive sonar does not transmit any kind of noise, it just listens quietly. While active sonar has the advantage of being able to pinpoint the location of a contact more easily and often more accurately, it also has the disadvantage of broadcasting one's own position to anyone and everyone who happens to be in the area.]


Destroyer GNS Vigilant

"Sound General Quarters! All hands, man your battle stations! This is not a drill! Let's go people!"
The sound of the general alarm echoed through the ship, along with the sounds of running footsteps.
"Mr. Meadows! Head straight for that sub contact. All ahead full!"
"All ahead full, aye, sir!"
"Make sure we stop on the border to FCL national waters, but keep us facing him at all times."
"Aye, sir!"

As the destroyer turned and sped up, the fishing boat known to the Guardinian Navy as Skunk 7 was visible on the horizon up ahead. The signalman on the Guardinian destroyer turned his signal lamp in the direction of the distant vessel and flashed a message:

Do you require assistance?

[Edit: Fixed the story so these events are now taking place off the west coast of Frankychanland and the Guardinian destroyer involved is the Vigilant, not the Excalibur. (The latter is off the east coast.) ]

[Guardian]

Guardinian nuclear submarine GNS Sneaky, somewhere off the east coast of Frankychanland

The sub came to the surface just as the two helicopters were arriving overhead. Dark shapes emerged on the deck as the lead helicopter hovered directly over them. Lines were dropped down from the helicopter, and several more dark shapes glided down to the deck and quickly scurried off to disappear inside the sub. As the first helicopter moved clear, the next one came in and hovered...

Less than 5 minutes later, the sub slid back beneath the waves and the two helos moved off in tight formation. They were so close that any radar tracking them would almost certainly show only one helo. If anyone had been watching the show from a distance, they would think they had seen a Guardinian ASW helo pause and dip its' sonar to listen for subs and just sit there a bit longer than usual. To reinforce this impression, the helos proceeded to move about and stop several more times, hovering just above the water, as if conducting a search. Meanwhile, one of Guardinia's sneakiest submarines was slipping away in the opposite direction with it's new passengers and their equipment. There were only two subs of this class in the Guardinian Navy. The other one was the Snoopy, which was also heading west at this very moment, but it was further south and had a different mission...


Navy Thunder Flight, approaching unidentified vessel south of the Excalibur

As they approached the area where the unidentified vessel was supposed to be, the fighters altered course slightly to the east, so as not to be seen heading straight for the contact, which could be seen as an aggressive move. They would make their first pass at a relatively respectful distance, but close enough to have a look and try to see who or what was down there. Then they would turn around and come back, and the second pass would be a bit closer to the target, making it obvious to whomever was down there than the Guardinian Navy knew they were here...

On the second pass, the flight leader switched his radio to the international emergency frequency and spoke in a relatively friendly tone of voice: "Unidentified vessel. This is Guardinian Navy Thunder Flight. Please identify yourself. Over."

Meanwhile, the Guardinians were busy trying to identify the ship they were seeing.

[GeneralTacticus]

OOC: Is this unknown ship the Argus, or a different one?

[Guardian]

OOC: Yes, that would be your ship we're chasing...

[Rasputin]

On board the ASS Minnow

Sir, a lot of foriegn navy ships are approaching us.

The Captain turned and smiled, "Well hopefully they make a mistake and fire on Frankychans navy then, once that occurs, we are free to engage at will"

The young leuitent was not happy, he had not signd up on this tour to fight the Ceroo and Guradinian navys, he ahd though this tour on Auldoninas new Colly Class Sub X9-W345 would be a step along the line to get his own sub one day. But he didnt know that the Commander from hell, Commodore Henry Blithe was to be in command. all the Auldonina navy knew of him and his hatred for all other peoples, in fact most of the time he didnt even regardd foreigners as human. He was hated and detested.

But no one could stand agaisnt him , he appeared to have the full support of President Ramjet. And so The young leuitenant simply saluted and said yes sir.

The Commander smiled , yes, this could all work in his favour, frankychans interception of the vessel above was the first step, now all we needed was the bastards to open fire.... Then he was free to launch !!!!!

[GeneralTacticus]

There was static for a moment, and then a rather raspy male voice answered the Guardinians.

"Thunder Flight, this is the Centralis vessel SRC Argus, here on official business. Over."

[Guardian]

"Copy that, Argus. Please stand by..."

There was a pause for a couple of minutes as the Guardinians tried to figure out what to do. Then the voice came back on, sounding even friendlier than before.

"SRC Argus, you are cleared to go about your business. Let us know if you need a hand with anything. We wish you a safe voyage. Over"

The Guardinians had basically just wanted to know who was out there. Now that they knew, they would pretty much leave the Argus alone, as they trusted Centralis and saw no threat in this lone vessel, whatever "official business" it was on. They would try to keep tabs on the Argus' movements, but apart from that they would leave her alone.

The Argus now had the status of "third party"...

[GeneralTacticus]

As the Guardinian aircraft left, Captain Hyram shook his head.

"Well. Over an hour wasted, and it comes to nothing in the end, except that they may have just given us away to the Frankychanland navy. Comms, have you found anything interesting?"

"Lots of chatter, sir... I haven't been able to decrypt all of it, but apparently Auldonina is sending over some military advisors; lots of stuff on that... hey, I've got something. They just intercepted a boatload of refugees just inside their territorial waters."

"Poor bastards. I think we all know what's going to happen to them... anything else?"

"One of our sonar buoys is picking up something very faint... it matches the profile of an Auldoninan submarine, and it's somewhere near the combined Ceroo/Guardinia naval task-force. You might want to notify them, sir."

"Good idea; I'll pass it on to our embassy in Guardinia. They can forward it without revealing the source."

Moving quickly, Hyram dictated two brief messages, the first to the embassy, the second to the Centralis Space Agency (Intelligence Division).

*Message Begins*

Auldoninan sub near Guardinian forces. G. appears unaware. Please notify.

*Message Ends*

*Message Begins*

F. sub. capturing ref. transport at [co-ordinates]. Please record via sat. imagery.

*message Ends*

[GeneralTacticus]

Geostationery orbit above Frankychanland

About a minute after the Argus's transmission was received, a Centralis Oculus-class spy satellite shifted it's sensors slightly, and began recording.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, images of the sub surfacing and Frankychanland forces storming the trawler began entering CSAID files; the pictures were so detailed you could swear you were hovering right over them.

[joncha]

Andrew Badua tried to relax in front of the tv and focus on his beer instead of the stinging of his new barcode tattoo. The cooking show he was watching had just finished its presentation of one of the Great Leader's favourite dishes. Andrew checked the time--7:29--that meant it was time for the "news."

In the past, before the changes, he would have changed the channel to something more interesting. Now that every station carried FCL News every 30 minutes, there wasn't much point to that. So he took another sip of his beer, and left it on Channel 37.


*** FCL News ***

Our Glorious Leader made a statement this afternoon that...

[static]

[announcer] We interrupt your regularly scheduled propaganda for this broadcast of hope, with Pamela Leung.

"Good Evening, fellow Frankychanlanders. I'm Pamela Leung..."

***

Four minutes later, the tv finally snapped back to FCL News (in progress) and Andrew sat slack-jawed and stared at the screen. The anchorwoman said that Hope TV would come on during the news at random times and on random channels.

Andrew sat up and put his half-finished beer on the coffee table. He still felt the stinging of his tattoo, and the slight buzz from his beer, but he felt something new beginning to stir inside of him, too. Hope.

[ceroomaster]

INS Fable
"Commodore, message in from command- a craft, that matches the profile of an Auldoninan submarine is in the vincinity"
"Thank you, commander", Commodore Ross replied, "Tell the INS Sarali and the INS Keili to begin a sonar sweep of the area- if it's heading this way I want to know".
"Aye, commodore".
"Have any civilian ships exited FCL waters yet?"
"Not yet, sir"
"It's late..."

Hannalia City, Imperial Habour
A great deal of activity was occuring in the harbour area, it seems that ICS Blue Star, one of Ceroo's nuclear submarines has returned to port early.
Local news suggests that it is 'obvious' that it is being readied to join 3rd fleet, and also points out a great deal of activity in the sky, with many Cerooan aircraft from the south landing at Del Rio Airbase on the San Antonio Bay Province-Guardinian border.

Private Transmission FAO: President Roger Ramjet, From: Ceroo Foreign Affairs
President Ramjet,
First Minister Cooper wishes to cordially invite you on a state visit to Ceroo in order to discuss the recent build up of Auldoninnan forces in the area. Cerooan Internal Security will provide safe passage for you while in Ceroo City, and you may bring some of your own security contingent (who will be subject to Cerooan security checks before being permitted into the country). We trust you will consider this offer, and look forward to your reply...

[Mr. President]

OOC: The following segment has no real relation to the story.

Presidential Quarters
Rose Tower
City of Karakas

Two men in suits were in the middle of a loud argument.

"No, that is exactly what this is!" one of them shouted. "You, and twenty million other liberals in this country, are just closing your eyes, as usual!"

The other man tried to interrupt, but his compatriot continued, "Evangelical humanitarianism. Evangelical humanitarianism has come to Apolyton."

Jose Djordjevic watched impassively. He could, since the arguing men were on television, specifically on Southern News' television outlet. The President hated talk shows (or shouting shows in this case); he usually watched action movies in his free time. But he also wanted to know what people were thinking.

"What a typical conservative!" the second man exclaimed. "Just as long as you can keep driving your SUV and eating fast food, you don't care what kind of oppressive monsters are running wild in the rest of Apolyton."

"What are you watching, Jose?"

The President smiled. "Just Southern News, Kirsty."

"It doesn't sound like news," replied Kirsty offhandedly.

Unlike most countries, only ten of Karakas' presidents had been married, a cultural influence left over from the Plains States of so long ago. Djordjevic was proud that his country had reached the point where the president could be a native speaker of Spanish with a Serbian-speaking father, and who was married to a native speaker of English.

Kirsty walked into the room and leaned on the back of his chair, studying the on-screen argument. The show was a tried and tested formula: put a virulent liberal on screen with an arch-conservative and watch the sparks fly.

"This kind of intervention is not limited to the dictators of Apolyton," the arch-conservative declared. "You start with Frankychanland and North Spire, because they use violence against their own people. Then you put sanctions on Dakmoristan because it still has laws from its feudal era. Next you invade Alecrast because you don't think they spend enough money on healthcare. You bomb Karakas because the government says schoolchildren have to be taught in English and Spanish and not Minangkabau, and because our battleships are still pointing their missiles at Kyralia. Where does it end?"

"Do you agree with him, Jose?"

He covered Kirsty's hand with his own.

"It doesn't matter," he said, "whether I believe it." He pointed out the window, across the Rose Tower's courtyard, to the city of Karakas' bustling downtown.

"It matters whether they believe it."