Arms Race...?

[Suverina]

To: GHET

From: The Great Queendom of Suverina

RE: Arms race

 

It appears that the "great" empire tries to expand it's navy. You know as well as we that the Tagmatine armed forces are a big bluff. Tagmatium sends what it's gott into every conflict and they have lost 9 wars out of ten throught history. Why waste money expanding the bluff? You should at least know that any military expansion made by the GHET will be countered by Suverinian expansion. In response to these rescent news we also will start expanding our navy and our airforce to be able to defend ourself from any tagmatine action of hostility.

 

TagEdit: Split from my news thread

Edited July 4, 2007 by Tagmatium Rules (see edit history)

[Tagmatium Rules]

To: the Great Queendom of Suverina

From: the Greater Holy Empire of Tagmatium

Re: "Arms Race"

 

Tagmatium does indeed wish to expand its navy from the small size it currently has, to one which is more on a par with the Greater Holy Empire's size. Previously, the Holy Imperial Navy was somewhat small for its size, especially after the events of our civil war.

 

Nor are the Tagmatine armed forces, including the oldest proffessional army in the region, a "big bluff", nor has the Imperial Government decided to send the entirety of its armed forces into every conflict. Such a move would be fallacy. Other fleets and armies are left to behind to defend the Greater Holy Empire.

 

Tagmatium's war-record remains more pure than that of Suverina's. At least Tagmatium doesn't attack its allies in underhand methods and oppress peaceful independence movements with brute force.

 

If Suverina wishes to expand its navy, then that is no business of Tagmatium's.

 

OOC: Suv, if you want to continue with this, you want to start a seperate thread or anything? It'll clutter up my news thread otherwise.

[Suverina]

To: the Greater Holy Empire

From: Suverina

Re: Arms race

 

Tagmatium wants to expand it's navy and it does. But isn't that pollution? You will surely pollute the sea with your ships, think of how many tons of steel and thousands of tagmatine men that will sink to the bottom after they have entered combat. Because surely most of the navy will sink if they met a descent fleet, the Tagamatine fleet will be an even bigger bluff than it's army!

 

Of course as a Tagmatine you are all very proud of your big bluff, you are so valiant always go out and fight for what you believe in, but like the crusaders you also lost in the end.

 

Suverina will not have to defend it's action that it did to secure peace, when we knew peace wasn't possible we ceased all hostile actions

 

If Tagmatium acquire one ship, Suverina will build two!

 

___________________________________________________________

 

"Good day Alexei, I'm glad you could come."

 

"Oh, yes the wife wasn't so glad I left on a holiday and all, but everything for socialism!"

 

"Yes of course... Everything for.. *cough* Socialism.. "

 

"Are you ill, comrade?"

 

"No Alexei, I'm fine. Did you bring the plans?"

 

"Yes, comrade admiral, I brought them, they're here(he points at his briefcase)"

 

"Very good, let's go inside and have a drink"

 

"Yes comrade admiral"

 

The two men entered the building, the room was full of naval commanders and the chief of staff. The two men sat down on two empty seats. Ioann Trushin, the chief of staff stood up to speak.

 

"Comrades, our brothers and enemies in Tagmatium have publicly announced that they will start expanding their navy. You all know that the Suverinian navy is larger an better than the Tagmatine navy, but if the Tagmatines expand and modernize they might actually be threat to Suverina. Therefore I and our great queen have decided... "

 

The chief of navy, Rotislav Karin interrupts him. "WHAT!? As always you in the army takes decisions about the navy without asking any of us! What is this? When will it stop, I will not take it anymore. I demand that you and I discuss the plans in private before you share them with the rest."

 

"NO comrade minister, the queen decided that you weren't necessary." Rotislav leaves the room very angry.

 

"So comrades, finally he left. Here are the plans for expanding our navy." He hands out a file for everyone. "Now read them"

 

"This looks good, comrade minister."

 

"yes it looks very good, shall we vote?"

 

Ivan, you know I handle the voting."

 

"Yes, sorry comrade minister."

 

"Now, let's vote, all in favour raise their hands now! Good, yes, all are in favour. Boris, send this to the queen and prime minister immediately. Good comrades, I think we're done here."

[Tagmatium Rules]

The Minister of War sighed as he looked over the messages handed to him by the Vice-Chancellor.

 

?Wretched Suverinians,? said Kontarian. ?How did they go from being one of our closest allies to one of the most antagonistic nations in the region??

 

The question was rhetorical, but the Vice-Chancellor answered it anyway.

 

?Because they feel they have something to prove. They are politically isolated, and think that by being ridiculously belligerent to their nearest neighbour will help them in the end. Suverina forgets, or ignores, the fact that we?ve got some of the most powerful nations in the region as allies or as friends.?

 

Both men were sat at the Minister of War?s desk in the heart of the Imperial Palace Complex. It had been decided by the Imperial Cabinet that the Vice-Chancellor, Philip Commenus, would handle the Great Queendom?s irrational messages without it distracting the rest of the Imperial Government from their business.

 

?I don?t imagine old Commodus is particularly happy with their rants, though.?

 

Commenus shrugged. ?Suverina was never a particularly good ally, too erratic to ever be such. They were only ever meant to counterbalance the Aristocratic Confederation, but as they?re now friendlier towards us that Suverina is, I think we can let the pariah nation of Europa continue to isolate itself with its own idiocy.?

 

?Still? would it be wise to put the Southern Army on alert? Just in case they decide to do something rash?"

 

"No," replied Commenus. "That could stir them up too much. Plus, I doubt that the High Command would like it."

 

The Tagmatine High Command, whilst in theory subordinate to both the Ministry for War and the Holy Emperor, was notorioulsy recalitrant and regularly took a while to carry out the Imperial Government's orders, procrastinating until a decision was forced on it by the Imperial Government or necessity.

 

"Well, as least we have to give those Suvskies a reply," said Kontarian, using the Tagmatium's derogatory term from Suverinians. "Something to stir them up a bit."

---

To: the Great Queendom of Suverina

From: the Greater Holy Empire of Tagmatium

Re: Suverinian Fallacies

 

Once again, Suverina overestimates its own importance within the region. If the Great Queendom wishes to expand its navy, then it may. Why should Tagmatium care what a mere principality does? One whose entire history is nothing but an aping of its northern better's actions?

 

Suverina also assumes that its only naval actions against other shipping, the mining of international waters and the murder of Miirosi citizens, were successful, means that it is then able to go toe-to-toe with the greater powers of the region. Once again, the Great Queendom is entirely wrong in this outlook. Actions against smugglers, poorly-armed pirates and civilians doesn't constitute a true naval action, and threatening a power who actually possesses a navy whose quality exceeds that of Suverina's many times over isn't the wisest of actions.

 

OOC: Oooh, you want to attempt some sort of espionage RP?

 

By the by, the Tagmatine navy is incredibly modern but rather small.

Edited July 6, 2007 by Tagmatium Rules (see edit history)

[Suverina]

"Comrade minister?"

"Yes your highness, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, it's about those Tagmatines and their naval expansion. We must make sure that we know certain what they are up to, and than we must try to sabotage for them as much as we can. Event though we know our fleet will be larger and better they must not posses any threat at all."

"Yes your highness I understand, the secret services will take care of this immediately. We will send more spies into Tagmatium to be able to carry out the mission."

"Very good. I hope that you will not fail."

"I assure you your highness, our men will succeed in the name of socialism."

 

__________________________________________________________________

 

As for safety reasons the men couldn't travel directly to Tagmatium so they had to travel a long way before they could arrive. First they went to hanemar, and from there they were to travel to Tagmatium posing as tourists coming home from a holiday in Hanemar.

 

"Welcome to Tagmatium comrades!"

Most of the men looked nervous, this was their first mission outside Suverina.

"I hope the trip has gone well. Now remember comrades, from now you are no longer Suverinian citizens, you are Tagmatine, you have jobs within the Tagmatine navy and homes in Tagmatine cities. You have lived in Tagmatium your whole lives, as the Tagmatine culture is a lot similar to our own it won't be hard to blend in."

 

Corruption has plagued Tagmatium for ages, therefore it is easy to get spies in to positions were they are likely to handle secret material or even directly be working on secret projects. The Suverinian spies we're quickly installed and within one week half of them had began working within the Tagmatine navy.

[Social Democratic Confederation]

"Good lord..." Panos exclaimed, dropping the intercepted back-and-forth communique between Suverina and Tagmatium. "Do they really think they can win?" Panos asked Defense.

 

Panos and his thirteen cabinet members were all seated around an ovular table somewhere in the Capitol Building. As it was with most of these kinds of meetings, only four of them were actually necessary. The rest were there in order to keep current with the direction the administration was heading, and to receive orders if Panos gave them.

 

"It seems so. Intel has managed to pick up on a small-scale reorganizing of Ivan's military appropriations, indicating their definately thinking about it. In addition to that, the transcoms definitely point in the same direction."

 

"Also," Mr. Mirko, Director of the Intelligence Agency, interrupted, "Our operatives in Hanemar spotted a distinctive tourist; a suspicious-looking Suvie, as our agent's report says. I'd assume that he was there on his way to Tagmatium. Agents in Suverina itself suggest the same."

 

"I wonder why they aren't responding so boldly to our own expansion of the armed services. At any rate, Ivan's choice actions are rather dangerous to stability on our sub-continent. But we won't be taking sides, yet. Mr. Mirko, keep up surveillance on Ivan. Watch 'em. Monitor what they're building, how much, and what their standing Navy, and service, are doing.

 

"We're already at DEFCON1, we can get away with a little something, I think. Activate the Home Fleet, Mr. Defense. Have them patrol the Amnalos Sea, and watch for Ivan activity at sea."

 

OOC: Ivan is a nickname for Suverina

Edited July 8, 2007 by Social Democratic Confederation (see edit history)

[Deltannia]

OOC: I'm going to briefly join this and then quickly get out of it with the re-isolationism thread. Oh, and by quickly get out, I mean I'll take what I need into that thread and I won't clutter this one (i.e. any buildup of weapons will occur there, not here, since it will focus more on the other story).

 

I recently came up with the idea of creating a new supercruiser in my written stories for Delta, since their great navy depended a long time on a large fleet without this incredible firepower. I'm currently working on the Mark II.

 

-----

 

"Sir, they're not ready yet. We cannot possibly have all functionality prepared within the next few days."

 

He picked up his pace on the grill walkway, the Commodore keeping up with him. "I don't care. We've got a major naval buildup a little too close to our borders, and High Command wants the Esseus at sea within the next four days."

 

"With all due respect sir, we need at least another three weeks to even get the up to active status."

 

"Then get one of them operational, Commodore, but four days. That's what you have..."

[Cabarria]

The aide handed Defense Minister Blackwell the communication intercepts in the minister's spacious office. He looked with worry over the reports of a seeming Tagmatine and Suverinan naval buildup. "Suverina especially worries me," he muttered. "They're not that far across the Amnalos..."

 

Within minutes he had King Brandheld IV and Prime Minister Kyle Durhanion on conference call and apprised them of the situation. "Perfect," Durhanion said with annoyance. "All we need is an arms buildup across the northern sea."

 

"I'm authorizing a review of our naval capabilities, with a possible eye at building a few ships of our own," the King intoned. "And send two carrier battle groups to conduct naval exercises just inside the Amnalos. I don't want anyone to think it would be no trouble at all to send a few warships Cabarria's way."

[Damak Var]

High Executor Drask read the intelligence report and sighed.

 

"Our shipping lanes in the Raga and Kant sea is vital in order maintain the steady flow of raw materials and manufactured products. A decent portion of our nation's income comes from the exploitation of this island's natural resources and low wages." His chief advisor stated.

 

Drask nodded in the reply and looked to another advisor. "Surely this is just another ridiculous flaunt of power by the Suverinians. They would not dare enter armed conflict with Tagmatium with the many other superpowers in the region."

 

"The Suverinian government has proven to be quite a volatile entourage recently and there is no telling what will happen. But any naval engagements between them in the Raga and Kant seas will threaten the security of shipping to and from Rutanika." He replied nervously.

 

A representative of the Varian Intelligence Office opened took a folder out of her briefcase and began to examine it. "Verstecktoper and Regius Naval Intelligence reports indicate a lack of faith in the Tagmatine navy to win a battle of the seas. Should the Suverinians capture the canal or establish dominance in the Raga, there is no telling what they will do. God forbid they close of Varian shipping."

 

High Executor Drask stood to address the group. "Perhaps we are overreacting about the situation. We will take no action at the moment. However I want the agencies to continue gathering intelligence on the situation so we can assess it further. Shelley, as representative of the Varian Intelligence Office I want you to brief the High Council on this matter as well. Be sure to relay my proposition of not taking any action at the moment."

Edited July 7, 2007 by BlackJackEmperor (see edit history)

[Tagmatium Rules]

The situation had got out of hand, rather quickly. The Imperial Government was, frankly, fairly surprised with the reaction of the rest of the region, although definitely not with that of the Great Queendom?s. What was just going to be a fairly routine overhaul of the Holy Imperial Navy, long planned ? since before the Adapton War ? had managed to send shockwaves across the region, as far as Damak Var and Cabarria. News from the diplomatic channels, from the various Tagmatine embassies and consulates across the region, hinted that several other nations were thinking of revamping their own navies or undertaking naval exercises to show that they weren?t pushovers. The spies of the Tagmatine Intelligence Network verified these rumours.

 

Honorius Kontarian, the Minister for War, knew that the region wasn?t reacting to the Greater Holy Empire?s naval expansion, but to Suverina?s reaction. The Great Queendom was distrusted in most circles in Europa. Not even the crusading Red Iberic Workers had offered the hand of friendship, as far as Tagmatine intelligence could find out. Kontarian drummed his fingers on the desk in front of him, thinking that a cigarette would definitely help his nerves. He sighed to himself and tried to put that idea out of his head. He?d given up again only recently, and the more stressful a situation was, the more tempted he was to start up again.

 

?And we?re sure that the Suverinians aren?t trying anything sneaky? I thought any of their citizens were still being followed by the III??

 

Kontarian was having an informal meeting with the Head of the Tagmatine Intelligence Network, as it was suspected that Suverina might try to infiltrate naval dockyards to hamper and sabotage the naval expansion.

 

?Minister Tonaras stopped the trailing of Suverinians after the AdSoc War,? rasped the chief spy. His dry, croaky voice and incredibly pallid complexion had led to his nickname of ?the Liche? amongst his own staff and many members of the Imperial Government. ?His Imperial Majesty thought that they?d be best put to trying to capture Richard Bowman. Undoubtedly, the III will be ordered to follow them again, just to make them realise the Greater Holy Empire doesn?t take insults lightly.?

 

?But what of any potential Suverinian spies, Mr. Fry?? asked Kontarian with a hint of frustration in his voice.

 

?I have received no reports that point to an expansion of the number of Suverinian intelligence agents active within Tagmatium. Of course, my men are actively looking for any and all agents from nations hostile to the Greater Holy Empire, so this situation may change at any time.?

 

The Minister for War sighed again. ?Thank you, Mr. Fry. Please alert me as soon as anything comes up.?

 

The Head stood up, bowed slightly to Kontarian and left the room. Kontarian drummed his fingers on his desk whilst frowning in thought, and then pressed the intercom on his desk.

 

?Miss Robins, please could you make Minister Tonaras aware of the current situation?? Kontarian disliked the man, suspecting him of ulterior motives, but knew that the Ministry for War would need the help of the Interior Ministry, especially the police and the III. Unlike many other nations, the Tagmatine Defence Ministry didn?t have its own police force. Bases were guarded by armed soldiers, whether from the People?s, Naval, Aerial or Imperial Guards. They couldn?t run around after suspected spies ? it?d make people too jumpy.

[Suverina]

Chisnau:

 

"Comrade minister!" The man salutes to the intelligence minister.

"Yes comrade Burov?"

"I have the reports on operation Zazva"

"Ah, good. Please tell me."

"The operation has been a complete success, everyhting so far has worked out as planned. The men arrived, they quickly got their missions and started carrying them out. No one has been captured and intelligence says that the Tagmatines aren't directly suspecting anything."

 

The minister lit a cigarette, stood up, looked out through the window.

 

"Good... I'm still worried though, even if the Tagmatines are corrupt they aren't stupid. Not at all."

 

__________________________________

 

In Tagmatium:

 

Alexsei Shaposnikov opens the door to his apartment.

"Uhm, hello"

"Hell to you to, so can I come in. It's important"

"Yes, I guess you can"

The man goes inside the aparatement, looks around sits down on the sofa in the living room.

"Uhm, excuse me, but who are you?" Alexei asked.

"I know who I am, you don't need to fill your head with unimportant knowledge. So.... How long have you been here, Micheal? Or do you prefer to be called Alexei?"

"Sch, not that loud. Someone might hear"

The man looked liked he didn't care what Alexei said.

"So Alexei, as you might have guessed I'm from HQ. I've been in charge for intelligence-research in Tagmatium ever since the revolution. You know... I fought in the revolution, liberated Bucharest from the fascists, and what do they do? They put me here. Just that you know Alexei, I am a true socialist. Not like you back home, you're turning social-fascists just like Tagmatium did quite a while ago. You see.. we need another revolution. But the queen us holding everyone in a firm grip, with her charisma and style.. she's put a spell on the population.. But you know... I see through all glamour and jewelery."

"So, comrade... Why are you here?"

"Just to make you know I'm here, if you do any mistake you should know I won't be kind with you. Just be careful and everything will be fine.. I promise" The man quickly got up and left the apartment.

[Suverina]

"Hello, please sit down"

"Ah, yes. Thank you. You have already received this information? If I'm not misinformed.."

"Ah, yes. I got them yesterday So i haven't had so much time to look at them. They're quite impressive though. Do we really have such large capacity?"

"Yes we have, Bucharest shipyard has just finished their expansion. We will see that we have the capacity to build the ships. Our merchant marine will of course suffer, but we can always purchase merchant ships from abroad."

"The plan looks good, almost too good to be true. I can't believe that our shipyards have such an enormous capacity."

"Well, really not. But our naval industry will be working as we were in the state of war. That means we can push ourselves to the max."

"So once again, exactly how many ships will we build?"

6 aircraft carriers, 15 ordinary cruisers, 10 AA cruisers, 5 missile cruisers, 50 destroyers of various shapes, 10 new coastal defence cruisers and 30 submarines. That's mostly it."

"Wow, that's impressing"

"Yes, and we can do it as well. A capitalist country wouldn't be able to adjust their industry like we socialist can."

"Yes indeed"

"So, the queen has approved the plan"

"Well, more or less"

"What? Has she or has she not."

"That's not a problem, trust me comrade"

 

_________________________________

 

The speech that Queen Eva held in the parliament"

 

"We must show these damn Tagmatines and the rest of Europa what Suverina is capable of! The SDC have been expanding, and Suverina must also expand! This is the only way to show the Tagmatines the might of the Suverinian armed forces.

 

For a long time we have wanted to bring all suverinians into one united country. Now is the time. Suverina is mighty and must show it's might. Several successful wars against our neighbours will surely ensure Suverina a strong position in the politics of Europa.

 

We must within one month start preparing our army and mobilize our forces!"

 

 

[Haruspex]

Relayed on a heavily encrypted network, random binary numerics and primary letters flowed in a reverse pattern. When and if the decryption was made, the 648bit code would be as if one looked into a mirror, slowly would the words revert to proper form, and would read as such.

 

To: Suverina

From: The Principality of Machina Haruspex

Additional: Sengar d'isto Na'Kuhl Gates, 1st Szeous Da'rex, House Olath Orn

Concerning: Diplomatic Relations

 

Greetings,

On behalf of the Empress of the Principality, I am sending this message in the hopes of peace and prosperity between our respective nations. We have no doubt that you are accutely aware of the rising tension between ourselves and the infidels of the Cussian influence stemming from Beautancus.

 

We are also aware of your military mobilization. There are others worried about such, not us. We see it as a right of any nation to expand, to rise up and challenge the world about them. It creates strength and fire in your citizens. We of the Principality wish to share in your strength, in your glory and seek a military alliance where you shall be beholden to aquiring high grade military hardware to further your own ends.

 

It is our hope that we recoginize Suverina as a friend, of which trade and further economic bonuses stem from, rather then an enemy. We extend an offer, for a visit to meet with a diplomatic representative and discuss our futures in Europa.

 

--End of Transmission--