Convocation | Meetings of the Grand Council of the National College of Defense

[A Former User]

(OOC: ALL POSTS ARE IC SECRET!)

Skeletal Figures

A: Mr. Šín is absolutely harmless. In fact, he appears to be slightly off his rocker. You are being paranoid.

K: Did we not say this about Areai? We believed that she was harmless; that once the convention had finished, she would fade into obscurity. Czech Slavia has a military far larger and more equipped than ours; I continue to hold to the belief that this is a threat, a threat of armed invasion.

A: The man is literally proposing that we buy stick figure paintings from them as to hang from our kitchens.

K: Do you really believe that? Is anyone on this Earth insane enough to believe that stick figure paintings are of such value as he paints them to be. Czech Slavia is dangerous; I am sure that they are unwilling to tolerate our socialism. In fact, they are unwilling to tolerate anything that is not Marxist. We, the closest country to them that is undefended, will be the first they will take.

A: And what of their proposal for Fremet?

K: Threats as well. They shall launch terrorist attacks on the furniture warehouses and conventions of Fremet, weakening the country until it falls apart. No one would ever be able to trace it back to them.

V: Let me interject. You are as loony as Šín. I assume that he has dementia or some other progressive mental disease that will eventually consume his mind entirely, forcing him to be committed to a sanatorium.

K: No, you don't understand. Šín is sane; he is threatening us. We must prepare!

V: We, at least in our area, are exhausted. We cannot prepare for any threat, much less one that is imaginary.

K: You will regret this one day.

A: When? When pigs fly?

K: Simply listen to me. Šín has proposed that stick figures replace actual art, which is an insult both to art itself as well as to our very culture, predicated upon art and self-expression. No one on Earth could believe such a thing. What is the next logical explanation? He is threatening us.

KA: You are reading too much into things - and this from a person who often finds "ulterior motives" in everything.

A: At the very least, you have a reason.

KA: Please, let us stay on topic. Šín is insane, that is all. I expect that he will be sacked relatively soon. Even if Czech Slavia does plan to invade, it would be suicide for them.

V: Let us dismiss this.

[A Former User]

The Light

KA: Evidently, we were wrong - partially.

V: Partially? We were correct; the danger does not come from Czech Slavia. It comes - or will come - from Europe. Or perhaps from [K].

A: Let us not talk of that. It was very unpleasant. In any case, do we have the strength to re-arm? The expulsion took a toll - we all know that.

V: But unlike with the ridiculous and psychotic accusations of [K] with Šín, this is worrying. We may very well be at the center of a nuclear conflict in a month's time; we must prepare.

KA: Yes, that is true; but if we realize this, then surely most of Europe will have as well. Czech Slavia remains a danger, and at least partially because of Šín. Look at it this way: Šín is, as we all know, a psychotic and extreme person - perhaps an opportunist, but that we will never know for sure. If someone similar is appointed to their Ministry of Defense then - it is the end.

V: Well, that is true, but how likely is that?

KA: Very likely. Look to Areai.

A: Areai was Areai.

KA: Šín is an ethnic nationalist; we are treading on that territory.

A: True.

R: I've been silent for far too long. And I'm sure I'm speaking on the behalf of all others here when I ask you how exactly you plan to re-arm?

KA: Well - do you remember the ievonuia program?

R: Are you suicidal? If word gets out that you even suggested such a thing, we are all dead, along with everyone else in our country.

KA: It is our only option.

R: No, it isn't. We have no options.

KA: Then HHF.

R: That is even more suicidal. Perhaps you are getting old.

KA: We are in danger of death. These are all highly dangerous, but they are our only options.

U: Simply wait. Czech Slavia will not attack us; regardless of how insane Šín is, I doubt that their government is. They will not risk invasion.

KA: If they do not care?

U: What will what you suggested do anything to stop such a thing?

KA: Leverage?

U: How exactly would that work? Screaming "I have weapons of mass destruction" will have us all dead. The programs you mentioned were dismantled after Areai for a very good reason.

R: I agree quite strongly. Please stop suggesting this insanity.

KA: I am no [K]. I am the only one of you who has ever been in battle against a foreign force. They have absolutely no mercy. They rained rockets down upon us, a force of only two hundred and far outnumbered. They blew us into oblivion, ripping apart our bodies. If we do not have any leverage, what will they do to us? If we possess these things, perhaps they will be less likely to target us.

R: If anything, they would have the opposite effect.

V: Let's postpone this discussion.

KA: Fine, agreed.

[A Former User]

There had been absolutely no cooperation with the government. The State Elder was little more than a road block; if he were allowed to remain in power, if he were allowed to remain complacent, there would be no resolution; the restoration and the New Society would never come about.

In these times, times of chaos and complacency, action was needed, decisive action. And it was he who had the position and the power to undertake the action.

No longer could any remnant of the old be allowed to stand; it would all have to be done away with. Only then could the Union and its people truly thrive.

1965, 1965, 1965. Those were the days. When people were brave, when people stood for stability, for order, for freedom; when they acted. When society itself was calm and ordered. But even then, it had fallen.

He would need to be revolutionary in his tactics, more revolutionary than the heroes and martyrs of 1965, to achieve the New Society.

He had gathered the Assembly before him. They had removed him; but they respected him, they looked up to him. He was the freedom-fighter, the man who had sacrificed for the Union, the everlasting Republic.

He stood, finally, to speak.

"You are the defenders of the Union," he said, "the defenders of our Republic, which has lasted for 5000 years and will endure 5000 more.

It is your responsibility, your responsibility alone, to protect it from threats. Whether foreign, from the Union of Duchies with its slanderous accusations, or domestic. Even if the threat comes from within your own ranks, it is your responsibility to counter it, so that the Republic, our Republic, may survive a day longer. It is a responsibility you cannot give up; it is a responsibility you must fulfill, must.

Our Union is threatened now by a great number of forces, and has been for decade upon decade. We are threatened from the outside, from the nations which wish to rob us of our very being, and from the inside, from traitors like Weaver Iahela, who wish to subvert rationality itself as to create some grotesque monster that shall consume us all in its insanity. And from the weak, those unwilling to defend their nation. Those who bend under the slightest pressure, who adapt themselves as to fit the "pressures" of our "modern society;" who are willing to hand over this country to the West in an instant.

In these dangerous and horrifying times, when these forces converge as to slowly destroy our enduring nation, our enduring Republic, we must now fufill our responsibility. We must act in defense of our values, the values of our Republic, our Union, or nation.

We can no longer tolerate inaction, no longer tolerate these subversions. We must fight. We must steel ourselves; we must rise up in bravery, the bravery of our forefathers, who fought for our independence against the demands of the West!

We must stand up, rise up, and free ourselves, liberate ourselves, from these menaces! Glory to our Republic, glory to our Union, glory to our nation!

We shall prevail!"

A short speech, but satisfying, hopefully. There was a thunderous applause; hopefully it would begin.

The Union would be free.

[A Former User]

(IC SECRET)

COMMUNIQUE TO THE REITZMIC GOVERNMENT

ALL FOREIGN NATIONALS REMAIN WITHIN THE COUNTRY. NO REPATRIATIONS HAVE OCCURRED.
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MILITARY PRESENCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED, AND WILL BE MET WITH FORCE.

[A Former User]

IXE PRESERVE, UNION OF SYNDICATES

He looked down at the map he had been given. The whole process had been chaotic; for the past three days, they had moved so many times, back and forth across the country.

And now, perhaps, they were lost, lost in this unending forest of stone. The Ixe Formations, an expanse of karst in the north, once, before 1993, a popular tourist destination. Now forgotten, almost abandoned.

They had been told to go down some Godforsaken path that had not been traversed since 1939, and now, now - they were lost!

He looked behind him, at the line of other militia-members, other soldiers. At the evacuees, the foreign nationals who were to be taken to safety. Half of those in the country. The other half were, he hoped, safely within the caves of Ixe.

All of them, terribly worried. Terribly scared. They could come at any time, they who had plunged their nation into near constant chaos.

Or perhaps they were not lost. Only God knew, how mindbending Ixe was, with its twisting, narrow, darkened passages, almost indistinguishable. An endless, terrifying, maze.

Go on. That was all he could do.

Murmurs of discontent. They had been walking for hours already, through this Godforsaken place, almost aimlessly, back and forth through the dim light of this Hell. But, if they were not lost, if they were still on the correct path - God knows if that was true, the map was from 1924, so much had happened in 1993 - they would be close, ever so close.

Further. Down into a dried gorge, which evidently had not seen water flow through it for some time, rotting trees still rising from the sides of what must have once been the creek that had run through it.

Perhaps they were correct; the gorge, the creek were marked, They were to follow it.

Down they went into that macabre forest of death, darkened branches against a dim crack of light so very far above. Ever further down, until finally there was hardly any light at all, the passage terribly tight, dead trees, sparse, rising from the jagged pinnacles of Ixe.

Above, the screaming of the wind, echoing throughout the canyon.

Ahead, the cave, a dark mouth below.

Into the cave, deep into its darkness, they would be safe, hidden.

It would end soon, surely it would.

[A Former User]

SECOND COMMUNIQUE TO THE REITZMIC GOVERMENT

NO CAMPAIGN IS AUTHORIZED. 
NO "TERRORIST" BASES EXIST. THE THREAT WE FACE IS ONE
 THAT IS DECENTRALIZED AND EQUIVALENT TO A GROUP OF UNORGANIZED MOBS. 
WE REPEAT THAT ACTION WILL BE TAKEN AGAINST ANY AIRCRAFT 
WHICH HAS THE INTENTION OF VIOLATING THE NO-FLY ZONE IN EFFECT.