R P G: Stríð Karla

[Toast of Awesomeness]

IC: "Of course. I'm not one to turn away drinks, especially on such an occasion," chuckled the Sultan.

[Alex Humva]

OOCJust realized I derped on my spec-ops profile, forgot to mention the team size. Editted.EDIT: Derp on the derp. I did say the team size.IC [Feast]The canister hidden in her pocket was given to the Sultan; she had already wiped it off, so it wasn't too creepy.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Gaius Alex Humvus Augustus

[Toast of Awesomeness]

IC: He took the canister, and took a sip, tasting it thoughtfully."It's quite strong... Seems like it'd be better as the base of a cocktail, to my palate. Well, to each his own. I'm sure it will sell here, even if only to taverns. I'll speak to my advisors about it."

[Lara White]

IC: Meanwhile, in Astaria, a body was found. Not terribly notable by itself, but when the local authorities began to investigate, they discovered that the circumstances of his death were eminently questionable. They began digging deep into his activities during the past month and eventually discovered that he'd been involved in illegal activities, and had been receiving money from a foreign power. Which foreign power, they weren't sure, because the money passed through many, many front companies before arriving in the spy's hands. They discovered that a Stan diplomatic attache had been the spy's handler, paying off the low-level government worker for minor state secrets. In the course of rolling up the Stan spy ring, another was discovered by accident, due to two cut-outs riding the same train. This one, after a laborious amount of investigation, was determined to belong to the Anitalian Embassy.A missing persons case resulted in the discovery of a spy ring belonging to Kiserre and operating out of their Embassy. This, in turn, led to the discovery of a Walruusaan spy ring, also operating inside their Embassy.If the police were to search the embassies, they would find various low-level government documents and secrets, but there were a few important pieces like budgets or committee meeting minutes and the like. A few loose ends in some of the cases implied that other nations were involved in espionage against Astaria, although none of them were anywhere near the level of classification that hid Project Reverene.

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

OOC: There's a reason I never mentioned any Waalrusaan spying efforts, and its because there aren't any. They're isolationist, no spying, no tourism, largely because they just don't care what you guys are doing. So finding a Waalrusaan spy ring is impossible, or a frame up

[Toast of Awesomeness]

OOC: ....I don't have spies?

[Wyrd Bid Ful Araed]

OOC: You can have the ones I've apparently been sending

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

OOC: I think the implication is supposed to be that it's a frame-up, though really, it's a big job for a frame-up.

[Xomeron]

Jegus man will you stop controlling my bloody people?IC:The response to the spy rings was muted, to say the least. The Astarians had little to no experience with espionage; this was evident enough in their brutal, clumsy attempts to respond to spies; they simply had little to no practice in how to handle wizards. Nearly a dozen Aquilonians, all of whom had voiced their opinions on Astaria's economic system(some were actually foolish enough to think that no-one else would hear them in a bar, others had been reported by the people to whom they spoke)None of them were heard from for three days. But the Astarians, brutal as they might have seemed(though clumsy was a far better word) knew that torture simply didn't work; in all likelihood, any competent spy would have a hollow-tooth style suicide system. Thus, the ideological spies were fined a certain amount, their DNA added to a file, and their names listed for the Office of Intelligence. They were released afterward.On the borders, meanwhile, Astaria tightened regulations on immigration; immigrants were required to be able to fluently speak and write their own language, and demonstrate some skill that could contribute to Astaria, be they locksmiths, metallurgists, electricians, or the like. Unskilled labor, Astaria could provide. Foreigners who had nothing to offer in terms of skills were rejected, and sent to their home countries. Those immigrants already living in Astaria who did not match the same criteria were deported again, and, day laborers being by far the most common profession for spies, this was bound to remove several from the equation.The Helbrecht Destroyer, first of its class, was launched, and joined the operations in opening a military base on the island in N-6.

Edited March 21, 2012 by cardworkMagician

[Lara White]

OOC: I'm confused as to what is going on. I haven't made a move with any of my spies since you arrested my patsy (whom you still haven't interrogated, by the way). Your cops found spy rings by four other countries and you go and arrest my guys? How does that logically follow?

[Xomeron]

OOC: The arrests were a lead on from earlier; your guys were either heard by prying ears in the bars where they discussed the VIRTUES OF CAPITALISM or they were turned in by the scientists they talked to. The Astarians were just delayed until now by figuring out what to do about these punks.

[Lara White]

OOC: Seems unlikely, but okay. i've lost maybe two guys. Congrats. Now what about everything else I've brought to your attention?IC: Soon the businesses whose employees had been evicted from Astaria went to the international press, claiming that their employees were unfairly deported. They had not broken any Astarian laws and had merely been talking to people they believed were friends. Soon news articles all over the world were running with headlines like "ASTARIAN GOV'T DEPORTS BUSINESSMEN" or "HABEUS CORPUS: WHAT'S THAT?"

[Xomeron]

OOC: There you go, controlling Astarian business owners, as in, my people. One more liberty with people I control and I'm going to talk to Alex about this.IC:The Astarian Head of State was, in fact, responsible for the "HABEUS CORPUS: WHAT'S THAT?" headline, a direct quote from her. Astaria's legal system included a similar concept, but not identical, and she of course hadn't studied the language that the phrase sprung from(it being a predecessor to the Aquilonian language) and in the same interview, she pointed out that, not being Astarian citizens, the laws did not apply to or protect the Aquilonian immigrants.

Edited March 21, 2012 by cardworkMagician

[Lara White]

OOC: I never controlled any Astarian business owners. I controlled Aquileonese business-owners whose employees got kicked out due to your policies.I still have to push: what are you going to do about the spy rings that were uncovered and the spy you arrested last night (OOC)?IC: Suitably satisfied that no purge would touch them, the Aquileonese case officers went back to work. To suitably...motivate...the spies whom they were still pressuring, they released the blackmail material they had on the scientist who'd tried to draw them into a trap. Disseminating it in such a way that it could not be traced back to them, the scientific community was astounded to discover that the scientist had plagarized major parts of his work from other scientists, all of whom had mysteriously vanished shortly afterward. This was one of the most serious sins in any academic community and he would likely never find work again.OOC: If you complain about me controlling your guy, remember: you let me blackmail him, and he had to have done something to be blackmail-worthy, no?

[Xomeron]

OOC: He's officially "disappeared into one of those black bags"The government has made no official response to these uncovered spy rings.IC:These Aquilonian business owners brought an unfortunate amount of attention to themselves by complaining about their businesses; it was noticed that no business licenses had ever been issued to these men(or to any foreigners, for that matter)Each of the businesses was brought under control of the Astarian government or disbanded. The owners were deported to Aquilonia for the very real crime of "Operating Illegal Businesses"The government was not concerned with one disgraced scientist, but at his request an investigation was launched into the information's sources.OOC: I never said Astaria was open to foreign business.

Edited March 21, 2012 by cardworkMagician

[Lara White]

OOC: You never said it wasn't. Since I had no reason to believe otherwise, I assumed you'd want to bring in as much foreign commerce as possible. It grows an economy, after all.Oh, also, let me clarify: you deported the heads of the local branches...not the CEOs of the megacorporations who own the branches. ;)IC: The information was traced--after many days of slow, painstaking interrogation of gossipers--to an aide at the Slacian Union embassy.Meanwhile, the spy who'd been disappeared confessed that when he'd been threatened, it'd been by a man with a Slacian accent.OOC: I assumed that he was vanished, I was wondering why you hadn't posted a scene interrogating him. Since you don't seem to want to, I've provided you with the information you would get from him anyway.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Lloyd: the White Wolf

[Xomeron]

OOC: Because I didn't yet want to write an interrogation scene.Also, not particularly. The Astarians, as I've said, are Xenophobic and bigoted; if any foreign businesses were allowed, those businesses would be forced to purchase a business license from the government, a right that would likely be denied.IC:These two pieces of evidence, acquired nearly simultaneously, were of course connected. Thus, four possibilities were drawn up. First, the Slacians were infiltrating Astaria on their own. Second, the Slacians were part of a conspiracy with the Aquilonians(who were under suspicion due to their ideological spies) Third, the Slacians and Aquilonians were part of a large overrarching conspiracy of multiple foreign countries. Fourth, the Slacians were scapegoats for the Aquilonians' conspiracy. None could be confirmed, and thus no action was taken.

[Lara White]

IC: The Aquileonese case officers, satisfied that nothing would happen to them, began to pressure the scientists again. They used the disgraced scientist as an example, saying "See? if you go to the government, this is what will happen to you. Comply or I will release these files."Meanwhile, other case officers began to spread their nets for engineers related to Project Reverene. It wasn't hard to narrow the search criteria, as the specialized building techniques that these kinds of things required were not available to your average engineer.

[Xomeron]

IC:Nor was any knowledge of what exactly Project Reverene was. Thus, the Aquilonians had no knowledge of the required skills, and no clue where to look. More importantly, due to the security precautions recently instituted, the scientists related to Project Reverene would no longer have any chance to meet any foreigners. Their communications still went out, some of their work still published, but no-one saw them in person.OOC: How exactly are you communicating with your target scientists, anyway?

[Lara White]

IC: Notes, letters in the mail, stuff like that.Contrary to what some people would imagine, the case officers had a sneaking suspicion of what Reverene actually was, especially when they examined what fields the employed scientists worked in. So no, it wasn't hard to narrow the search criteria.OOC: So, yeah, er. What exactly do these scientists have degrees in?

[Xomeron]

OOC: All sorts of things; metallurgists, mathemeticians, ballistic experts, exotic material researchers, exotic environment researchers, Air Force pilots, nutritionists, electrical engineers, computer experts, tailors, a martial arts expert, meteorologists, oceanologists, several Naval officials.IC:It was inevitable that, at one point or another, each of the Aquilonian spies would inevitably send a few messages through the mail, and their targets would ceretainly have an address at which to contact them. Astaria had no PO boxes, or any equivalent system of anonymous mail; mails were delivered to a physical address or not at all. And when the postal system was alive and on your side, much could be accomplished. Three of the spies received their reports from their target scientists. These men's work was not related to Project Reverene, but the much lower priority and less secret Project Aveline. Most critical was a blueprint for a heat/power circulation system. Large sheets of aluminum, painted black, would absorb heat from light cast on them, heating a tank of water and anti-freeze, which turned a turbine, producing electrical power. Each of the scientists had an incomplete picture of the system, but between the reports, the design could be pieced together.

Edited March 21, 2012 by cardworkMagician

[Lara White]

OOC: Unless you have scientists working on both projects at the same time, I don't see how I could blackmail a Reverene scientist and get Aveline data.IC: The information was carefully screened and sent back to Aquileon via diplomatic courier, and sent to the intelligence agency's headquarters at once. The analysts there began poring over it. One analyst noted with interest that Air Force pilots were being used for the Reverene project. Exotic materials and metallurgists were not considered to be significant--their work simply meant that Reverene required some sort of unique metal coating on the outside. Tailors, nutritionists, and the martial arts expert were decided to be for the equipping and preparation of the Air Force pilots--since the pilots were the most likely to be testing whatever Reverene was. The electrical engineers were quite normal on pretty much any project. It was the meteorologists, exotic environment researchers, and ballistics experts who attracted the most attention: something was going up, and whatever it was was likely manned. the question then arose: where are they going? You wouldn't need nearly as much effort as was being invested here just to go up in a high-flying aeroplane, so the next logical stage was into space. The Astarians were trying to send a man to space.Now knowing what they were looking for, the Aquileonese tasked their satellite to look over all of Astarian territory for the location of the build site.Meanwhile, the Aveline data was held in much higher suspicion--as they had neither know of the existence of this program nor asked for the data, the analysts were suspicious that it was a plant by counter-intelligence.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Lloyd: the White Wolf

[Xomeron]

IC:There were plenty of sites that could have been used to launch a spacecraft. Essentially any open field large enough could do, or any long stretch of highway. But a detailed satellite scan revealed no obvious launch sites on Astaria, or her colonies on Europa

[Lara White]

IC: Intelligence was stymied for a moment, but the inclusion of oceanographers and Navy officers got the attention of several analysts. The satellite was quickly tasked to inspect Astarian naval activity.

[Xomeron]

IC:The recent launch of the Helbrecht was the only massive naval activity. The ship was formidable, but it was floating off the shore of the N-6 Naval-Airbase, which was still in the early stages of being established.

Edited March 21, 2012 by cardworkMagician

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

OOC: I'm really enjoying this little back-and-forth spyfight between you two. Very entertaining.

[Xomeron]

OOC: It does make an interesting little battle of wits. Lloyd clearly has me on the defensive, and he's far more experienced in this sort of thing than I am. Given that, I think I'm holding my own rather well.And, I'm offline for the night. Bai.

Edited March 21, 2012 by cardworkMagician

[Lara White]

OOC: Thank you, Rover.Xom, you still didn't answer how I ended up with info I didn't ask for. :PEDIT: IC coming later. Considering alternative strategies.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Lloyd: the White Wolf

[Alex Humva]

IC [standast]In preparation for their special operations commencing, the Stan military had begun building small, zeppelin like crafts. No bigger than the size of a ground man, they employed the latest in Stan composite materials, making a very light weight but sturdy craft. The hull of it was specifically shaped to deflect radar, reducing it's radar signature to a large bird; attached to it's body was an array of six dishes, capable of sending and receiving tight beams. An operator on the ground would be able to transmit up to it in a tight beam, making interception impossible unless one was physically inbetween the zeppelin and the operator.The best part was they simply weren't expensive; the composites they were made of were the most expensive part of it, with small motors to turn it's propellers. A knowledgeable civilian RC plane hobbyist could upkeep it; the most upkeep it needed even then was refueling the hydrogen, making sure the composites weren't leaking, and keeping the motors oiled. Simple matter was it barely had any effect on the military budget.Two dozen were ordered and made, with tests to commence shortly over Aquileon space with their radar operators attempting to find it, as well as to see how it'd stand in the wild.

[Xomeron]

OOC: Since you can't actually tell outright who the Reverene scientists were, you're searching most of the government and military employed Scientists. Reverene is far from the only project that's currently being run.

[Kothra]

IC(Kiserre): At Kiserre's yearly electronics conference in Hitoshi, a man stepped up to a microphone. In his hands was a small grey box. To a foreigner, it might just be a piece of plastic, but to the the horde of Kiserrans who cheered as the man stepped forward, it was what would become their new favourite pastime: KoCom's latest development, a 16-bit video game console. The company planned to work with foreign electronics industries and produce export versions of the device, modified to work with foreign television sets or their equivalent. If no television device was available, a variant with a small in-built screen would be produced.OOC: BOW DOWN TO MY BEAUTIFUL SNES.

[Xomeron]

IC:Contact was made by a government-controlled Astarian firm, established for the express purpose of converting foreign electronics. The potential for sales in Astaria was massive, and the firm, known as "Astari Inc." wanted a license to produce a localized version of the console and its associated games.

[Alex Humva]

IC [standast]The Stan First Minister made contact with a representative himself, a rare move seeing as how paranoid Stans were about their First Minister and President being exposed, and promptly ordered a shipment of two million, for dispersal amongst the Stan population. Somewhere a Senator shot himself for this horrible neglect of government funds, the Senate was held for the thirteenth time to see if they could impeach the man for this, and life went on, KoCom now very rich off of one order.

[Lara White]

IC: The first few tests were promising, but soon the radar operators had developed a few tricks to separate the zeppelins from the other noise that appeared at that level of focus (it was entirely possible, and indeed quite usual to filter out everything of that size: airplanes were much, much larger on radar). It took many tests and refinements of the zeppelins, but eventually they were made to be very hard to spot, even to people who knew what to look for and where to look for it.~+~Meanwhile, in Astaria, a "janitor" (so named because he did the dirty work) disguised himself as an Astarian. He made his way to the Stan EMbassy, waiting until he caught a glimpse of the Ambassador himself. As soon as he saw his target, he pulled a machine pistol from underneath his coat, shouted in a loud voice, "Get the spies out!" and opened fire. His salvos struck the Ambassador first, dropping him to the ground and killing him. A few unprepared security guards tried to return fire, but the janitor made his escape in the panicked crowd, shaking any tails he might have picked up, doffing his disguise piecemeal, and making his way to a safehouse.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Lloyd: the White Wolf

[Xomeron]

OOC: No. That did not happen. Don't take control of my people anymore.

[Lara White]

OOC: So what do you say would happen? Rumours start flying that the Stans are spying on your country and your people--who are very patriotic, you've made that clear many times--are going to sit by and do nothing? I'm modelling this off of real life incidents, and the things that my guys were responsible for were the rumours, initiation of the riot, and the Molotov. Everything else is merely a logical extension of what you've told me.If you want to me to retcon it and let you write the riot, feel free to tell me.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Lloyd: the White Wolf

[Alex Humva]

IC [standast]The zeppelin tests, having been satisfactory, were taken back home for further testing while the special operation teams continued their training, with a new skill being put in; one member would be an operator, to communicate with the zeppelins.OOCI'll post my reply to the embassy riot when you two get done fighting.

[Xomeron]

OOC: Well, the main thing is that, in general, Astarians are "Lawful Neutral" They may be fiercely patriotic and xenophobic, but the vast majority of them are law abiding. To take a Cold War example, when rumors were flying about KGB spies across the entire western world, riots were sparse. There'd be suspicion and fear, definitely, but it'd manifest itself in Stans not being too welcome in certain bars, things like that. Not burning down an embassy. Once again, don't control my people.

[Lara White]

OOC: And yet a few eloquent demagogues can get those crowds of fearful denizens to riot. Think of it like a gas fire: paranoia and xenophobia the the gas, the demagogue is the spark. I cite the paranoia of the Puritans regarding witchcraft, which led them to burn even people they knew well, let alone complete strangers.

[Xomeron]

OOC: Astarians are like Germans in this regard; a practical people. They'd want more than rumors spouted by someone with an odd accent and imperfect command of the language who they'd never met before, all of whom seem to be the exact type of wild vagrants all peoples have, who can always be found spouting rumors.