Capellan Confederation IC Roleplaying Thread

[Daemonknight]

Faction Roleplaying Thread

[Cannonshop]

Celestial Palace, Sian...

"...be sure this message is delivered in the next meeting of the Star League."  Kali Liao handed the datachit to the diplomat, "You may go." she added.

Alone in the throne room (well, except for the un-necessary-save-for-appearances-sake security detail)  She brooded, and began composing a letter-the same letter she had been wrestling with for almost six months now.

there was a shuffling of feet in the far end of the hall, and she looked up.

"Aris." she greeted the former Warrior House leader-now placed in charge of ALL Capellan armed forces, "This visit was...not arranged." she asked.

Aris Sung took a knee, "Chancellor, no it-I did not make an appointment."

"Must be important, then?" she asked.

"I finished the defense reviews I promised, we have a problem-at least, if you seriously intend to pursue the agenda we discussed, we have a problem." he said, "We can not build enough ships to support it, and your...diplomats have not yet, in defiance of orders you issued in my presence, discussed the matters with either the Canopians, or the Federated Suns."

Kali frowned, "You have proof of this?" she asked.

Sung swallowed hard, and nodded, "I do.  we can not risk this operation unless we can guarantee that the Suns won't come in and stab our backs."

"Seems rather unlikely, does it not?" Kali said tartly.  Sung wasn't a believer, but he was competent, and Loyal to the realm-a combination that she knew to be more important in the mortal world.  "I will  have to send someone else, then." she added, "and...re-call those diplomats to explain their failure."

"Do you really think Yvonne will accept your offer?" he asked.

"I think she might." Kali said, "She may do a great many things to assure that her border with us is as quiet as possible, once the balloon goes up elsewhere-and barring that, there has been nearly twenty years of, if not good, then peaceful, and occasionally even profitable relations between our realms.  Domestic peace and growing prosperity can be a powerful motivator for diplomacy, nearly as powerful in the short term, with the unimaginative, as having a large army with an excuse can motivate war-besides, once I have...explained to the First Prince what we are doing, and why, and more critically where, well..." she sighed heavily, "I doubt they will have much interest in our territories, it frees up their forces to clear up long-standing disagreements...elsewhere."

"And Tikonov?" he asked.

"I am not my grandfather, Aris,  we have no cause to bring back people who do not wish to be part of the Confederation...hell, we do not even NEED their industries, and I intend that we will NEVER be in a position to lose our industrial base to a single traitor again, particularly over such an IDIOTIC and wasteful thing as a throne with no power that everyone wants."

[Cannonshop]

3080/11/11, Shipka, Cappellan Confederation

The doors of the Bureau of Economic Planning were closed, and locked.  "I do not understand, Chie?"  Luus stared at the bureau's graceful stone frontage.

"Kali Liao has decreed that the Government is not capable of planning the economy properly."  Chie Wan, his co-worker in the office, said in an astonished tone.

"What? she think she can plan it all herself?  What madness is that!"  Luus said, and glanced around frantically, looking for the inevitable Maskirovka men...

"no.  She has decreed that it is the responsibility of the Citizens to control their OWN economic fortunes." Chie said, handing him a leaflet.

"What about us?" Luus asked,  "What will become of those who tired endlessly charting the proper distribution of wealth-?"

a black van slid to a stop beside the street, and uniformed men climbed out wiht submachine guns- Police Riot squaddies, Luus had a bad, bad feeling about this.

"Identicard." the policeman asked.  Luus, a good citizen his entire life, responded by sliding his card into the proffered reader.

"Citizen, please step over to the left of the van."  the officer told him.

Luus, and Chie felt trapped, helpless, as they meekly walked to the side of the vehicle, and waited as the police worked through the crowd of civil servants.

an hour later, another van appeared, this one a large passenger bus.  "Those willing to seek other work, please board the bus.  Those who insist on a government job, stay here."  The lead officer announced.

Luus looked at his friend, "I...think I will try to get another job-one in the private sector." Luus said.

Chie laughed at him, "You're giving up! That easily?" the man said.

Luus nodded, and, humbled, boarded the new bus.

He never saw Chie again, but there were rumours...

Naoming Dataprocessing, Shipka, Cappellan Confederation, 3091/01/12  

Director Luus Naoming  looked over the expansion plans for the new microchip plant, and ran numbers in his head-the cost/benefit of the new factory wasn't that different from the Economic Central Planning work he'd done in his youth, but the need to show an actual profit forced the numbers out of theoretical extremes, and into hard unit fact-which wasn't that different from the work he'd been so often chastised for when his superiors, such as Chie Xuaohung, looked at his reports as too 'pessimistic'.

"Too much cost." he said, "these...and these, we can not afford them, can we do it without them?" he asked.

His partner (and wife) Dao shook her head.  A graduate  of university in engineering with a specialty in Industrial Electronics, she'd been the 'product brain' that led Naoming into a comfortable middle-position in the Confederation's growing consumer and commercial electronics industries.  "no, we can't." she told him, "Not and make the rest of the new plant efficient enough to turn a profit-those two centres will cut our materials wastage by ninety percent.  They'll pay for themselves in a short time."

"Optimist." he chided her, "I will see the Bankers and our investors to-morrow then, and somehow, I will get them to loosen the purse-strings."

There was a knock at the door, and Luus looked to his wife, "Should we answer?" he asked.

"You sent the receptionist home, if we do not answer, maybe we will not learn of new opportunities?" she told him.

He stood up, and walked through the offices, past the empty desks of his employees, whom were at home with their families for the evening, to the front door.

A ragged man stood on the stoop, at first, Luus did not recognize him.

"Chie? Chie Xuaohung? is that YOU?"  he asked, opening the door.

The man stepped in, smiling an emaciated smile, pale faced and thin.  "It is I, Luus, you have done so...WELL!"

"What became of you?" Luus asked.

"Ten years as a Servitor." Chie said, "in a re-education camp, they finally let me go-the Goddess finally forgave me for my vanity, and I was freed...don't suppose you have a job for a good accountant?"

Luus invited his old friend into the back of the office, where his wife Dao set a bowl of rice and some chicken for their visitor.

"my god, Chie, I...I heard stories..." Luus said.

"They're not so bad as all that, the first five years were the hardest, I had to un-learn so much that I had believed was true the day they shut the Bureau down." Chie told him between mouthfuls, "the work we were doing was very hard, building roads, laying infrastructure, repairing bridges, I guess I should ask you for a job doing manual labour, but I read that there is a glut in that market..."

Luus laughed, "There is, but there always was.  what do you remember from your theoretical mathematics degrees?"

Chie thought for a moment between bites, "Quite a bit, actually-I spent my off hours practicing equations, it was something to keep my mind...together." he said.

"Do you suppose you could learn to apply it to microcircuitry? I might have an opening for an apprentice circuit-designer..." Luus said, "It doesn't pay all that much, but it's a living wage."

"I can learn." Chie said, "You know I can."

"finish your meal, and come back in the morning, I will leave a note with Human Resources to watch for you-I can't just GIVE you the job, but I can...weight the scales a bit." Luus told him.

"Thank you...you don't know what this means to me." Chie said.


After he left, Luus looked at his wife.  she scowled at him, "Soft Hearted, soft headed!" she said, "Why did I marry such a soft-hearted man? Mother would be horrified."

"because of my warm hands?" Luus said, and embraced her, "or my Passion?"

"That must be it...you realize you're going to have to work him into the budget..." she said.

"I know...and that's assuming he can still pass a basic background check-minus, of course, being a political prisoner for over a decade." Luus replied, "but if his story about being released checks out, we shouldn't have any problem from the Maskirovka-hell, it might make getting the CCAF contract easier."

"It MIGHT." she agreed, and kissed him, "if not, well...we didn't build this firm JUST to feed the military."

[Cannonshop]

Celestial Palace, Sian...

Kali Liao had an unusual tape-loop playing in the throne room today.  The announcement by the Marian Ceasar, the epitaph of a nation falling, was playing looped to the last messages from NIOPS twenty two years ago...

and the Avatar of Kali-Ma looked every inch the fury of her namesake. 

"Sung, I want every force you can mobilize going rimward." she'd said, "I doubt those squawkers in the Terran Hegemony will do anything, but...we will."

"I thought you detested the Marians."  Aris Sung was Kali's choice to run the military in part, because the man wasn't afraid to say what he thought-even if it MIGHT anger the avatar of the Mother-DEath goddess.

"I do." she said, "But...if the Federated Suns were being invaded by the Clans, I would send our soldiers to aid THEM-and I hate the Davions more than nearly anyone...if they offer to help us fight this invasion, then we will show them EVERY courtesy, and thank them kindly...and work with them as brothers.  Do I make myself clear?"

"You're serious about this-" Sung asked.

"VERY.  SERIOUS." Kali told him, "Full Mobilization serious, it may take us time, and innocents will die because of that, but we are NOT going to allow yet another nation to fall to these...soul-less, false, oppressive, piratical monsters of twisted science and twisted, insane philosophies.  NO MORE, we must make it clear, to all who follow us, that at some point, someone took the idea that humanity is worth something seriously."

[Xantophes]

In a dark room a group of high ranking military officials sit aggravated by current events that have driven them to hold such a meeting as this.

"We cant keep letting this go on unchecked"

"Agreed! This conflict is a waste of good citizen life and military resources!"

"Imagawa Yoshimoto we are here because we heard you have a plan."

Imagawa " I wish not create civil unrest but i see no way to avoid conflict in this matter. You gentlemen will decide who you want to be the new ruler of the confederation and by the time all is said and done that person shall sit in the chancellors chair. I only warn you to choose well who this person shall be for they will decide the fate of us all. I will contact you as needed to make your moves for or against the chancellor. Gentlemen good day and good luck."

Imigawa leaves the room.

"I say we elect him as the new ruler. This is all his idea and if it falls apart he will be the one to take the blame."

"Agreed not to mention his silly notions of honor. if this falls apart he wouldnt dream of taking us with him. he will be a perfect scape goat if need be."

"Agreed then. Imagawa shall be the scape goat or ruler. It will be his fate that decides ether way"

Outside in the hall as he walks to his shuttle Imagawa is met by his second in command Toshi.

Toshi "Howed it go in there sir?"

Imagawa " as good as can be expected"

Toshi " you know if any one of them gets caught they will implicate you as the main conspirator just to save there own butts?"

Imagawa " yah i know  but we knew when we started this that there would be some risk and we all have agreed up to this point the people are worth it and we need to make some changes out of the old brutal ways of the past. By uniting the people under a more fair system where we dont take hostage our own people for personal gain and dont sell out to our enemies  for something as simple as money."

Toshi " just wanted to remind you"

Imagawa " I know, you have been a great friend."