Amyante

May 2009 here, though i had to recreate when i lost my nation in December 2011 due to Net problems. Joined for CNRP, and when my pacifist run there ended a couple of years later (pretty good run when you consider i joined back when every square inch of land had a waiting list) i stuck around, logging on once every couple of days. Never been part of the history makers though so i doubt more than a handful would even remember me. Honestly this is the first forum post i've made in like 5 years, so yay for reunions.

For a moment i almost misunderstood you there, name abbreviations being what they are Also, 46 infra left after the fighting was done, which is 46 more than i thought i'd have facing off against nuke-bearing nations. I claim moral victory. Nah, just kidding. Good one NG, and until the next one

Actually, Derantol was talking about the theoretical maximum GRL. Since there can never be more nuked nations than there exist on CN (Y >= X), if every single nation got nuked (Y = X), GRL would be X*300/X, or 300. That would mean the GRL can never go beyond 300 in much the same way it can never drop below zero. That in practice the number varies is of course due to SDIs and the fact that 2k NS nations aren't exactly packing a full load of nukes to toss around like confetti, so i doubt it'd ever break 100 unless every single alliance would declare on one another on the same day.

"The Cooperative Union of the Federal States of Inner Mongolia and Manchuria wishes Greater Rhodesia well. We shall be looking forward to the results of the pending elections."

Sigrún had been watching the news about the happenings in Korea. It had not been hard to miss, practically every news channel spoke of 'unconfirmed reports' of gunfire and showed the same shaky montage of images from the many columns of smoke rising from the city that was once Incheon. One need not be experienced in warfare to recognize a battlefield when they saw one, but Incheon was definitely seeing a fair share of combat again. Just then, she received a classified reports stating her orders. It made3 sense to her that they would order her to Korea now, with the UFE itself -- or part of it at least -- being in turmoil, the risk of spreading to other regions was simply too great to not stomp this out as fast as possible. An example would have to be made, after all. When she opened the letter and decoded its contents however, her eyebrows rose up in surprise before a grin started to appear on her face. - "The Azores eh? Never been there, should be interesting." The trip took a few days, and the three ships under her command were quick to join up with the rest of the fleet that was sent out. The former Zargathian battleships had always been intended as the first step of the Zargathian Fleet that would never follow it, and as such they were built to have a supporting role compared to its larger counterparts. While the components were fairly new, they had been intended to support larger ships, relying on computer guided anti-air batteries to keep both themselves and the larger ships they were escorting safe. While it did have cannons, and was certainly capable of performing a coastal bombardment, to say that they excelled at it would be an euphemism. Adopting this role, the ships would remain close to the larger ones, intending to assist with shooting down enemy aircraft and missiles should the situation present itself. Sigrún was by far the most experienced in naval combat within Zargathia, and the Naval Academies had fallen under her leadership, but this would be the first active engagement in decades and though she didn't know what the troopsw that had landed were doing she was looking forward to some action again.

[quote name='Maelstrom Vortex' timestamp='1315640355' post='2797927'] They were also using basic home detergents to create chlorine gas on massive levels and would place a sole sniper in a building.. seeing the previous pattern of the enemy rushing sniper nests.. and wait for the enemy to rush the building. They'd then bust bags of fluids in the buildings that would release the chlorine gas into the environment... filling it and quite possibly killing many of the assault team while only putting one or two people inside the structure at risk. Often, if they finally got to the last sniper.. he'd blow the building out from under his feet with a charge he had placed himself on the way to the top to take everyone in the structure with him. They were absolutely feral in their fight. [/quote] Jinho was having trouble keeping up with the movement of the snipers, but with her being on one of the rooftops herself placed her in a good position to do something about the snipers on other rooftops. It would do nothing for the traps inside the buildings, nor any cultists that were inside the building itself as they would be out of sight unless one of them would start firing out of a window, but given the distance the snipers were her first priority. Unless there was a secondary detonation system, the potential destruction of the building would die with the sniper as serum enhanced eyesight and almost unwavering grip on the sniper rifle she carried took care of the rest. The second downside was that she could only do something about the sniper she could actually see from her location, and switching rooftops sounded a lot easier than it was, but with the three people in her group she could only do something about the base's immediate surroundings. 'Secure the area' had been the order, and she would do just that as the Vikings and other mercenaries saw to clearing the vermin from the streets. If a PLA gunship would come close, she would step away from her sniping ledge and take a couple of steps back, crouching in clear view of the helicopter while waving at them to let her know she was fighting on their side. The two mercenaries with her would be doing the same. She had her hands full on the Cult as it was and shooting down a moving gunship -- which meant either targeting the pilot or hitting the tail rotor -- was technically possible, but put too much importance on the first shot being a direct hit for her to consider running that kind of risk. The more firepower the Cult was facing, the better for her own group as well.

Jinho smiled as she read the message on her phone. It was nice that Bridgette told her to look out for herself, some of the better Sergeants and Captains she had worked under had the tendency to do the same, but like anyone that had been in law enforcement she knew the risks all too well. Nearing the rooftop, she motioned for the small group to slow down, ensuring silence and making sure the stairs themselves were not rigged with explosives. Once near the door, Jinho slowly opened it a hair before one of the mercs spotted a thin cord connecting the door frame to something unseen attached to the other end of the door. It was a relatively simple trap, the kind that one sometimes saw in movies yet lethal if not taken seriously. The merc that had spotted the wire was quick to take out a knife, and gently cut the cord, almost brushing the sharp end of the blade against it several times to fray it without applying too much pressure, and after a few such caresses it fell away into two halves, the threat avoided. After that, she ordered the guard to back down to a point where he could see if anyone was coming up, aiming to at least get some advance warning if the Cultists found out what she was about to do. On the silent count of three, she and the two mercs burst onto the roof, shooting the sniper on sight along with anyone that would be there, though it was likely due to the Cult's nature that they were operating individually she did not want to take chances. After that, she picked up the sniper rifle, and ordered the two mercs on lookout, using the edge of the roof and the smoke still billowing up from the propane tank as cover as they helped her in spotting enemy snipers. Those located on higher rooftops than the one they were on would be prioritized due to their advantageous location compared to theirs, and Jinho was fully planning to turn their own sniper rifles against the Cult that had supplied them. The only concern was ammunition. None of her small group carried a type of ammunition that would fit into a sniper rifle of this type, so she would have to keep a mental list of where the snipers she had shot would be. If the gunfire that had killed the original sniper was -- as she thought -- partially masked by the gunfire and explosions echoing up from below, and her team did manage to remain unnoticed, then securing the streets would be a relatively simple task depending on how many numbers the Cult had positioned inside the buildings themselves and the supply of remaining ammunition available to her.

- "Well, that's the thing, it's more a gathering of circumstantial evidence. The problem is that Jia is a proud man, and if i brought this up with him he'd have been so insulted he'd invade. We'd get [i]nuked[/i] over this. Now that i am no longer a head of state or connected to the government i can at least bring this up without reprecussions on a national level, but the reason i planned to discuss this with Cochin was to get a second, impartial opinion on this." She took a sip from her tea, more intended to calm herself down than anything, but there was a nervousness inside of her that just seemed to refuse to leave. While it was good that Theresia at least wanted to hear her out, she was far from having left the minefield. - "It's the different approach i was referring to. Zargathia has always believed that fascism is based upon strong nationalist feelings, and for that reason has always opposed colonialism. Allow me to explain. In India for example, during British rule there were nearly twice as many famines as in the previous seven centuries put together, while there was a food surplus in every province at the time, simply because the food was being shipped to the nations of the imperialists. [url=http://monthlyreview.org/2009/07/01/the-world-food-crisis-in-historical-perspective]At one point[/url] India was exporting ten million tons of food while twelve to twenty five million of its people were dying of hunger. It created feelings of oppression, contempt and nationalism amongst the population that, had Ghandi not come along when he did, would have led to civil war or perhaps even a nationalist coup. The same was true in practically every Asian colony, when the Japanese started to invade, many groups, even anti-fascist ones, supported the actions of the Japanese simply because they drove out the imperialists that oppressed them." She shifted her seat slightly, trying to read the expression on Theresia's face before continuing on. - "Zargathia has always believed that this situation was one to avoid at all costs. If fascists and anti-fascists showed a willingness to cooperate for a common goal, even an unintended one, then would it not make sense to conclude that colonialism is actually worse than fascism would be? Continuing along that line of thought, if Germany was not forced to undergo economical oppression in the form of the terms of the First World War even though they had not instigated it, would Hitler have risen to power? If Perry's Black Ships hadn't forced Japan to abandon its isolationist policies, would there have been a Pearl Harbor? Likewise, the invasion of the former Xinyan Republic -- which could be compared to Perry's Black Ships by the way -- answering our protests with sanctions which ultimately resulted in the Qingyuan Diktat was in itself a process that led to a textbook case of neocolonial imperialism, right down to the reliance on our rare earth deposits mined in Inner Mongolia. The Qingyuan Diktat was, in short, a document that would have led to feelings of oppression and international intolerance which would have been a feeding ground for ultranationalism, perhaps even fascism. It would not have taken a month, it would not have taken a year, but in five to ten years there would have been someone rallying the people to fight back using natinalist 'us against them' propaganda, and there would have been a coup that would turn Zargathia into something i fought hard to remain free of, and there would have been war." - "Zargathian foreign policy has always fought these beliefs through the formation of diplomatic ties. By always being friendly and aiming to have good relations with Japan, with Korea, with Mongolia, we were directly undermining the main pillar that led to nationalist intolerance, itself a feeding ground for fascism. The Empress of Japan had been one of my best friends, it... physically [i]hurt[/i] having to renounce my ties with them because our method was effective, despite our weak military we had not once been invaded up to the UFE's forced entrance into the former Xinyan Republic. Which makes this a situation of, to use your words, 'something seems amiss'. My military advisers were almost unanimous pointing out that the UFE's wars hadn't exactly weakened its position. Japan gave it free access to the Pacific, Korea gave it uncontested dominance over the East China Sea, Mongolia -- which was invaded over diplomatic insults of a far weaker nature than what we were exposed to -- gave Jia his ancestral lands back, and Zargathia had always been right in the middle of it, separating all these territories from one another. Some even voiced suspicions by saying the Japanese attack on the [i]Pride of Guangzhou[/i] was staged by the UFE itself, that the PLAN [url=http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=90342]Red October[/url] had been modified to implicate the Japanese. And the Lu... The UFE has veto rights over their decisions, should relations worsen and this right be exercised, i can honestly see them going into the same direction i narrowly avoided for my own nation. It's as if the UFE is willingly trying to instigate war at times, it is frightening. It's not [i]consistent[/i] policy thankfully, meaning that these elements do not have a firm grasp on the UFE's policies, but going by my gut feeling i am convinced that they are there." Amyante took a deep breath, looking visibly relieved now that she had finally had the opportunity to share her concerns. It had been a while since she had carried these secrets with her, and for the first time in what felt like forever, her heart felt lighter again. She took a sip of tea again, moistening her lips before leaning forward to Theresia, folding her hands as she looked with concern. - "Now, with the UFE's only notable remaining land borders being those it shares with Cochin and Vauleya, there is a chance that these elements, should i be right about their existence, will move on to influence Austria. I hypothesize that they would reach for Germany first, aiming for a reversed Anschluss with German speaking nations, before instigating something with Dalmatia to eventually border Cochin on two fronts... Again, i seriously hope i am wrong, but... I felt i needed to tell this to someone. I don't want to run the risk of having been right and not having told anyone."

Jinho had been clenching her fists as she watched the devastation the Cultists had wrought upon Incheon, [i]HER[/i] Incheon. She would make them suffer for it, of that she was sure. As such, when she walked outside she was feeling as motivated as the Vikings and mercenaries were, even though she had not been offered a bag of money for it. This was her city, her home and her country, and she'd be damned if she'd let someone make a mess of it on her watch. After going outside, she could hear guns, screams, explosions, death where there had once been life. She saw one of their numbers fall, her mind instantly connecting it to the time where they had had to call in a sniper to neutralize a hostage situation. It wasn't much, but from the angle at which the Viking had fallen onto the ground as well as entry and exit wounds she could make a fairly good impression of where the sniper was located. She looked around, spotting a fairly tall building a bit further away, a pillar of smoke rising up from it like a beacon. It looked almost fitting for it to be her first goal. Pointing at two of the mercenaries, she motioned them to follow her. - "You, you. Follow me, let's get this block secure!" And with that, she ran off sideways, using the covered porches of commercial buildings to hide her advance from view, and hugging the walls. Once she had reached the building, staying as much out of sight as she could, she ran into the building closely followed by the two she had ordered to follow her. There, her eyes scanned around for someone that appeared to be in charge, or had simply been unfortunate enough to end up on guard duty today. She'd stop in front of him, fishing her wallet and holding it open in front of him, her badge clearly visible. - "Jinho Tojimaru, South Korean Police. What's the fastest way to the roof?" She knew about stairs and elevators, but there were also less common paths such as service entries and maintenance paths that she wouldn't know of unless the building plans would be laid out in front of her. As she lacked both said blueprints as well as the time to casually see them, she would have to assume the guards knew what they were supposed to guard. Besides, if there were such areas she would need him or his pass to guide them through it without having to backtrack.

Amyante signed as she looked over the landscape, not because she disagreed with Theresia in how a nation should be run, but because it would be hard to tell her just what she wanted to say. The future may not have been set in stone, but unless people put their backs into it it might as well be. - "Oh i agree, it's just... well, to use your analogy it's like some of the pieces are turning the wrong way. Especially concerning the events of the past few months, i have serious suspicions that there are nationalist, maybe even fascist elements within the UFE government itself." The look on her face told that it was hard for her to find the right words to use, to effectively tell the Empress of a nation dedicated to fighting fascism that that which it viewed as a disease had infected themselves as well. [i]'When one stares into the Abyss...'[/i] - "Don't get me wrong, i believe your husband knows nothing of this either. When i met him during the signing of the Unification Treaty, he came across as a man who is convinced that what he does is right, who truly believes that his actions lead to peace and stability... I feel he is being used."

Amyante looked at Theresia, the look on her face clearly torn on whether or not to say something. Whatever the decision may have been, the words she eventually decided on were more diplomatic, testing the waters, so to speak. - "I only wish that would apply to [i]all[/i] of the Federation, Theresia..."

Amyante grinned at the story of an elixir of life. While she knew some people that took their age exceptionally well, she believed herself lucky to count herself among them. Maybe it was an environment thing, pollution had remained at an near constant low throughout her entire reign after all. - "Actually, the Hanseats living in Zargathia came from Taeunas, making them Finnish, not Australian. We received a decent inflow of immigrants after the fall of the Hanseatic Commonwealth, but... around a fifth of our population are ancestral Finns. It is a common mistake though, at its height the Hanseatic Commonwealth had protectorates across half the world." She folded her hands together, leaning her head against them as she thought. - "My story... Actually, there's not much to tell. I've done my share to fight nationalism and ethnic intolerance and so has the UFE, but we sometimes came to blows over the best ways to go about it. And when that happened several times in a row... well, you know how that ended. Diplomatic insults, the Qingyuan Diktat, arguments over the Qingyuan Diktat eventually culminating in a shouting match between the UFE observers and myself in the presence of the Emperor of the Lu Empire... It wasn't very pretty."

Amyante looked surprised at Lady Theresia's words. It wasn't the proposal to call one another by their first names but rather what came after that that she couldn't quite understand. - "Australian? I can understand European since i was born in Proxia, but... How did you come by Australian ancestry, if i may ask?" She failed to suppress a grin at the question asked by Theresia though, bringing her hand up to cover a chuckle. - "The years are... Well, let's just say that i suffer from the same illness that makes all [i]old people[/i] stop counting their birthdays. Other than that, they find me in surprisingly good health, and aside from my hair losing its color i have nothing to complain looking into a mirror. Heh, [i]when one is young, all they want is to become older, when one is old, all they want is to become younger[/i]... Surprising how true that is, but as we all find out firsthand it takes being old to realize it."

Jinho nodded at the introduction, simply not caring how old the model was. What was truly important to her was that they were clothes, and they were her size, she wasn't expecting a suit of Power Armor with a built-in Ion Cannon anyway. Excusing herself, she picked up the armor while doing her best to keep her cloak wrapped around herself, and backed up into a room where she could change into her armor. Lacking a specific changing room she would use a restroom stall, or anything else that wasn't immediately visible by the majority of people sharing the basement with them. Upon completed she walked back into the room where she had received the armor, moving around a bit to find it a surprisingly good fit. A sword hung at her belt, the weight of the sheath and blade odd, but somewhat compensated by a high caliber gun holstered at the other hip. It would take some time to get used to it, not the weight but her new center of gravity, shifted by the changes in body mass as well as the new weight of her equipment. She suspected it wouldn't take long though, she could walk around in the basement to practice just fine. The trouble was, would she have the time to. Going by the police reports that were coming in since this morning, the authorities were getting pretty close to keeping an eye on the Vikings, and it would only be a matter of time before one of this many people would be spotted going in or out of the building by a patrol car. The last thing she wanted was to fight her colleagues. [img]http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/7162/11791f7f4e3ab3825a0be4a.jpg[/img]

[url=http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/167607_175163212527415_175140769196326_376722_2415445_n.jpg]Amyante[/url] would exit the car that had brought her to the Forbidden Palace from the train station, and when she was approached by the three people that announced they had been sent to escort her inside, she bowed back respectfully. She was no longer a Queen, and though she felt honored to still be treated as one she felt it would only be natural to show them the courtesy they were showing her in turn. She followed the guards inside, looking at the various paintings. Some she recognized, others she didn't and suspected those to be based more in the middle to southern areas of the historical Federation where their influence hadn't reached Zargathia as strongly as it had affected the UFE's past. After noticing the guards stop, she did too, her mind still on identifying some of the faces she was sure to have seen somewhere at one point, though their names still eluded her. She recognized Theresia from the Stahl Ball, and was quick to bow in order to not let Theresia be the first to do so. As a result, they ended up bowing to one another in unison, which was as good a concession as any. - "Your words honor me Empress. Again, my thanks for the invitation." Smiling at Lady Theresia, she went inside, taking a seat when it was offered to her. As much as she hated to admit it, she too was getting older over the years, and longer journeys were starting to become more taxing.