General Canadian actions

[Subtleknifewielder]

As we stated when Uberstein originally proposed something of this nature, we are willing to support it. As such, we are willing to send engineers, scientists, and general laborers to aid in the undertaking of a Space Elevator.

[Lynneth]

It has recently been announced that the Saborian military will go to DEFCON 1, the highest military readiness.

Further information is, unfortunately, classified.

[Lynneth]

DEFCON has been lowered to 4.

On other news:

The channel switches to showing the Saborian Spaceport.

"T-minus 15 minutes. All non-essential personnel, clear the launching area."

-In the shuttle-

"Fifteen minutes...Then we'll be the ones bringing Saboria to a new era."

"It's an honor being able to do this with you guys."

The others nodded. One looked to the Republican astronaut, smiling.

"I'm also glad it's not only us Saborians going to the moon. That rock in Bob's orbit belongs to all of us."

Again, the others nodded. There were, in total, 10 men on the shuttle.

"T-minus 10 minutes."

Countless civilians and military personnel had gathered in the general area of the spaceport to watch the shuttle lift off. The entire nation was watching - these men would land on the moon, after all. They would not just go on walks in zero-G or orbit the moon, they would actually visit it.

-In the shuttle-

"Well, let's buckle up. We want to follow regulations, don't we?"

They fastened their seatbelts, put on the helmets and sealed them onto their suits, sealing them off from the outside world, save for the radio built into each suit and the HUD-display in front of their eyes, showing everything in front of them by using a small camera.

"T-minus 5 minutes. All personnel, clear the area. All personnel, clear the area."

They waited, silently. All obeyed the orders.

Soon, there was not a single soul within 150 meters of the shuttle, and those closer than 300 meters wore protective suits.

"T-minus one minute."

All non-essential work had ceased. Many silently counted down.

T-minus ten seconds.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Zero!"

The shuttle's rockets began rumbling, making the ground around the platform on which the shuttle was shake. For a few seconds, an immense cloud of smoke prevented observers from looking at the shuttle, then it was again viewable, rising into the air, leaving a trail of smoke behind it.

Only minutes later, the astronauts felt gravity weakening, only their own mass and inertia keeping them in their seats while the first phase rockets disconnected from the shuttle, soon burning to dust in the atmosphere. The second phase rockets activates. They would be enough to bring the shuttle close enough to the moon to attempt to land. Although this second phase burned only for minutes, disconnecting after they were burned out, they brought the vehicle to a high enough speed to reach the moon within only a few days.

During this time, the astronauts would do what they also did during missions into Bob's orbit:

They made science and had fun in the zero-G environment.

Half an hour before reaching the moon, a siren would notify them that they would soon arrive. Upon hearing it, they would go back into their seats, waiting for the shuttle to go into orbit.

OOC: Sargun, you can write a bit 'bout what your man thinks, says, etc.

Also, comments appreciated.

[Subtleknifewielder]

OOC: description.

IC: Promised Land watches this with interest. Richard Anderson is reported to be ecstatic at the news.

"I can't wait 'till it's my turn," he commented in a public speech. However, he refused to elaborate on this statement.

[Lynneth]

OOC: description.

IC: Promised Land watches this with interest. Richard Anderson is reported to be ecstatic at the news.

"I can't wait 'till it's my turn," he commented in a public speech. However, he refused to elaborate on this statement.

OOC: Thanks. =3

IC:

**Private Message to Mr. Anderson**

Should you have the time, then I'd ask you to visit us for a few months. You don't want to go up there unprepared, do you?

Your shuttle is scheduled to launch in approximately 14 months, more than enough time for you to finish the tests.

Regards,

Chairman Lynneth

OOC: Also, Sargun, go write what your guy thinks. <.<

[Sargun II]

OOC: K. :]

[Sargun II]

Republic Aerosaur (a highly-loved newscaster said 'aerosaur' on accident during the story on the astronaut, and it got picked up as a joke in the Republic and eventually just caught on) James Q'tar looked at the Saborian astronauts, his ebony face smiling. The entire nation of the Republic was tuned in, just as excited about this trip as the Saborian nation was. Their own space exploration plans were taking a back seat as the nation turned to world affairs - the economy was taking a rough hit and they were about to nearly shut down anything to do with space. Finally, the African man would go into space - no, he would go to the moon with men from North America.

I can't believe I'm.. He looked at a Saborian astronaut and laughed lightly. "Here's hoping it stays that way," he said to the 'belongs to all of us' comment, and took a deep breath. "It is an honor to be in Saboria - you have earned the respect of a nation."

T-minus ten seconds.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Zero!

He was a journalist by profession. James was, however, an author in his spare time, and it was one of the reasons he was chosen to go on this trip. As they entered the phase where they started experimenting and joking around, he got out a pad of paper and a pencil and started writing down all of his thoughts. "Man will never be the same, will we?" He recorded into a voice recorder the Saborians provided. He described all of the astronauts, the outside of the shuttle, and the beauty of space - even without stars.

[Lynneth]

OOC: K. :]

OOC: c:

Great textings.

IC:

Those in the co*kpit were able to easily see the moon - it filled almost their entire view, after all.

An artificial voice filled the shuttle.

"Going into orbit in 8 minutes and 30 seconds."

What it announced was obvious. The shuttle would go into the moon's orbit, circling it several times before actually landing. The entire procedure would take approximately two hours. Once these were over, small rockets on the shuttle activated to bring it into the right position, similar to how a satellite changes its position.

Then, rockets activated for several seconds to accelerate it towards the moon's surface; The descent began, and would take several minutes. As it was only a hundred meters or so away from the surface, once again small rockets activated to slow it down. The landing gear came from the shuttle's belly and after a minute that seemed like an eternity, it finally touched the ground.

"Gentlemen, it's official. We're absolutely awesome."

The astronauts went to put on their heavy suits, the helmet put on as the last part, as usual. The radio activated and one activated the video camera that was on his helmet - it would send the pictures to Saboria, live. From there, everyone on Bob who wished to do so could watch the S.N.N. channel. It currently was 6 in the morning in Saboria.

The leader of the mission, Commander Blofeldt, walked to the airlock. He pressed several buttons that had the effect of pumps sucking all atmosphere out of the room the astronauts were in - without their suits, they'd of course die. Once the atmosphere was gone, Blofeldt opened the airlock.

Speaking into the radio, both the men here and a few minutes later the people watching the event on their TVs could hear him.

"This is only the first step of many. Let us go on and conquer space."

Saying that, he jumped out of the shuttle and onto the moon's surface.

Now, they'd do their mission, examine the surroundings, collect rocks and do other things.

But the first thing to do was to plant two flags in the ground. The Saborian one and the Republican one.

Commander Blofeldt rammed the flag's post into the ground and unrolled it, saluting into the camera afterwards.

However, it was not the flag that people were used to. It had slight...Changes.

Four stars had been added to it.

After this, Blofeldt turned to Q'tar. "Now it's your turn. Make your country proud."

He smiled, although that couldn't be seen through the helmet.

OOC: Sargun, your turn again.

Also, I expect an outroar by the nations of the world. After all, what does china's flag look like, hm?

Right you are, it looks like this.

*Click*

[Subtleknifewielder]

OOC: Thanks. =3

IC:

**Private Message to Mr. Anderson**

Should you have the time, then I'd ask you to visit us for a few months. You don't want to go up there unprepared, do you?

Your shuttle is scheduled to launch in approximately 14 months, more than enough time for you to finish the tests.

Regards,

Chairman Lynneth

OOC: Also, Sargun, go write what your guy thinks. <.<

***Private Message to Chairman Lynneth***

I am currently unoccuppied with anything that cannot be managed without my help. I shall be on a plane to Saboria in 12 hours.

Sincerely, Lord of Internal Affairs, Richard Anderson

OOC: Feel free to RP his arrival, as long as he parachutes in and makes any joke possible upon being greeted, I'm fine with it.

IC: Promised Land wonders who designed the new Saborian flag...

[Lynneth]

***Private Message to Chairman Lynneth***

I am currently unoccuppied with anything that cannot be managed without my help. I shall be on a plane to Saboria in 12 hours.

Sincerely, Lord of Internal Affairs, Richard Anderson

OOC: Feel free to RP his arrival, as long as he parachutes in and makes any joke possible upon being greeted, I'm fine with it.

IC: Promised Land wonders who designed the new Saborian flag...

OOC: He'll just be unavailable for the next 13 months or the next IRL week or two. I'm not gonna start that shuttle too soon, lol.

IC:

The flag was designed by the artist 'Alej Vandores', a quite popular artist in our capital, Ferinh. Both our old and new flag, to be exact.

[Sargun II]

OOC: I'll post in a minute. <3 Getting my flag~

[Lynneth]

OOC: I'll post in a minute. <3 Getting my flag~

OOC: The minute is over~

<3

Edit: The minute actually was an hour. lol

Edited November 2, 2008 by Lynneth

[Sargun II]

OOC: Dinner D:<

[Lynneth]

OOC: Dinner D:<

OOC: D=

Also, why be nobody reacting to me going left/red? Where's the communist-haters?

[Sargun II]

OOC: I have stars in my flag.. many of them ;__;

IC: James smiled as they planted the flag, but knew something was amiss - was it the stars? It was! They had added four stars around the spiked wheel-eye in the center. James said nothing, but gave a thumbs up at the new flag, then slowly walked to the side of it. The flag looked eerie - folded as if in a breeze, but not moving at all.

James Q'tar, first Aerosaur to land on the moon, slowly stepped to the side of the Saborian flag, and planted the Republic's flag, shining as a brilliant opposite to the red and black Saborian one.

[Lynneth]

OOC: I have stars in my flag.. many of them ;__;

OOC: Yours aren't yellow, though. The yellow stars on red make commies. lol

IC: James smiled as they planted the flag, but knew something was amiss - was it the stars? It was! They had added four stars around the spiked wheel-eye in the center. James said nothing, but gave a thumbs up at the new flag, then slowly walked to the side of it. The flag looked eerie - folded as if in a breeze, but not moving at all.

James Q'tar, first Aerosaur to land on the moon, slowly stepped to the side of the Saborian flag, and planted the Republic's flag, shining as a brilliant opposite to the red and black Saborian one.

IC:

The Saborian astronauts saluted.

Meanwhile, on the planet, the people celebrated. Some didn't, but they discussed on internet-forums about the event, many quite excited, some even claiming that Saboria would be the first nation to put a research base or somesuch thing onto the moon.

Until such was done, though, at least a decade, perhaps even two would pass.

For the astronauts - and aerosaur - not much else was left to do, aside from doing more science and enjoying some walks on the moon, looking at the beautiful blue pearl in space - Bob.

Of course, pictures and videos were made, to prove that this landing was indeed real.

[Sargun II]

OOC: Blue on white makes a constitutional monarchy Anyway, I'm working on something soon, I'll get back in a bit

[Lynneth]

**Classified*

Recently, Saboria has begun several projects, some improving older technologies, others being completely new things.

One such improvement would be that of the existing SDI - the Strategic Defense Initiative. Currently, it was barely a Tactical Defense Initiative, barely capable of protecting bigger parts of the american continent. It was mostly used as device of intimidation, making other nations believe that firing nuclear weapons at Saboria and its allies was useless. But the recent crisis in South America has made clear that some nations are willing or desperate enough to fire their nuclear weapons despite all cost or efficiency. Of course, there also was the threat of Imperial Wellington's Kinetic Impactors, satellites armed with the so-called 'rod of god'. There were many ideas how a combined ground- and satellite-based defense system could deal with this.

One of the most popular ideas was putting rocket- and railgun-based defenses on the ground, in all allied nations, while shooting a (preferrably large) number of satellites into orbit with several kinds of armament. Rockets, for killing hostile sats. Laser-weaponry for dealing mainly with ICBMs, but also capable of sat-killing. The last and most expensive weaponry would be railguns that could also be used for orbital bombardement, aside from killing satellites and rockets. Of course, railguns could be used more easily in space, due to the vacuum and the low temperatures, but actually building and powering such a gun in space would be the greater challenge. For now, only the sat-types with rockets and lasers would be brought into space, while on the ground, bulkier railguns could be used. And thanks to electric infrastructure, these railguns could actually be powered. Rockets themselves were easy - rockets to kill ballistic missles less so. All these things and so many more had to be taken into consideration before the SDI could be turned into a truly strategic and world-covering defense initiative.

Another such 'megaproject' was the creation of underground cities and big fallout shelter systems, akin to those in the Uberstein Empire. Of course, the higher technological standards would likely make it easier and safer, as well as possibly somewhat faster to build an entire city below the ground, preferrably 1 or 2 kilometers deep. Paranoid generals proposed going even deeper, but that was rejected out of fear that the crust may accidentially be 'broken' as result of digging too deep, something that would quite likely have absolutely unpredictable results.

To appease these generals, several thick layers of high-grade steel would be included between the surface and the cities - or command bunkers. This would make penetration with any kind of bunker buster much harder than it already was.

As these projects had just been begun, it would take some time to finish them. Approximately six months for the modernization of the SDI, four to six years for the underground cities. Until then, the Chairman hoped there would simply be no nuclear exchange.

OOC: Yes, I just admitted that my SDI is currently below its possible power - still, nobody knows this, so it still works as device of intimidation. If your leaders suddenly know that it doesn't work perfectly, then I call BS and metagaming. kthxbai.

Also, Sargun, spacemission, etc. =3

>>Anyway, I'm working on something soon, I'll get back in a bit<<

Edit: Spelling, grammar, etc. Durrrrr

Edited November 3, 2008 by Lynneth

[Sargun II]

James raised his crystal clear camera and let it sit there in the low gravity of space, nothing having to worry about wind or any other disturbances. He took a shot showing most of Africa - another shot was later taken of all that the planet could see. There were several more not released to the public..

He took pictures of the scientific experiments and photographs of one astronaut helping another regain their balance.

After that, he tapped twice on his helmet to activate the voice recorder that was inside.

"There's.. this is the most beautiful place I've ever been. No war, no death, no crime.. I swear with the Lord as my witness - as soon as a gun, knife or any killing machine is placed on this, I will be there to stop them."

[Lynneth]

Commander Blofeldt looked to Q'tar. "Unfortunately, there will be weapons on the moon one day. As mankind expands, we'll bring weapons with us. I for one hope that I won't live to see the day of battles on the moon."

Another astronaut nods. "I hope the nations of Bob decide to make the moon either property of none, or of all equally."

"We can only hope. But until there's one big, dominating bloc, that'll never happen..."

"Let's put that aside for a while. We'll be here for another day or two, let's do as many experiments as we can and admire this place for a bit longer, yes?"

The others nodded, once again. Then they resumed the experiments, some of which needed Q'tar's assistance, but most of the time, the Aerosaur was free to do whatever he wanted, as long as he stayed in visible range of the shuttle.

OOC: Fun fact.

Ever looked at the negative of the saborian flag?

Pretty blue colors. =D

Edited November 3, 2008 by Lynneth

[Sargun II]

OOC: How did you do that?

[Lynneth]

OOC: How did you do that?

OOC: The same way I did this:

I took the picture, put it into an image-manipulation program and inverted the colors. Voila.

[JEDCJT]

OOC: Ah, so you inverted the colors. That's what I thought, heh.

[Sargun II]

OOC: What program?

[Lynneth]

OOC: What program?

OOC: You can do it even with MSpaint. I used irfanview, but gimp and photoshop and every other image program and their mothers can do that.