The beginning

[HHAYD]

"You're saying that USSR's border is just across the Great Lakes?" President Natas

"You mean URSR." Natas's National Security adviser, Herold Gerk, replied

"Dammit, do you really think the citizens and businesses are going to put up with an aggressive communist neighbor?"

"What's the chance of them invading us?"

"With a military that has a !@#$%* $10 million annual funding, I'm pretty sure they have us on [i]"Countries to stomp and annex"[/i] list."

"That still isn't enough for URSR to walk all over on us. Besides, we are a neutral country, they're going to have a heck of time pulling a suitable CB out of their rear end."

"You think URSR is going to care about that? They could always craft a CB, no matter how ridiculous it is. We have very lax economic policies, policies that share many resembles with the late 19th century US's policies. We're the only country on the continent that doesn't have a federal minimum wage, working hours, and unemployed benefits and welfare. You have two polar opposites, and one of them obviously has the upper hand in military and foreign policies."

"Pravus Ingruo won't put up with URSR kicking down our door."

"They gave most of Ontario to URSR."

"I still don't see a reason to stock up on our military. Besides, if they figure what is going on, wouldn't they do the same thing? Self-fulfilling prophecy, remember that."

"What do you mean?"

"Great Lakes Provinces made the mistake. They assumed the world was out to come after them and that no one can be trusted after the reputation tarnishing USA-GLP war. They stocked up on military and build extensive border defenses. That caused their neighbors to assume that GLP was aggressive when GLP was actually simply paranoid, and it didn't help that GLP's president went insane."

"We should at least invest in research. Remember that much of our military's equipments and vehicles are obsolete."

"The Legislative won't put up with that. If they have to increase expenses, then they would need a way of reducing other expenses or increasing taxes or both. Deficient spending is deemed unfavorable in the Legislative."

"What about the businesses?"

"Like they are going to cough up money."

"They don't like commies. Leaf Corporation is still fuming after their multi-dozen million dollars loss when URSR took power, and now they are crapping themselves with commies just across the border. LC isn't the only one soiling their pants."

"How are you going to approach to them without attracting the public's attention?"

"I have my ways." Natas assured.

Edited January 23, 2011 by HHAYD

[HHAYD]

Somewhere in Lake Huron:

"Approaching 100 meters."

"Approaching 110 meters."

"121 meters, we hit the bottom. Where's the cargo ship?" one operator asked.

"It is about 50 meters north." another replied.

"We're heading to that location."

An unmanned submarine propelled toward the sunken ship that carried 28,412 tons of steel bars and had sunken about a month ago. The Coast Guard was investigating the site.

"I see the ship, its broken into two pieces. The stern seems to be shattered compared to the bow."

"Guys, I see a neon orange container lying next to a chunk of the ship's hull."

"Where?"

"Southwest of the ship's location, the hull it is next to has a triangle shape."

"I see it, it's probably a black box. Should we pick it up?"

"Haul the container up. Lets see what's in it"
----------------------------------------------
The next day, at the Coast Guard's Investigation Center:

"Any luck with opening that container?" a supervisor asked.

"Broke four circular saw blades already and I think the fifth one is going to break, though I'm almost done. This is not an ordinary black box, rarely would anyone over-engineer it."

[i]Container's side falls off[/i]

"Uh, what the?..."

[i]One of the workers pulls out a couple of much smaller boxes[/i]

"All of these are SSDs. Definitely not a black box."

"Ship them to the tech department." the supervisor ordered.

"Yes sir."
-----------------------------------
[quote]To: Department of Intelligence
From: Midwest Republic Coast Guard director, Hewer Bou

We have found 125 SSDs from an orange box that we recovered from the bottom of Lake Huron. Each SSD has 2 terabytes of unencrypted data on them, and all of them appears to be classified military information, including research data. I suspect they belonged to Great Lakes Provinces.[/quote]

[quote]To: Midwest Republic Coast Guard
From: Department of Intelligence director, Lawer Barnce

We will send a truck to pick up the SSDs.
[/quote]

[HHAYD]

Conference, unknown location:

"Everyone knows that USSR has expanded and now their border is right next to ours..." President Natas said

"You mean URSR" a CEO replied.

"Oh, my bad. Anyways, URSR has the complete polar opposite economical policies. At least on of you had lost an expensive property when URSR took power."

[i]Over a dozen of CEOs nodded in agreement[/i]

"As of now, our military is pathetic at best. All of its vehicles are obsolete and mothballed as of now, ammunition and other supplies are scarce, building maintenance is horrific, and we have less than one thousand militia in reserve. Let me emphasize that, [i]less than one thousand soldiers.[/i] The FPA has a better chance of holding off an invasion than the military, and that's quite said. You can't blame them though, the Legislative did a handy job of kneecapping the military with the massive budget cut. $10 million annual budget, that's less than FPA's funding."

"URSR has no reason to annex us though."

"I prefer we don't suddenly get kicked in the rear end. Haven't you paid attention to global politics lately? It doesn't matter how good a CB is, rather, how many allies you have and how competent they are."

"Lets get to the point, you want money for the military?" another CEO asked.

"Want? No. Need? Unless if the Legislative wakes up, then it is a necessity."

"You mentioned our equipments and vehicles are obsolete. Are you asking that we buy new ones or develop our own."

"Develop our own."

"That takes quite a bit of cash to start from scratch."

"Midwest Republic Coast Guard fished a box loaded with GLP's military and research data from the bottom of the Great Lakes recently." President Natas replied.

"What? Great Lakes Provinces?"

"Who else would drop a box of unencrypted data into the bottom of the late and label much of it as "GLP"?"

"How much would it cost to at least modernize our military?"

"At least five hundred million annually without budget overruns and development delays."

"That's a lot."

"When the commies are knocking on our door, I don't think so."

"Wouldn't be cheaper to influence the Legislative to boost military funding?"

"That would work."