A Battle Unseen

[hyraemous]

Office of the State Security Unit of Kundrati
Kasaema, Kundrati - 24 June 5263

"Shit." was the only thought Tomas Masrik, the Kundrati Ambassador to Beiteynu, could think of. He was going to the Kasaema International Airport, which was completed under the various programs of the state government of Pligon, when suddenly his car was stopped by a black car.

The bodyguard driver was removed and taken away. The Ambassador, on the other hand...
...he would not make it through the night.

When his wife got the news, she was devastated. The funeral would be scheduled for a week afterward. Black flowers were delivered alongside the message, delivered by a man in a black suit.

[hyraemous]

Foreign Affairs Office
Kasaema, Kundrati - 1 January 5264

As the New Years' Party wrapped up there was a sense of calm and happiness - after all, Kundrati was about to get a little more influential. As Bruahilan Hulanevek, Foreign Minister stood at his office's windows staring at Independence Square where the fireworks were going off and people cheering with much happiness, he smiled.

Milu Milu, the Kundrati Representative to the TRA, was also there with him as the votes came in.
"Three ayes, one abstention." Milu said.
"Good... good. Perhaps a world full of snakes is working after all." said Hulanevek.

It was a weird sense of calm for Hulanevek had to deal with another rival in order to get Milu his job - Masrik was getting too powerful and was starting to object to Kundrati's accession to the Artenian Union. Police found him not too long ago and he had barely managed to get the country's media outlets to not report on the story for "national security interests".

In fact, what they found in Masrik's car was a report on the growing power of Bruahilan and the influence of Beiteynu on Kundrati. The report further stated that it may entirely be possible that Beiteynu could be influencing Luthori to be negative to Kundrati as punishment for taking Dorvik's nuclear deal. They also found a calendar with 8 January circled and "Parliament" on the box...
...and Milu Milu had done his job well.

"Soon, Kundrati will rule the Third World. Not even my father Miloslaw or my great grandfather Alexander could've dreamt of the influence we get. They'll have to answer now to Kasaema. We want peace and stability and order in Artenia, but it's fair game everywhere else. Milu my friend, we hold a part of Terra on our hands." said Hulanevek.
Milu simply smiled and nodded.
Continuing, Hulanevek said: "You report directly to me now. If you have problems, tell me."
"Yes sir. Together, we can rule even the second world." Milu replied.
"And nobody will bat an eye as to how we got there." replied Hulanevek.

They both went to the Hulanevek mansion after the celebrations to enjoy the New Years'. Hulanevek hadn't even eaten dinner, so he invited Milu to a celebratory feast and sleepover. They both went to bed at 4 in the morning and slept in the whole day, before reporting back to work the following day.

[TRA]

A Beach in Kalopia

1 January 5264,
07:57am

The waves crushing on the sandy beach, then retreating, like a silky carpet from the finest carpet weavers of the east. And the wind was restless, like the air around the 2 men, their cloaks flapping around their legs, standing there idly, looking at the barely lit horizon from a weary sun, like a cliche from the movies of the west.

"It's working. And she understands".

"Hm".

"No no, she does".

The other man didn't respond this time.

"For the greater good for all, no? We're Ar...".

"Quiet!"

The foolish of the two raised his eyebrow. They were in a beach. In the middle of nowhere. Why the...? How naive, each new generation, the other thought. He raised his finger to his lips, indicating silence, then looked up. To the partially cloudy sky and beyond their canvas, to the even darker upper atmosphere and the stars shining clearly in the nightly heavens and to that single moving blinking light, as the satellite above them zoomed its lens back at both men.

To the 2 unknown men standing there, in a beach in Kalopia, of all places.

[Robert F. Kennedy]

Imperial Conservatives Headquarters
November 14, 5264

After the celebrations during long nights and days at the ICU Headquarters, everything finally calmed down, after the victory and the increase of seats of the Imperial Conservative Union, during this general election. The leader of this party, Mrs. Fallon Ramsay-Hayden was very happy with the results recorded by her party, but she had a bigger problem in mind, the Ducal Elections.

"Well, we were able to win 18 seats, the biggest increase of any party in this election. It's a big win for us, of course, but there are other problems now."

"What problems?" That voice was that of the House Whip, Micheal Cunningham.

"Micheal, the problems we have to face are multiple, the first thing, and not the least, is the Ducal Election, which will take place in a few months. With their victory, the Communists have had the majority of the votes in Orange, and in some duchies, they could be in a position of power, with the LSP, perhaps."

"Fallon, as I have always argued since entering politics with the ICU, we need to expand the National Coalition, recent polls show that Northriding is for us, already secure. But other duchies, like the duchy of Erneshire could slip our fingers if we're not careful." The voice that had just spoken was that of Morris Goldwater, former Whip, now seeking to run in a dukedom.

"Morris, at this precise moment it is imperative to expand the NC, if we don't we will be lost for these elections and the next government could have opposition from the duchies, which would not be a good scenario for everyone."

“Unfortunately, we trusted the polls too much, Morris, Fallon, the polls had the Communist Party of Luthori, 2% of the vote, predicting they would only win between 13 and 20 seats, but look at them, with their 97 seats and 15% of the votes."

"Mike scores a point, the polls didn't reflect the election results, Nationals and LSP points were boosted too much compared to what we actually won"

"You two, I brought you here to discuss the ducal elections, not to criticize me directly, we trusted the polls too much, but where are we now? We won more seats than all the other parties present in the last legislature, then, let's stop bickering and talk about real party matters."

"GOOD"

"GOOD"

"So who have can put in Erneshire?"

“The idea is to put Fr. Ducal Chancellor, Rubin Zeller, she is quite popular in front of our activists in Erneshire, and on a fairly busy schedule budgetary and to re-energize the Duchy of Erneshire”

"At what levels?"

"At the tourist level, she wants to bring up to date the old imperial castles present in the Duchy, and play on the natural resources present in the Duchy, such as the Black Mountain Chain, the Baken Woods and other tourist areas. Besides, she has a project to re-energize the agricultural sector in the duchy, this could help us with some points in the polls.Finally, she is favorable to our position to restart the mining resources of the duchy. duchy. And I think, on this one, I'm going to let Mike do the talking."

"Thanks, Morris, Fallon, I'll cut to the chase, I want the Trade and Industry Secretary"

"What? But there's already John Kennedy in this position, and he has a clique of more than 5 deputies, I can't offend him, except if you want him to go to another party"

"Yes, it's a risk, but which one, all the Conservative parties have been our allies for decades, Mangley has worked to get their support, so there's nothing to worry about."

"Well, I'll see what I can do, maybe fit Kennedy in a duchy where we had good scores."

"Now the other duchies, gentlemen."

"Who do we put in Orange? The Duchy has been virtually lost for decades to the left."

"The only wish we can have in Orange, and not to fuck off too easily"

"So we put in Matthews, he's a good puppet. Kidding aside, he can do what no one can do, not have a crushing defeat."

“I see no objection to it”

"Me too"

"For Northriding, I am a candidate myself. I am willing to have functions before perhaps taking the post of Prime Minister"

"Well, well, there were several people who wanted to ride this win, but hey, you seem like a good choice to me, Fallon."

"I agree with Morris. Well, well I have to leave you, I have to go see Platt and his amendment on the ducal elections."

[hyraemous]

Foreign Affairs Office
Extea, Kundrati - 2 January 5265

Boxes of Luthori products had just landed at a unnamed port in Extea, the island south of the Kundrati mainland. In these boxes were loads of Luthori laptops and computers, and these boxes were marked as fragile. They were loaded on planes headed for Galensk and, after a few hours, they landed.

But instead of going through customs and going to local stores to be brought by unsuspecting Kundrati, they were taken to a room. There, a cousin of the foreign minister named Michael Hulanevek stood at the room inspecting these laptops. They ran normally, as one would use a laptop. Then, he ordered that the laptops were shut down. Ten of them would be taken further northeast to Pligon to a scientific centre.

Unnamed black men entered the room to take these ten computers. The rest of the laptops would be sent back to customs, inspected, and sent around the country to be sold.

[hyraemous]

Foreign Affairs Office
Valiz, Kundrati - 10 June 5268

Bruahilan Hulanevek was taking a vacation now that he was about to be out of his Foreign Ministry job. At least now he had a top guy in the TRA - he would hold influence, just not in the Kundrati Government. Yet.

He walked to a balcony of the Hulanevek Compound with his teenage son Jon. Jon was still in high school but he was already starting to make a career in politics protesting for free lunch at the local school he attended. Bruahilan refused to pressure the school to comply and the school had continued to refuse - but the school finally budged when Jon managed to get most of his schoolmates to walk-out during their lunch period.

Bruahilan was smiling as he heard the action, but he warned Jon not to do that again and to talk to school officials some more since what he did could have academic consequences. As it was he was trying to get the University of Kasaema to accept his child - he didn't need anything to sway the son away from that path, for he wanted Jon to succeed him when he was old enough.

At that moment a call came. A few uh-huhs before he told Jon to come with him. They entered a bulletproof car offered by the State, though that was going away once he lost his job. The car ride was quiet - they arrived at an airfield sometime later. They were in Kasaema by the start of the evening.

"Milu, why are the Trigunians entering our family?"
"They insisted. We need them anyway for Kizenia."
"They're still under our control. We can use them against Luthori as well - they still need oil."
"Yes sir. Let's also work on using the dedicated forces. Now that Trigunia is in the Pact, we can station them in that country at will."
"Good."

That brief conversation ended and they parted. Bruahilan would remain in the city while Jon would leave for home that night - after all, he had just tasted what semi-absolute power was like. It tasted good...

...for a Hulanevek.

[TRA]

A Beach in Kalopia

19 January 5269,
09:31am

"You know, at some point we should reveal ourselves", said a grumpy white haired old man.

"Not quite. The clock is still ticking", said the other grumpy white haired old man.

Both dressed in black, cloaks flapping in the wintery wind, purposefully staring at the horizon, of course, giving the proper justice to cliches. They both had the markings of a disgruntled storyline going back 3000 years.

[hyraemous]

Terran Remediation Agency, Kundrati
Somewhere in Trigunia - 28 July 5269

As a deputy from the TRA Kundrati's office approached the airfield, he was stopped and searched before being let through. He arrived at a part of the airfield with three planes that were being fuelled. There were calculations that the planes would make it to Dankuk but they would need to be modified to take in more equipment so that the planes aren't easily detected by anti-air equipment.

"Do we have any airfields in particular where we should be able to land?" said the deputy.
"Yes sir. There are two airfields in particular which are flat and long enough for the planes. We can land them in though the expats would have to be in the airfield immediately beforehand." said a Sergeant.
"I see. Are the supplies ready?"
"We're still working on them."
"Work with haste, if we delay they'll be dead. That declaration of war fiasco may have added more months or even years to the rescue."
"Yes sir."

The deputy left for a hotel. He'd be back.

[TRA]

Somewhere in Elbiana, Dankuk
2 August 5269, 03:41am



"Delta Kilo Delta Niner Niner Seven, operation is a go", the command came through his ear. "Copy, operation is a go", he whispered, "over and out". He silently grabbed his frontman on the shoulder, looked around in the greenly lit surroundings through his goggles, took a breath and let go of the shoulder.

13 men dressed in black swiftly moved out of the bushes in different directions along the street, passing houses and corners like silent cats lurking for prey. The Shabak unit moved in deadly and harmonic unison in different patterns, knees slightly bend, blending in with the sound of leaves, their automatic weapons - silenced - in front of every man, fingers steady on the trigger, ready to terminate in a millisecond's notice.

A dog appeared in the corner on the house to the left. One of them shot it in the head.

They encircled the perimeter of a crooked small warehouse. 3 of his men went in. He heard whispers. Then his men reappeared in the open, followed by 9 members of the council, the deputy Woo Maria Sam-jung and at the end, Sin Hyonjun himself, disheveled and exhausted, but alert.

"Package collected", he whispered into his mic.

The unit now changed formation, making a line, leading the leadership of the UAFC back towards the bushes. Most of his men were spread wide in a perimeter, almost undetected to the untrained eye. A silenced gunshot to his left. No alert. He could almost taste his heartbeat.

They turned into a corner of another house. Stopped for 2.5 seconds. Then the line moved.

He whispered to Sin, "wait".

His frontman grabbed Sin's forearms, shoved them behind his back and tied the man's hands in 2 swift motions, while he duct-taped his mouth. Sin looked at him in horrendous surprise, eyes staring at the in-comprehensiveness of the moment. A hood over his head, and the agonising look was hidden from view. He grabbed the man's right forearm and pushed him in a different direction, his frontman leading the way to another house, with its door slightly open.

They went in, the wooden door creaking softly.

5 men were standing in an empty room, the Dankuk government's ribbon wrapped neatly around their elbows. 4 with automatic rifles, lowered, in defensive stance. 1 in the middle, hands crossed behind his back, leather boots, deadly, penetrating eyes.

He shuffled Sin's steps as they drew closer to the men.

"Evidently, this is what you're looking for", he spoke calmly. He sized the man in the middle and recognised a lack of arrogance, which was exactly what he was looking for. "How about we gentlemen have a chat?", he smiled.

The man in the middle stayed silent.

"We told you this would happen, like we tried to tell you 70 years ago - now the spotlight's on you and it's not going to go away and you bloody well know it", he recited, exercising a whisper into his tone. "You look bad, we look bad, everyone looks bad. Exactly the situation we wanted. Now. You're the one sitting in this shithole you call a country. So. I'll make this short and sweet. We can take the high road, you die right now, your dreams at power come to an end and your era crumbles in a blaze of glory, at some point, with guns blazing, eventually. Even shittier news for Dankuk. We can't use that. Or. Let's retire that leader of yours still sticking to his dusty expired regime. Let's retire this leader we got here, as well", he looked at the blindfolded, gagged and bound Sin who stood there silently, frozen in terror, "we call this a new day, a thankful day, a day of compromise, a day of amnesties provided to you and your fellow power hungry friends by a gracious Beiteynuese reign you will so willingly ask for to oversee your new day of gradual reform and of a shiny new government".

The man continued to stand there, but something had changed. He had twitched at his dreams of power coming to an end.

"You get rich. We get rich. Everyone gets rich", he concluded, slightly tilting his head.

The man seemed slightly nervous.

He raised his rifle. "So", he said, "I either kill you or I kill him", he nodded to Sin.

"Feel free to decide Dankuk's fate, any time now", he smiled.

[hyraemous]

Office of the State Security Unit of Kundrati
Kasaema, Kundrati - 1 February 5277

Milu Milu was standing at the front porch of his house before he entered inside. He had taken some of his files from the TRA into his office, now stacked full of these papers. He had two shredders and had continued to shred these papers - after all, he was outside to take a break.

After a few hours, he walked outside of his office with it being notably more cleaner with only a few papers stacks left. He entered his kitchen - his wife was away and his children were at school and were going to be picked up in an hour. Three people entered his house suddenly with guns and Milu Milu grabbed his pistol.

One of the intruders entered the kitchen and was shot at - yet he shot Milu Milu three times with his pistol in the head and neck, incapacitating him. Another intruder entered the kitchen and delivered another gunshot to the head, ending him. The third intruder arrived with two parcels of gasoline before pouring it in the kitchen and the first floor. The two others left and the third one remained, lit a match, walked away and threw the match inside the house before running away into a getaway car and driving off.

The house ignited soon after. It took the fire department hours to contain the blaze and take it out - the house was completely destroyed.

The wife was taken care of soon after. The children were placed into state care soon after, to be taken care of by Bruahilan Hulanevek.