Azure Watester FederationBoard

[Rolls - 1 - 12)

"Monsiheuer Eudes, you're on in 30."

"Meurcei, Alix." Eudes St. Claureant, one of the primary faces and voices on the televisions and car radios across Rouenne and the surrounding areas, stood looking over himself in the mirror. This report would certainly bring great fear to the people of the Empire. But, the duty of the humble reporter was one he did not intend to shirk, so he adjusted his tie and buttoned his jacket, and turned to face the people.

"Good evening, people of Frauncia, it is once again Eudes St. Claureant reporting on the events of the day. In Paris, a dramatic turn of events, as the city is witnessing widespread protests as citizens express their discontent over legislation recently passed in regards to purchasing alcohol on Sundays. Two groups have risen in regards to this legislation: The Parisian Temperance League, a Catholic Organization, and the Association of Industrial Laborers in Paris, have come to blows. The former believes that the legislation is necessary for the moral standing of the nation, whereas the latter believes it is the right of the worker to have a nice glass of wine with their evening meal, and are demanding a repeal of the legislation, Police presence is heavy, with clashes reported between law enforcement and demonstrators. We will continue to monitor the situation and bring you updates as events unfold. In a major development out of the technology industry, several tech giants are under the microscope as antitrust investigations are launched by regulatory bodies. The companies facing scrutiny include Le Pomme, Jaspier, Ponmanteau Electrics, Grapevine and 79 other companies. The investigations are centered around allegations of monopolistic practices and anti-competitive behavior. Experts argue that these investigations could reshape the landscape of the tech industry, potentially leading to significant regulatory changes. The accusations range from stifling competition to unfair business practices that disadvantage smaller players in the market. Representatives from Le Pomme and Grapevine have stated that they will cooperate fully with the investigations, asserting their commitment to fair competition, but there has been radio silence from the others. This is certain to affect the stock market and investors are likely to have a lot to play for in the coming months. Our business correspondent, Jerume Bellamounte, will provide more in-depth analysis later in the program. As we analyze the situation in the Antilles from our studio, reports from the ground in Santo Domingo paint a picture of stark resistance by the citizens of the city, as well as the Federation's military." Eudes pauses, clearing his throat. "It appears that an assault on the port city has been "substantially repelled without fail," and the Frauncaise Navy has retreated. The Antillean government has strongly denounced the invasion, labeling it as a flagrant violation of national sovereignty. International reactions have been swift, with the Castelian Federation mounting its own assault on Cuba. The situation on the ground is fluid, with sporadic clashes reported between Frauncaise forces and local resistance groups aided by the Antillean Armed Forces. As the international community closely monitors what is exactly unfolding. We will continue to bring you live updates and in-depth analysis as this unprecedented situation continues to develop. That's all we have for now. When we come back, a report directly from the Minister l'Etat will be given. Good evening."

Eudes sighed, and beelined for the dressing room. Anyone could predict that there would be national outrage at the present failure of the armed forces. Eudes was so sick of people being upset at him for these negative reports. He was just the messenger, after all. It's not like he has any say in what goes on thousands of miles away. Regardless, he would still be the punching bag. He got to his room and locked the door, ignoring the knocks of Alix and his secretary, and uncorked a bottle of champagne. He sipped from the bottle directly, staring blankly at the wall. He wondered how his husband was doing, considering both the worry he had for him, and balancing the guilt he felt from his actions the night before he left. He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. It would be a long evening.

---

Washington DC, United States

Magnus looked outside the window of his jet and down onto the American countryside. So this is the United States of America. Ever since ascending to the presidency with the promise combat a virus which plagued America throughout the 2020s, Matthew Christ, better known by the few remaining American media outlets and government internet sites as Mr. Christ had increasingly become more and more erratic in his decisions abroad as of late, with his sudden and unprovoked conquest and subsequent forced incorporation of Cascadia into the union. Though while America’s actions abroad have become increasingly belligerent, domestically—at least on paper—very little has seemingly changed, barring the significant and controversial repealing of the 22nd amendment. Though even with all of the controversy it garnered internationally, President Christ continues to be reelected by the people in landside majorities, but given how much the American state has cracked down on migration and tourism, the elections remain dubious as to their validity.

The pilot spoke over the intercom of the jet. “Attention sir, we will be landing in Washington DC shortly. Please secure any items you may have had lying around your seat and fasten your seatbelt.”

The Second Consul took a deep breath, attempting to ease his concerns. If the statement the rogue Mexican empress released about her meeting with the American president was to be believed, he would have to remain vigilant. And that was with home field advantage, and he was five thousand kilometers away from the mainland. As the plane landed, he noticed a group of figures standing off on the flightline, presumably the group sent to greet his delegation.

As the Magnus got off the plane Mr. Christ felt more and more excited, this was a big opportunity for America. The Castelians hold the key to our future and we must appease them and learn from them.

“Hello you must be Consul Rex, I have heard great things about you.”
Mr. Christ offers a firm handshake, as well as a warm smile to ease his worries.

The Second Consul shook the American president’s hand, returning the President’s friendly demeanor with his own. “I'd hope so. Though it’s a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance as well, President Christ.”

Mr. Christ speaks in a cold monotone voice,
“I assume you have heard stories of our great nation, is their any in particular you wish to discuss?”
It seems Mr. Christ is offering information to the Castelians as a form of trust. The validity of this information has yet to be seen.

Magnus paused for a brief moment. “Nothing that would warrant too much attention from this meeting. After all, we have much more important things to discuss than a few circulating rumors.”

Mr. Christs smile grew.
“Of course of course. Your very straight forward, I can admire that. Now then how about we ride in my limo and discuss this at Washington?”

“Certainly, President Christ.” Magnus gestures towards the airport. “Lead the way.”

---

As they exit the limos Mr. Christ seems almost pleased.
“Welcome to the white house, it is quite an honor to have you. Oh where are my manners? Shall I take your coat?”

The Second Consul looked at the President quizzically. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m quite alright. Now, shall we get started?”

Mr. Christ eyes look almost dead as he speaks in his emotionless voice.
“Yes your right we should begin to talk relations, I would humbly request a non-aggression pact with castel.”

The Second Consul considered Mr. Christ’s proposition carefully. “I would be inclined to agree, President Christ. It would be in the interest in both of our nations to ensure a continued and lasting peace between the Federation and the United States."

Mr christ smiled
“Good, good, now onto the trade agreement. I must apologize but We require a pat down before we may discuss this. You are free to put your fire arm on the table, fear not it will be returned after the pat down”

A single bead of sweat went down Magnus’ forehead. “Of course, I understand.” He reaches into his trench coat, and pulls out a semi-automatic pistol, setting it on the table next to one of the President’s guards. After that, he raises both of his hands, and waits for the guards to inspect him.

Mr. Christ noticed the sweat but was satisfied with the pat down.
“Thank you for obliging you can never be too careful. Now then would you be open to diplomatic trade routes correct?”

After receiving his pistol back, Magnus’ expression seemed to relax, and the Second Consul quickly put the firearm back into his coat. “Castel would be willing to open up commercial ties with the United States of America. What kind of agreement did you have in mind?”

Mr. Christ looks magnus dead in the eyes.
“Perhaps a trade route through our east coast?” It would be the most efficient route and safest route. We would be willing to open up the ports of Norfolk and Boston for trade."

“Excellent, I’ll relay your decision to the Directorate so we can work out the finer details on a later date... Was there anything else you would like to discuss with me?”

“No have a nice day, guards please escort him to his plane.”

The Castelian nods, stands up from his chair, and looks over at Mr. Christ. “And to you as well, President Christ. It is my hope that this meeting here today may fully cement the peace that has existed between our nations.” He then glances warily at the guards, but quickly follows them out of the room.

For the Empire!

The winter was steadily winding down, but it didn’t mean it was completely over. Snow in March was a common occurrence in the Far East and on this March morning it was piling up. Despite this, the streets were piling up with commuters headed to work. The harbor was already filled up with people and cargo, with shiphands and dock workers helping unload crates off of the hundreds of ships that came into the city every day. Working in the snow wasn’t optimal for both parties, but they didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, anyway to provide for themselves and their families they’d take it, despite the weather.

Among the busy people around the dock, two men walking down the harbor seemed out of place. The men were both wearing black overcoats over their suits, trying to battle the harsh weather that had been raging throughout the previous night. It wasn’t unusual for people to take a stroll down the harbor and get a look at the ships coming in and out of port, but men wearing high class coats and suits was something that rarely ever happened. The two men continued their walk as workers looked up at them, then back down to focus on their work.

“I’m not so sure about this proposal. It would put my career on the line.” The man on the right side says, looking at the man walking next to him with a concerned look on his face.

“It’s not like your job pays that much to begin with, what I’m offering you is double what you make in a year, tell me that doesn’t sound like a nice deal to you.” The other man said with a smirk on his face. He reached into his coat pocket and took out a checkbook. He waved it in the other man's face and gave another smile. The other man looked at the checkbook, gave a sigh and shook his head.

“And how do you know how much I’m getting paid? If I remember correctly, you’re not supposed to.” The Duma representative reminded the man, giving him a suspicious look. The man just laughs.

“I have friends in high places, my friend. I’m in the business of making money, I can afford to know these kinds of things. I am going to ask one more time, are you in or out?” The businessman’s tone got more serious as he started to get more and more annoyed with the representatives' hesitance.

“It’s public land we’re talking about, I can’t let you freely mine there just because your men found gold.” The representative sighs and shakes his head.

“I’ll give you a percentage of the gold we find, plus the check.” The businessman says, as the head of the representative perks up. The businessman notices and starts to smile. He reaches out for a handshake and the representative reciprocates. The businessman pats the representative on the back and laughs.

“Pleasure doing business with you, and don’t worry, you’ll get the money.”

East Winnipeg, Dominion of Canada.

Rachel looked down from her vantage point atop an old shopping mall, watching the few construction crews that remained move about as small lights below. The British half of the city had been under a reconstruction programme for over a year now, and most of the traces of the war had been repaired by the tireless workers. It wasn't all gone, though--even now, and especially near the border with West Winnipeg at the limits of the advance in the Second Battle of Winnipeg, you could still find networks of trenches, decommissioned machine gun nests, and the occasional hulk of broken-down armour. Rachel knew someone who had found a misfired Russian rocket shell; they didn't make it, but that prompted the Dominion government to evacuate half the city and redouble the reconstruction efforts. There were probably still hundreds of mines and unexploded shells laid down near that perimeter, but nobody dared go near that border save for a patrol of soldiers manning the border into the Republic of Canada. Ever since the election of the NCPP, that place had been... strange, to say the least.

No point in dwelling on this, Rachel thought to herself. This was probably the last time she would be coming to this tower; the workers had already began demolishing the unsalvageable skyscrapers close to the border that had been hit by a few stray shells. This one was relatively safe, but it would probably be repurposed into a commercial building soon. Plenty of big companies, largely fronts and subsidaries of the Big Four, were coming to reestablish themselves in the restored Dominion. That required plenty of office space, and luckily for them, hundreds of new buildings in the city that was once the Dominion's wealthiest were now vacant for the taking. Like vultures they had swept up the corpses of the Canadian corporations that had been purged by Wilson's militia and then taken under an emergency command by the military, and now that the Dominion was back in business, many of these companies went bankrupt, and were bought out and restructured. Rachel would know; her family's primary source of income pre-war had been her father's engineering position in a medium-sized company building microprocessors for Insignia. Insignia, with the government, subsidized relocation and evacuation for civilians near the front; her family had then moved to the British Isles while the war raged. Post-war, they returned to Winnipeg--only to find a city nearly completely converted into a military installment. They watched the Dominion government set up provisional quarters in less shelled-out buildings, and then slowly begin rebuilding civilian districts--Rachel's family home was in one of the first districts to be rebuilt.

Life had returned mostly to normal now, and the aftershock of the war was fading. As Rachel climbed down from the rooftop, she recalled the letter of promotion from Insignia sent to her father that she saw in the living room before she left. Although the seat of the government had moved away from Winnipeg and into Toronto, mostly because the city was split down the front line of the British and Russian armies, Winnipeg still contained a lot of infrastructure that the Dominion government wanted to harness. The fire department, a few police stations... not the former Dominion Parliament building, though, which was located in the western end of the city that had been given to the Canadian state in the treaty.

Rachel picked up her pace towards her home. She could hear, in the distance, the sound of cars driving down a street. It must be a patrol van, she thought--though the martial law had long been lifted, the early curfew along the border had not, and it was a misdemeanor at best to be out at this hour.

------

That was not a patrol van. In fact, it was the personal motorcade of the Governor General of the Dominion of Canada--returning, finally, after a long day of work. In his private life, Richard William Laurent was a party-goer, a womanizer, a symbol of the decadence and excess of the Old Dominion. His lavish lifestyle was supported by his day job of being an indispensible mouthpiece of the elites--specifically one John Wilson of Obsidian Corporation. In that capacity he was Director of the Marketing Department, and later Chief Operating Officer, though his role in the company was soon ended by a schism between his own vision for the company and John's ambitions. Richard decided to take a leave of abscence to his residence in Britannia proper--and then the Canadian Revolution happened, and flights to Canada were replaced by troop-transporting frigates. He watched as John's flaws got the better of his Revolution, and as the entire revolutionary project burned down, Richard began to make a contingency plan, something to ensure he wouldn't be brought down by the crashing and burning husk of Obsidian, and his connection to it.

In that regard, he sought out the protection of his former rivals. They were happy to take in what had become a middle-aged man who was recently unemployed, on the condition that he make himself useful to them. Where the military saw an endless insurgency in the year-long operation, and where the media may have seen terrorists or atrocity, Kalisto Defense International only saw business. The new Dominion of Canada, sure to be re-established, would need guns. Lots of them. Kalisto happened to have enough inventory to arm the entire Ministry of National Security three times over--not much they could do with these apart from rent out even more storage warehouses to leave them in. Did they sell? Absolutely, but who could turn down that blue line on the end-of-quarter report going up?

That was where Richard Laurent came in. He was to make the new Dominion even more conducive to business than it used to be--turn the entire place into a corporate playground if he had to. In some capacity this was already what he was doing, just on a much, much larger and nationwide scale. He had just gotten out of a business meeting with another national business representative--another contract signed over his favourite whiskey was always a good night. Things were, for the first time, looking up, not just for himself, but perhaps for the entire country.

However you wanted to look at KDI's new stranglehold over wide sectors of the Canadian economy, nobody could deny that they were at least effective. Millions of Canadians had been put out of the work as the Dominion went under martial law--half of the post-war year had been spent rectifying that unemployment problem. Maybe you could call it anticompetitive, but there was already no competing with the Big Four. Maybe you could call it greed, but that was obvious from the very beginning. The Kalisto executives weren't running a charity, they were running a business. Or perhaps, worst of all, you could call them unethical.

But they had given ethics up years ago.

For the longest time, China was under the boot of foreign powers, unable to realize its nation's vast potential. After the collapse of the Syndicalists States of China with the end of the Second World War, the more right elements of the Koumintang seized control of China, and with their ascent a new government rose: The United Chinese States. The UCS was a federation of states based on the capitalist and democratic principles of the Koumintang, though the new government also incorporated some liberal western ideas into the government as well. China entered the twenty-first century a rejuvenated and prosperous country, ready to take its place among the great powers of the world. However, there were still obstacles in the way of their aspirations. The late nineteenth and twentieth century saw both the imperial and later syndicalist governments lose major territories to ravenous great powers seeking to capitalize on Chinese weakness. By the end of the twentieth century, tens of millions of Chinese lay outside of the borders of the UCS, in the various concession ports occupied by foreign powers, and in Manchuria, a territory amputated off the Chinese state in the very early twentieth century by the Russians, which would eventually come to be controlled by the Far Eastern Republic of Rubis. With all these hurdles to overcome, the Chinese state would need allies, and they would eventually get one in the form of the Castelian Federation.

While in fact a country that participated in the mutilation of China during the twentieth century, the Chinese saw the Castelians as the best possible partner to cooperate with, both due to their status as a global superpower and their relatively minimal holdings in Asia compared to the other great powers in the region. The Castelians, eager to increase their influence in the Pacific, leapt at the opportunity to strengthen their ties with the up-and-coming great power of Asia, as well as finally ensure the security of their disconnected holdings in the Pacific. Ultimately, negotiations saw the Chinese cede the island of Hainan to the Castelians in exchange for military and economic cooperation between the two states, as well as the right for Chinese vessels to travel through the Castelian pacific territories’ territorial waters. Though arguably the most important, it secured Castelian military support in the event that China sought to reclaim their former territory of Manchuria, which was currently under the control of the Far Eastern Republic of Rubis. Soon after the secret talks concluded, China began preparing its military for a campaign to seize the entire Ruban territory. But with the onset of war in the Caribbean between a coalition of great powers and the West Indies Federation, a bloc that included Castel, the Federation’s leadership soon became keen to ensure that a conflict between China and Rubis did not break out, and moved in to mediate a compromise between the Chinese and Rubans.

Castelian diplomats were then hastily dispatched over to Vladivostok and Nanjing to negotiate a settlement between the two parties. Eventually, the Rubans agreed to the ceding of Chinese majority regions: Jehol, Liaoning, and significant portions of the territories of Liaopeh and Antung. The Rubans would also cede their Chinese concession port of Macau. Though initially conceived as an alliance of convenience, these diplomatic victories have strengthened the ties between the United Chinese States and the Federation, and laid the groundwork for further cooperation between the two states. But overall, with the reincorporation of the Chinese Manchuria back into the UCS, to many Chinese, the process towards rectifying the century of humiliation which the Chinese nation endured for so many years had finally begun.