An Eagraíocht na Shepard

[Sheridan]

Aodh ó Faoláin looked outside his window and onto the streets of Derry. Derry was a shit-hole even on the standards of Hattie, which in itself was basically one big shit-hole. Aodh wore a black suit, and had dark hair, unlike most celts. Someone knocked on his door, and without turning around Aodh told the knocker to come in. The man who came in was named Nicholas Flaherty, and was a good friend of Aodh.

"Have you heard the news?" Flaherty asked.

"Yes I have." Aodh answered still looking out of the window.

"What are we going to do?"

"Nothing."

"What the hell? Nothing?" Flaherty asked, honestly surprised.

"The people of Hattie either love us or fear us Nicholas. We have nothing to fear from the Helenan puppets that make up our state government. The fact that they 'declared war' on us is merely to present the image that they are making progress in Helenizing our people. Our operations will continue as usual." Aodh spoke with a cold precision in his voice, which reflected his cold personality.

"Yes sir. We will continue to ship weapons to Kauai then." Flaherty said, before sighing and walking out of the room.

 

[Sheridan]

Kauai was the only colony that Helena did not grant freedom to in the 1790's and it had held onto it for hundreds of years. In the year 1968 20,000 young men armed themselves and fought a bloody one year war for independence from their Helenan masters. Ultimately the Helenan forces crushed them, but allowed the northern portion of Big Kauai to become independent. The northern half chose Anarchy for its political affiliation, and lif ebecame centered on towns and farms.

However there has been one group formed in order to defend Kauai from the Capitalist Pigs of Helena, this group is known as the Collective. Funded by a few interest groups and criminal organizataions within Helena and abroad, the group is made of about 5,000 guerilla fighters. The old leader Mark Whitman was actually a native Helenan, but deeply believed in the Anarchic system. He did not believe in expanding it and had kept his group uninvolved with the affairs of Helena and Souther Kauai.

Recently Mark died from natural causes at the age of 86. Now his 38 year old son Alexander must lead the Collective. Alexander however does not share his father's views of expanding, and dreams of one day spreading the Utopia of North Kauai throughout the world but realizes the immpossibilities of this task.

With an increase of funding, Alexander has gained enough money to turn his ragtag guerilla force into something to be feared by Souther Kauai. Which he is now in the process of doing.

 

[Sheridan]

Agent John Archer stared at the picture of Aodh ó Faoláin on the screen, and Aodh ó Faoláin seemed to stare back. Archer was being briefed before commencing with his latest job, and his director was talking in his normal Missoulan drawl. It was Archer's job to take out the Organization of the Shepard. While it seemed like an immposible task, it was nonetheless a neccesary task. The Inteligence Department was all to aware of The Organization of the Shepard's shipments to the Collective, and it had contracted its work out to the agnecy Archer worked for.

This was the first time since 1989 that the government of Helena had approved of an assassination, and they hadn't just authorized one, but eight different leaders of the criminal organization ha dbeen marked for death. Aodh ó Faoláin was the first on th elist, and they had picked Archer to pull the trigger. However, they wanted Archer to try to squeeze some answers out of him first. While the Helenan Intelligence Department knew that the Collective was stepping up it's weapon purchases, it didn't know if this was because it was planning on launching an offensive or some kind of terrorist attack. It needed to know if they had said anything to ó Faoláin about anything of that nature.

"... we don't need civilians seeing anything of this nature happening. And don't let any of the criminals see you, because we don't need them reporting back to the Collective that the Helenan govenrment is making a move. Do you understand boy?" his Director asked.

"Yessir." Archer responded, eager to get a move on.

"Alright then. Good hunting. Contact us when the job is done and we'll tell you were to rendevouz."

"Will do Sir." Archer walked out of the room prepared to make his seventeenth kill...

 

[Sheridan]

It had been weeks since Archer failed to assassinate Aodh ó Faoláin. Aodh had already warned The Collective, and now The Collective was becoming more aggressive within the anarchic territories. Alexander Whitman was now convinced that the only way to free the rest of Kauai was to unite the tribes and small communities that operated on their own and without formal direction. He would unite them, then turn them against the Helenan controlled southern half of Big Kauai. The tribals near the border joined Whitman without much coaxing, they consisted of about 4,500 ill-equipped and ill-trained soldiers. The real objective was getting the towns and communities near the northern shores to assimilate with The Collective, and form a new Kauai Nation.

The problem with getting the better educated people in the towns to join, was the fact that many employed mercenary bodyguards, funded by the Helenan Government to halt Collective aggression. It also troubled many Kauains that the leader of the group they were suppose to join was a white man. Even though Whitman's family had lived on the island since a few years after it was annexed by the Durhamen Empire. But to solve this problem, Whitman had decided to make General 'Anolani Ewelani the figurehead of The Colective. Ewelani was a middle-aged man who had been part of The Collective since birth. Whitman could now control The Collective without his skin color getting in the way. And now, he could command Gen. Ewelani to either persuade the northern towns to join with him, or be crushed and made into slaves to work in the newly re-opened mines and factories.

 

[Sheridan]

General 'Anolani Ewelani looked through his binoculars at the town of Apax. He had sent three envoys to the town demanding it join the People's Republic of Kauai. However they refused to join, most of them saying that it wasn't worth another war... and that life was much simpler nowadays.

They were fools of course. This euphoria they felt about the form of peaceful(ish) Anarchy was all alie. The Helenan government had ensured that they felt this way, and had tricked them into doing so. He felt truly sorry for them, but they were still a blight on the island... and had to be destroyed. The town wasn't fortified in the slightest, because the town of Apax was not aware of Mark Whitman's death. He would never have attacked a town, no matter if it had denied joining the Collective.

And after ensuring that there was only the expected 50 mercenaries, General Ewelani signaled for the first wave to move in. The wave consisted of 250 ex-triblas armed with mostly homemade AK-47s. The 2nd wave was only for insurance, because the 1st wave was more than capable of killing the mercenaries and capturing the townsfolk.

As the first wave crept through the brush closer and closer to Apax. Eventually one of the mercenaries must have spotted someone, because the merc began shouting and firing his machine gun into the brush as he ran to cover. The other mercs began follow suit. And so the tribals charged. With a ground shaking war cry the wave rushed out of the treeline. Many were getting butchered before reaching the town, but it didn't matter... they were only tribals.

After much more fighting, the tribal army eventually killed off the rest of the mercs, and began collecting the weapons and the town folk. Gen. Ewelani walked down the hill to meet the army which was bringing the towns people.

"In punishment for your hindering of the Collective's goal as well as accepting funds from the Helenans, you are all sentenced to slavery for the remainder of your traitorous lives." Ewelani said coldly.

"Since when has Whitman launched full on invasions of towns!? What the fuck is going on!?" spat a middle-aged man. The tribal behind the man slammed the butt of his Ak into the mans spine, and the man collapsed to teh ground. As the tribal raised his rifle to strike him again, Ewelani raised his hand to signal the soldier to stop. Ewelani walked closer to the man. Then Ewelani crouched down next to the man.

"This isn't the Whitman you know." Ewelani whispered into the mans ear before standing back up. Ewelani puled out his .44 magnum revolver, which ironically was bought from a Helenan weapons company (Colt), and shot the man in the back of the head. He then began to walk away and motioned for the soldiers to bring the prisoners.

 

[Sheridan]

In the currently being rebuilt city of Haku, which was once the capitol of the colony, stood the new Governmental Palace. It had taken 7 years to build it, and it was truly a diamond in the rough. Alexander Whitman sat inside what would become the Premier Chieftain's (Ewelani) Office. He was wearing a black suit, a black cowboy hat, a pair of brown leather cowboy boots, and on his face a pair of large aviator sunglasses. On the other side of his desk sat Nicholas Flaherty, a envoy from An Eagraíocht na Shepard. The two men were both smoking Victorian Cigars, and had taken a shot or two of whiskey.

"Alright alright. Enough fun and games. It's time the two of us get down to business." said Whitman after taking a long drag on his cigar.

"I agree. What'd you call me down here for?" Flaherty asked, shifting in his seat and slightly leaning forward.

"While the Collective gets ready to swiftly invade Southern Kauai and kick the Helenan bastards out, I'm afraid I need to further test your organizations Hattian hospitality." Whitman said, pausing to see Flaherty's reaction. Flaherty remained unscathed, so Whitman continued. "On Valentine's Day of this year, I will need your organization to launch a terrorist attack on Helena. What your target is doesn't matter to me, neither does how many people you kill. As long as it happens at exactly 0:00 on Valentine's Day."

"How big do you want this thing to be?" Flaherty asked, without changing his attentive look.

"Big enough to distract the Helenan government when we launch our revolution at 0:15." Whitman said. After that there was a long pause. Finally however Flaherty stood up and extended his hand.

"I'll see what I can do." Flaherty said as Whitman shook his hand.

 

[Sheridan]

Aodh ó Faoláin smiled at the news from his associate Flaherty. Flaherty just confirmed the purchase of a sizely portion of Sarin Gas. This would fit in very well with the Collective's goals to scare the citizens of Helena into getting out of the war. If they totally frightened the populace, then they would call for a stop to the war, in order to avoid further terrorism. Aodh was going to use it on the people of Hattie, which would make them feel even more different from the english speaking Helenians. Therefore, revolution would be even more possible in Hattie.

Sneaking the Sarin Gas into Hattie would not be all that difficult. The Shaw-Fujikawa Group would deliver the gas to a fishing ship somewhere off the coast. And then from there the gas would be picked up on the north-side of Hattie. It was important to keep it away from Derry, because a naval fleet was now docked there, and the new federally sponsored port was being constructed.

After the Sarin Gas arrived, it would be driven into Derry, were it would be snuck into three different locations. 1) The Governor's Building 2) The Derry NW Subway Station and 3) The Federal Party's HQ in east Derry.

 

[Sheridan]

Kauai

Whitman had been quite busy the past couple of days. He had sneaked into the Southern Kauai and was gathering allies among the many local gangs and drug-runners of the area. He had promised these gangs that the newly installed Kauain government would not interfere with their activities at all. He was of course, lying. The only organization that would be allowed to operate within Kauai was An Eagraíocht na Shepard. The gangs he had aligned himself with would be butchered, and would be made an example.

Helena

The Helenan Government knew were Whitman was. They had been watching everything that was happening inside Kauai. They also knew were the Sarin Gas was, who had purchased it, where it was purchased from, and teh date it was going to be used. But someone was making sure that the Helenan government didn't do anything to stop the events from taking place. Every time President Wells tried to make a move on Whitman or ó Faoláin he got a call from his advisers saying that he couldn't do it. And that if he did then he would be dealt with harshly.

Carson Wells sat in his office smoking a cigar and drinking a little whiskey. He had heard about the secret organization known as the Sword.... but he had never thought it was powerful enough to threaten the President of the Confederacy. The Sword was a secret organization formed in Helena right after the revolution... and was named after The Nobility of The Sword, which were responsible for killing Queen Helen and fighting the peasants during the revolution. It was believed that they were actually the descendants of those same nobles.

Carson Wells' advisers had told him that everything would work out in the end, with Helena coming out of its isolationist shell, and the Federal Government gaining more control. But Wells wasn't completely sure he wanted it to happen because of people dying. When he was first elected president 6 years ago he had ideas as to how he would improve the system. One by one he traded in his ideas for the ideas of the party and the business men of Helena. And now he was caving in to the Sword. He knew his wife Sarah was ashamed of him. Teh look in her eyes when she looked at him was different. Instead of the forty six year old love it had had, it had a look of pity and a touch of disgust. His children and grand-children still looked up to him, but if they had known what kinds of things he had done, or what he was about to do.... which was absolutely nothing.