Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae.

[Sheridan]

Vincent Tattiglia was not a happy man. His campaign to bribe the Cardinals of the Conclave into voting for him had failed, and now he was a lowly Cardinal instead of the Holy Father. He blamed his loss mainly on the words of the Umbazi archbishop, who bad-mouthed him in front of the others. Oh well that would be a vengeance for another day. Now he was meeting Father Edona for some important news. Tattiglia was being driven in his Templar Motor Grand Maître limo. He was of course being driven to the Abbattista Complex in the heart of Ashkalon city.

Upon arriving his butler opened his door as Tattiglia struggled to get out while wearing his red cardinal robes. He carried a white staff, partly for looks, and partly for support. He entered the building and pulled out his special key and slid it into the key hole near the floor buttons. He waited until he heard the magnets click before turning the key, revealing to other buttons on the elevator, -1 and -2. He was headed for -2 the highest clearance room in the building.

Edona was already standing in front of the elevator when it opened. He looked rather excited, and was fiddling with one of the many rings on his fingers.

"Welcome Father Tattiglia. I have great news to share with you." Edona said. Edona was one of the Uroduah who had converted to Catholicism and when he spoke his Uroduah accent was only barely audible.

"So I heard. It must be important if it's on level -2." Tattiglia said.

"Yes, please Father, come with me." Edona said before beginning to lead the way to a door. After opening the door Tattiglia found himself in a small room with one large window overlooking a rather large chamber. There was a counter under the table and two barstools to sit on at the counter. The chamber was filled with men all lined up in a military fashion, with one man who seemed to be the commander.

"Please take a seat Father. It is a one way window, they only see their reflections in it." Edona said as the two took their seats. For a few minutes Tattiglia just watched the drills, but eventually he spoke.

"What am I looking at Edona?" Tattiglia said.

"You are looking at the perfect replacement for the ADA. A brand new mercenary force that has zero affiliation with the church. They have no idea that they are even under the command of the church. It won't even be possible to track their affiliation back to Ascalon!" Edona said with a smile on his face.

"How?" Tattiglia said, rather baffled.

"We are going to arm them with the G3A3 automatic rifles that we bought in secret from the Wieser companies. Also, the Ascaloni government has no idea what we are doing. Only 20 people no what we are doing, all of them serving God before their country. So there will be no leaking of information." Edona said.

 

[Sheridan]

"I assume that this 'arm;y will be used against the Jurzani oil fields... or even sent into Umbazi with the ADA remnants?" Tattiglia asked.

"Well if that is what you will Father Tattiglia, however I was thinking of something even more spectacular." Edona said, eager to tell him the plan.

"What could be more important than those issues?" Tattiglia said, truly having no idea what he was talking about.

"I was hoping you would ask that Father." Edona said as he stood up and walked over to a mini-fridge and opened it. He pulled out two shot glasses and a bottle of whiskey. He poured a glass for him and himself, and the two took one shot. After a few seconds of silence Edona finally answered, "I was hoping we could kill the Pope and make you Pope."

At first Tattiglia laughed, thinking that Edona was surely kidding. However he eventually stopped laughing and looked at Edona's face, which had a look of severity about it.

"Holy Mother Mary, you're serious? Well Edona I don't think I could do this, I mean killing worthless Nethy's and shooting heretic Uroduah is one think, but ordering the killing of the Pope... that is a whole new level of sin. I don't think I could possibly be forgiven for that." Tattiglia said, attempting to merely shrug off Edona's suggestion.

"But Father Tattiglia, it is the Umbazi and the French's fault that you lost. You were the rightful successor! Besides, you don't even have to order it, I will. I'll take care of all operations regarding this new militia and the plan that I have in mind. You can just return to your normal life until the time comes. You can have no more further involvement or knowledge of my doings. If we get caught only I will be blamed, you're safe. Just please you don't have to answer now Father. Sleep on it?" Edona pleaded.

"I... I will sleep on it, but I'm afraid that for now I have to go..." Tattiglia said, as he walked towards the door.

"Thank you, oh thank you! I will call you tomorrow morning first thing! I hope to here good news Father! Goodbye for now!" Edona said as Tattiglia shut the door. Edona smiled to himself, and looked back out the one way window. The men would soon be ready. He had even specifically picked nothing but dark skinned Uroduah like himself for this job. To make sure it could not traced back to Ascalon. Soon he would be the advisor to the next Pope.

 

[Sheridan]

Martin Sunter had been a Lieutenant in the Freiheiter armed forces during the Sarmatian Invasion and during the Otchi Civil War. However, he wasn't as blindly hopeful and proud as most of his comrades. During the Karate Tournamnet in Gorno-Altai, he smuggled himself, his wife, his 17 year old daughter, and his two twin 16 year old sons into Gorno-Altai with the fighters from Freiheit.

He had been living in Cakistan for quite sometime, in secret of course. Eventually however, he ventured into Ascalon, were he was approached by two large men. They offered him a job, which was to lead a mercenary force of some 50 men, and eventually assassinate the Pope. Like every other Freiheiter, Sunter was extremely anti-church, and agreed. The pay had been good so far, and he got near immunity from the MoD.

The men he was training were pretty good, many of them were from the Ascaloni Military Reserves and were eager to get some action.

Martin had just woken up and stepped out of his bed, being careful not to wake up his sleeping wife, since it was 4:30 in the morning. He used the toilet and put on some shaving cream. His beard was coming in, and he preferred to be clean shaven, since during his time in Freiheit he had a full beard, and didn't want to be noticed just in case. His blue eyes had a combination of ambition and hatred when he looked in the mirror. His light brown hair was kept shaven, also unlike his time as a Freiheiter Lieutenant.

As he got into his Tenmplar Motors Cavalier, he began to drive down to the Abbattista Complex, the headquarters of the Defense Ministry in this strange country. His Arabic was horrible, but he was confident in his abilities to train ruthless killers... he had done it before.

 

[Sheridan]

After going down the elevator into level -2, he was given a manila envelope. He opened it once he reached his 'office' which was just a medium sized room with a table, one chair, and a bunch of maps and images on top of the table. The document inside was the updates on the strategy from the Ascaloni Defense Ministry. Apparently they were almost finished with their arrangements to ship him and his men off to one of the islands off the coast of The Holy Tiburan Empire. From their they would smuggle themselves into Barazi and then through the Tiburan Empire. They were still working on somehow getting through Eiffelland and into the Papal States, but this was none of Sunter's concern. He just needed to make sure his men were ready for the mass killing that they would have to preform.

It would be just like the genocide in Freiheit, no mercy, women, children, hell anything that moved would be shot at and killed. They would be going into Dominci after some sort of bomb blast, and would have to wear gas masks so they wouldn't be breathing in either chemicals, ash, or debris. He stepped out of his office and headed into the large training facility that his men were currently in.

His men right now were all stripping their weapons and cleaning them, but once he walked up they all stood up and saluted.

"Continue Moors." Sunter said, he liked to use racial slurs, it made the Uroduah he was training aware that he was in charge. Also it broke down their emotions and their feelings, which he had become quite a master of. All Freiheiter officers had to be in order to be effective.

Once his men were done cleaning their G3A3 automatic rifles he ordered them to line up. There were a total of 75 Urdouah men before him. They looked hard, but he had to make sure they were hard enough to slaughter innocents.

"It won't be long now Moors. I just got a message from the higher ups, and pretty soon our smuggling process will begin. It won't be comfortable, but frankly I don't give a fuck. All you can bring with you is your clothes, those freaky fucking cloth you wear on your head, your rifle, 5 extra clips, and your gas mask which will be issued to you all shortly. If one of you brings a picture from home or anything else that could lead to them tracing you back here, then I'll kill you myself. In fact that's why they issued me this 9mm. I want to use it, so don't give me any fucking excuse." He said as he pulled out his Browning BDA pistol. That last part was true, he really did want to shoot one of these guys. He hated any race that wasn't German. Another trait of the Freiheiters. Then he started to speak again after a momentary silence,

"Don't think I'm some ignorant white man who knows nothing about the men who are serving under me. I have been reading about Islam since I arrived. You religion has a history of violence, even against the country you all are living in. I know that you are all pretty much confined to poverty in this country, which is constantly undermining Uroduah countries like Jurzan or Hajr. Well, right now they are giving you the opportunity to strike back at them. This is your chance to make the Catholics of Ascalon and the world quiver in fear. Your Uroduah brothers will hear of your conquest and will likely force the government hear to give them greater representation. Think of this as a Jihad. This will be your revenge for thousands of years of turmoil. Your chance to show the worthless Christian God who is the true ruler of heaven. I want to see absolutely no mercy. The men, women, children, dogs, cats, birds, everything in that damn capitol will be shot at and killed. I've done this kind of thing before, and trust me, it's more fun then it sounds." At then end he smiled, revealing well treated teeth with only a few hints of yellow on the canines.

 

[Sheridan]

Father Abraham Edona sat behind his desk, not his public desk used for public photo shoots, but his secret desk on Level -1. True it wasn't as safe as Level -2, but -2 got terribly cold. He was currently lighting a cigar, waiting for his guest to arrive.

Edona hadn't had time to learn the details, but apparently a company based out of Breotonia called the Shaw-Fujikawa Group was willing to make a deal with Edona. They were going to discuss the possibilities of purchasing a thermobaric missile. The missile would be launched out of a stolen HIMARS rocket artillery system. True, the HIMARS could be traced back to Ascalon, that is if Edona hadn't already arranged for that to be wiped off the record. It helped that the company that made them was run by the Defense Ministry, and he ran the Defense Ministry.

Also if Edona liked what he saw and heard, he might even be interested in purchasing some chemical weapons. Maybe some Mustard Gas or something equally nasty. He needed to strike fear into the hearts of the Catholics everywhere if this was going to work.

 

[Breotonia]

"And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."
- Revelation 19:20 -​

Abbattista Complex
Level - 1
Ascalon

Daniel Nascombe had just arrived in the facility a quarter of an hour ago. Accompanied by four armed personnel from the corporate security bureau he was escorted to Father Edona's office. Deciding the likelihood of being assaulted by a priest was slim and not wanting to offend his customer he consented to leave his security detail outside while he went to business. Nascombe's was a Vice President for Sales at the Shaw-Fujikawa Group which meant that he was something of a glorified salesman. That being said his sales usually involved weapons (legal and illegal) to his customers (sometimes licensed end users but not exclusively). The corporation had little reason to concern itself with whether or not their buyers were qualified to be in possession of their products. Money from a legitimate defense contract and that from an under the table sale to a warlord or terrorist spent just the same and both equally padded the bottom line.

If the request made by Father Edona was to be taken at face value then today would feature a particularly profitable deal with the possibility for more to come. The purchase of thermobaric weapons gave signals to the observant. The most obvious thing that it gave away was that Ascalon soon planned to make an attack somewhere. Thermobaric weapons had to be carefully mixed and did not keep well, stockpiling them was inadvisable. The Ascaloni military would be aware of this and thus Nascombe knew that if they were buying one now they would be using it soon. Most, including the corporation, would try to discern the target. The obvious answer was Jurzan. There was trouble brewing between the two states but Nascombe doubted that an attack was in the cards. Rather he could not help but notice the request had come almost directly after Tattiglia's failed bid for the papacy. Shaw-Fujikawa cared little either way. They would provide the product so long as they provided the cash.

"Hello Father." Nascombe greeted Edona. "I am Daniel Nascombe I will be handling your account. I am sure you're a busy man so, if you don't mind, I won't use up any more of your time than necessary. I've reviewed the specific nature of your request and your requirements and we have chosen the appropriate warhead design for your needs. I noticed that you have not made a request for a delivery system and I would advise you that, for best results, you should make the purchase of missiles through us as well."

"I also understand that you also wish to discuss the possibility of purchasing other non-conventional weapons? We have many lines of biological, chemical, and viral products and I would be happy to try to meet your needs in this regard."

 

[Sheridan]

Edona was very pleased with the efficiency of this salesman.

"No, I have thought about it, and I don't need any biological weapons. However, I have decided to buy two more thermobaric war-heads."

Tattiglia's plans had changed. The focus would no longer be on his newly created Islamic mercenary militia. Instead it would focus on the merc's would station themselves on one of the three tiny islands owned by Tiburia in the Vostok Sea. From there they would hijack two Ascaloni oil tankers headed for the Papal States. They would use one of the ships to launch the three warheads into Dominci and kill every living thing in the city, including the Pope. Then they would put the crew of the two ships onto the one that had launched the missiles, and use some less large explosives on the ship causing it, and the ship to sink. They would use the other one to flee the scene, hoping to get into Jurzan and do as much damage as they could. They would claim to be the Muhajadeen (probably spelt wrong). This would ruin that groups reputation, and hopefully let the mercenary group get back into Ascalon. Once in Ascalon Edona would betray the merc's and kill them all.

 

[Breotonia]

Abbattista Complex
Level - 1
Ascalon

Nascombe was slightly disappointed that no "special" weapons would be needed by the Ascaloni. The truth was the development of an ever growing variety of more and more effective biological, chemical, and viral weapons was becoming increasingly expensive. In fact, considering the limited customer base, it was bordering on being prohibitively expensive. There was a time when such weapons cheap and simple. Chlorine gas was nothing but salt water and electricity. Today each of the corporation's new product lines usually meant hundreds of millions in research and development. Management prayed day and night for a major war where the profitability of such products could really come into play but each day their prayers when unanswered.

"Certainly Father, the Shaw-Fujikawa Group aims to provide only what you desire. An order of three moderately sized weapons will be very easy for us to fulfill. As soon as payment for the devices has been received they will be prepared and shipped." He removed a tablet computing device from his briefcase and typed on it for a few seconds. "I've sent an order form to your email that details your order including product information, pricing, shipping and handling charges, etc. They will arrive within a week. Also attached in an account number into which you may deposit the necessary funds." While banking laws in Breotonia were especially loose sometimes the corporation, for an added level of security, would convolute paper trail by adding intermediaries. In this case receiving payment through a Danziger bank account created just for these types of situations.

"If there is nothing else I can help you with Father I will let you return to your work. My office is always available if you have any questions or concerns, you have my contact information."

 

[Sheridan]

As the salesman left Edona smiled to himself. The aid going into Jurzan had been seized by Parliament, and recently had gone mysteriously missing. He had that money, and was logging on to his email right now to wire it to the account. Everything was going pretty damn smoothly.