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Big Ol' Boat Got Stuck

Radilo

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Jan 5, 2010
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Cleveland
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Nuovo Porto
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Nutty's better half
2:00 AM, Searult Canal, @Csegia

The Radilan owned and @Caria n flagged ship, the Everforward, a 369 meter long Triton Class vessel, built in Nuovo Porto and harbored in Thoricus, was passing through the Searult Canal. It carried coal and other essentials from the fields and hills of Frankia, destined for the rest of the Eastern Hemisphere.

"Sir, the tugboats are going to lasso us and make sure this all goes smoothly."

"Good" responded Captain August, "no reason to risk it in these gusts."

The wind was whipping by at more than 40 knots. The Everforward was the largest vessel certified to pass through the vital canal. It usually had to pass through at awkward times, as the beast took up most of the canal.

Some time past and the big ol' boat started drifting sidewise.

"Sir, we're drifting," one of the lieutenants spoke up.

"Calling the tuggers, we need to correct quickly... more than 24 degrees off!" the captain shouted in a panic.

There was panicked shouting on the other end of the intercom.

"Oh fuck me, we're about to..." and with that the 80,000 tonne vessel lodged itself between the North and South Banks of the canal.

In a righteous panic, the lock operators sealed the waterway--less they tip over the enormous, if still floating, obstruction.

And, just like that, movement in the world's busiest man-made trade route came to a screeching halt.

"...now what?" asked no one in particular.
 
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Tarusa

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Kremlyov
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JJ
(written as Kingdom of Csengia)

2:40 AM

The cell phone on the night stand kept ringing but nobody answered, it then started ringing some more and a nudge from his wife woke him up as he groggily answered the phone "hello?"

"Sir theres been an incident, about 3/4 of the way thru the canal. We need you to come in immediately."


With that Kelemen Vencel was rolling himself out of bed and began getting himself ready to drive into the Serault Canal Authority office and see what the commotion was about. What could possibly have happened that warranted waking him up at damn near the middle of the night?

4 AM

He finally arrived at the office, he hadn't rushed immediately there as he didn't believe it could possibly be this serious.

Swiping his card as he passed thru the door and made his way into the central control area where everything was monitored and coordinated. Seeing the camera that was pulled up on the main screen showing this large cargo vessel wedged at an angle in the canal.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?"

They began giving him the information they did know as he was now on the phone with other government officials, as now it was he who was waking everybody up.

7 AM

The first officials with any kind of authority had begun arriving at the scene of the incident, long before their arrival the media and locals had gathered and were taking photos and twatting about how some idiot had gotten this large container ship lodged in the canal. They were here to see what the situation was and talk with the crew and canal staff. A plan would need to be formulated to correct this, and someone would end up paying.
 

Pelasgia

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Sep 30, 2014
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Athens, Greece
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Demos
2:30 AM, Nauplia, Caria
Iakovos Kanaris had a relatively calm job; the heir of a long line of Carian naval officers, he had chosen a career in maritime law instead. Given that Caria, both due a history of shipping and an extremely favourable tax regime, boasted the world's largest merchant marine (some 25% of all shipping worldwide being done by Carian-flagged ships), the Confederacy always had a high demand for proctors in admiralty, as he brand of lawyers were called in Engellsh.

After a few years in practice, most chose a soft retirement, working in house at a shipping company or for the government. Kanaris had chosen the latter--twenty years later, he had found himself as Caria's Secretary of State for Shipping. Despite its great importance, the position came with few sleepless nights. All of that, however, was about to change.

beep beep beep

"What the-- Who's this?"

"Sir, our Ambassador to Csegia wants to speak with you."

"Can't this wait?"

"Sir, I've got half the government on hold--not to mention half the diplomatic corps."

"What... how... I guess I should come to the office?"

"That would be strongly advised. Actually, I think the First Archon is ordering you to come to the Council of State building instead."

"Christ and the Virgin Mary..."

4:30 AM

"You have got to be fucking me."

"Sir, the Chairman of the Carian Shipping Magnates' Association would like to know an estimate of the fine."

"The fine? THE FINE??!! Fuck me, I hope his insurance covers compensation for global shipping disruptions, 'cause if not, he won't have a company left when this is over."

7:00 AM

"Ground control, this Carian Air Force Flight 62-59, Special Mission, requesting permission to land."

"Cap, why are we flying the Vice-Secretary for Shipping and the Vice-Chairman of the Shipping Association to a shithole like Csegia?"

"Kid, word of advice: when the General says 'special mission', you'll either hear about it on the news, or you don't wanna know at all."
 

Tarusa

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Middle of Nowhere USA
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Kremlyov
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JJ
The Carian flight was given permission to land at the Halaszbastaya airport which was the closest airport for any international travel to. The flight had been registered last minute and as such officials had scrambled to arrange transport from the airport to the canal. The last leg of their journey would not be luxurious as the only transportation that could be arranged on such short notice to get thee Carian officials to the site of the incident where Csengian officials were at was via military airlift.

While the brass was making every effort to make it look like they truly cared for what was happening in the canal and were in a rush to fix it, the truth of the matter was they were not in as much of a hurry as other parties potentially were. The economy that was potentially being hurt the worst was that of the Pannonian Germanic breakaway region, a little righteous karma was overdue to come their way once more.

Two busses of former zaran military personnel that were still detained after military operations and that the inquisition had labelled as high risks for being threats to the state were being shipped from their detention camp towards the site of the incident in the canal. They would be used as the manual labor for whatever undertaking was decided to attempt and dislodge the ship, if something went wrong, the loss of their lives was of insignificance to the Csengians.
 
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