Excavations

[Touzen]

Kalahari Sea

The ships had left the harbor in the shadow of the storm, a while after Fist of the People and Democracy had set for the Long Sea to much public fanfare on their supposed anti-smuggling mission. What really mattered though was that they would be at the center of intelligence attention, so when the small detachment of dredge ships left the harbor in the typical spaced pattern of merchant vessels unaffiliated with each other, the gamble was that they would draw far less attention to their cause, instead blending into the ever-busy stream of ships passing through the Kalahari and Long Seas in either direction.

The vessels with their large apparatuses would first join the general stream of civilian shipping on the trading lanes, before eventually diverging onto a course into the general direction of Helionesos Island in the Southern Tiburan Empire, but would stop many dozens of miles before even entering the national waters of the Pelasgians and outside of, from what Kashtanese intelligence could tell, the radar coverage of either Eiffelland or the Tiburans.

Then, they would dig. And they would vacuum.

 

[Touzen]

Kalahari Sea

Work at the site was always busy. As some of the dredgers equipped with claws lifted rocks before dropping them in a defined area, other ships were busy pumping sediment from the depths below onto the slopes of a nearby riff, natural treasures that took thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years to emerge being buried under a man-made avalanche of sludge.

It was, if anything, boring, repetitive work. And it would continue for quite a while.

About 80 and 40 nautical miles away, the Arsenal of Democracy's naval detachment continued on its mission, relying on its passive radar and ELINT devices to track and categorize the traffic passing through the Kalahari. If they actually found a smuggler or two that was not on Shigö's payroll - even better.

Hall of the Supreme Idea, Shigö, Kashtan

"Your Excellency, the dossier on Operation Atlas has been prepared, as requested."

Among the large stone pillars holding up the roof of the dramatically oversized hall, the young aide looked like a dwarf, his feeble voice echoing in the near endless vastness of the room.

From the far end of the sanctum, on top of a flight of 30 broad stairs stretching across the length of the hall, a monstrous shadow of a hand cast from a lone figure facing the glass front through which the setting Western Touyou sun entered the room, its wanting size in stark contrast to the size of its shadow, montioned the boy to continue.

"Generally, there are no major problems. Our intelligence about the position of the riff was accurate. The engineers however say that it is about 4 meters deeper than anticipated, so construction will likely proceed slower."

Silence descended upon the hall once more as the last words slowly faded into echoes.

After an eternity, the shadow hand put a glass to a shadow head.

"But it will go ahead?"

"Yes, your Excellency."

The shadow took a shadow sip.

"Very well."

Then, after a short pause, the voice continued.

"Thank you."

 

[Touzen]

Kalahari Sea

Work continued. The fact of the Kashtanese dredgers operating in the area had become a normality - and with no aggressive posturing of the West Touyouan state's assets in the areas, operations had continued undisturbed. A few days ago, a group of engineers and diving specialists had arrived from Thalarikhaf, that medieval southern harbor city that was, in this day and age more than ever, the Basin's gate to the world to its south, beyond the waves.

Shortly after having arrived, they had gone to work, probing the ground around the reef and drawing up some plans for the next step of the operation.

There had been one incident, a week ago. A supposed smuggler's ship had avoided interception by Democracy and had made a high-speed dash for Eiffelandian waters. It's commander had given lackluster chase for about an hour before returning to regular patrol patterns - it could hardly be said that Shigö was putting its full weight behind the anti-smuggling operations. Whether that would change, to some extend at least, was gonna depend on how well Trivodnia and Kashtan would be able to bargain for their money during the first session of the International Open Forum.

 

[Touzen]

Kalahari Sea

Today was an unusually stormy day even for this part of the Kalahari. Some of the sandbags that had been used to reinforce the artificial bay were precariously close to floating away, but for now stood their ground. Dredging operations had been on pause since New Year's, as it would have been impossible to reliable continue the creation of the artificial island in these conditions. That was, of course, annoying, but it didn't stop the rest of activities on the island from continuing. In the eye of the storm, the small radar tower that had been erected in the last weeks of December was continuing preparation operations, and the antenna was slowly spinning around its own axis in a maintenance test. Of course, all of this was purely calibration - no actual coverage of sea or air traffic was being conducted, as that would have required active radar transmissions. The Black Navy vessels in the area did a good enough job on their own in regards to that for now.

The landing strip was next. For now, materials were being offloaded on this homunculus of a territory by helicopter or ship. Eventually, the island would become more and more operational and accommodating to more than just a few construction workers, technicians and a security echelon.

As soon as the storm had passed, work would continue.

(OOC: As you might have guessed, I am continuing this RP with Touzen.)

 

[Remuria]

Highly Encrypted Digital Space

FROM: OGSI
TO: ONI; RN-1SL
SUBJECT: Confirmation required: Activity in Kalahari Sea, E of Tiburia, S-E of Eiffelland

GEOINT, SIGINT and OSINT confirm heightened activity at coordinates as attached. Peak in transmissions and communications out of usual peak for calendar period. Sat imagery inconclusive, but highly suggestive of hostile naval activity. Requires visual confirmation. Findings as attached. Confirmation required: visual imagery. Suggest sending MPA to coordinates provided for visual confirmation.


FROM: RN-1SL
TO: ONI; OGSI
SUBJECT: AUTHORISED: Activity in Kalahari Sea, E of Tiburia, S-E of Eiffelland

Authorised. This is the tenth undue escalation for MPA re-routing over the past 4 days. As of 1/1/18 such decisions no longer require 1SL escalation and no longer require massive business cases. MPA assets are there, among other things, for confirmation of intel. This is their part of their purpose and what the taxpayer paid for.



Airspace over the Kahalari Sea

The initial idea to send one of the maritime patrol aircraft over the Kalahari Sea or over the Long Sea to confirm some inconclusive intelligence gathered by the Office of Geo-Spatial and Signals Intelligence would have to be postponed due to the raging storms in the area, with the aircraft proceeding as per their usual patrol schedules. Once the storm calmed down, one of the aircraft would be dispatched, most likely the closest one to the area at the time of the dispatch.

Confirmation of hearsay from detained smugglers and some inconclusive satellite imagery did not, at this stage, require sending in the entire Retalian Navy to investigate. The peak in communications, un-deciphered, also was not something that was considered a national emergency. But a simple fly by by a maritime patrol aircraft for visual, camera, thermal and IR imagery? This was not that much of an issue, they had to use their fuel up once in the air anyway. If simply to renew the fuel budgets next year.

The new year opened up a whole new range of opportunities for the Retalian Armed Forces as the self-imposed leashes were gradually relaxed, sparked by the never ending provocations from Serenierre, the joining into the provocations by Xinhai, the potential for open warfare over Trivodnia with Kadikistan.

All these arguments meant that the proclaimed "furthest perimeter" defence doctrine of the Retalian military could start to finally play out. There were quite a lot of nations whose ships the Grand Duchy wanted to try and spot as far away from its own shores as possible.



Retalia to Pelasgia and Eiffelland

In line with the everyday intelligence sharing, the planned mission of the Retalian Navy's maritime surveilance assets at coordinates provided was communicated to the Eiffellander and Pelasgian partners. A single line in the daily digest, without any special markings.

 

[Touzen]

Kalahari Sea

The buildup in the area was substantial. At this point, the main flight strip had been finished, with tracks for both takeoff and landing, with an AC tower to the sides, a power generator and basic housing and stocking facilities for the staff on the island having joined the radar and the basic docking facilities that had been completed last year to accommodate the Kashtanese and at times Touzen ships that would deliver new supplies or personnel to the artificial outposts. Recently, a team of contracted engineers from Siyang had started their tour of duty on the island, making preparations for the installation of submerged listening devices tying into the greater Anti-State naval surveillance network across the ocean's floor. With the recent upsurge in naval tensions, their work could not have been welcomed earlier.

When studied from above via satellite imagery, pictures would also reveal the presence of two AWACS planes, sea rescue helicopters as well as a squadron of unmarked interceptors of eastern origin on the strips, as major dredging operations appeared to continue expanding the island westwards in a narrow fashion.

Hall of the Supreme Idea, Shigö, Kashtan

The seashell portrait was impressive. He didn't just think so because he had done it himself - the quality of the shells that had been manually collected by a group of his closest associates at beaches across the world significantly contributed to the bright smile of his shelly representation.

A faint ring of the bell echoed from across the other end of the hall.

"Your Excellency, we are mortified to disturb you during your artistic pursuits, however there's a message from Touzen."

He sighed. Those were beautiful shells.

"What is it that the young man seeks?"

"Your Excellency, Hayabusa has requested to set into motion the plans for the construction of the second island."

Silence descended upon the hall. The President's aura was inquisitive.

"He has paid already, Your Excellency."

"Well, what are you waiting for, then? Never keep a customer waiting. Make it so."