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Nutters and Northerners

Ebria

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Undisclosed Location, Golden Plateau, Langfield Free State, Natal

"If the public will discover the whole image of this operation, we will be thoroughly compromise and we will literally surrender the country and more than half of the Southern Hemisphere of Europe to the Hippos for the next... God knows how much... probably for the next century..." said Robert Burns, the Director-General of the DER to Yonela Ashleigh Dalasile and to Lucas Riley, the commander of the Nutter Battalion an old man in his late 70s, who has either witnessed or participated in most conflicts the southern hemisphere has seen since the 1970s. The actions in his youth gave him the nickname the "King Nutter". "It is, in the end, a business transaction and I will be in your debt... as you know, I always payed my debt and Camp Hill always prospered with the good relationship with me and with Mad Matt's Green Legion," said Riley. "I expect Heydendahl to be visiting soon at some point, but they will all need to be kept under the rug. Post the long, hot winter, the new Natalian electorate has become quite... anti-First Republicanism... the old engell values, especially their radicalism are being replaced by this new generation, so I fear that in the next year, if such events like the ones that took played in the last months happen again, there will be a huge backlash in the Federation," commented State President Dalasile, more like thinking out loud, rather than to any member of her retinue. "The winds of change, Gentlemen. That is what we feel. We can either try to stand against them like a rock, futilely or let ourselves fly. The era of Misrule, live round military exercises and lack of dignity for the human kind, has come to an end," she continued, concluding. They were all waiting in the diplomatic terminal of the Belvedere International Airport in Camp Hill, for an important guest.

A small private plane landed and taxied in front of them, and the leader of the foreign delegation, was the first to come down the stairs on the plane and was greeted by the Natalian authorities and by Lucas Riley. The delegation was coming from as far as Engellachia, and was headed by none other than Sheriff Alton Pike, and was mostly made of some of his close kinsmen. As he saw of whom the delegation consisted of, Burns joked that the Engellachians kept their families closer than a Rozvian king keeps his many wifes and tens of kids. After the initial greetings, the group went immediately to another spot in the airport, where three Atlas helicopters were taxied, and they left towards the Golden Plateau, flying over the sparkling grey Gran mountains and the Silver Canyon of the Natal, leaving behind the green rainforest of the south for the golden sunburned savannas of the interior.

"Mister Pike, I take you are quite surprised by our small encampment here and the facilities that we can offer," said Riley after the helicopters approached the main base camp of the Nutter Battalion, a huge facility that housed the many men and women that served, their families, and the huge hangars that shielded their equipment from the elements, this including armoured personnel carriers, armoured cars, technicals, infantry fighting vehicles, even some tanks, but also helicopters and planes. Officially registered as a security company, The Nutter Battalion was one of the biggest mercenary companies in the world and the second biggest in Himyar, after the nearly double Green Legion. Their income coming from the many security contracts they had with all sorts of shady people from all over Europe, but also as auxiliaries to police and military forces in Himyar, especially in Cabaon, Loago and the Dune Sea, plus also subsidies coming from some of the secret stashes of the INTAF and the DER, their facility was literally like a super-militarised planned city, as it included even a hospital and a school with nursery for the families of the employees.

Lucas Riley was a very pragmatic man. For him nobody was fully good, nobody was fully evil. He was considered by many as a cruel, unscrupulous and deceiving man, but even he stated that he had principles, and he believed that what the Domain was doing in Bourgogne and the First Republic was doing in it's internal affairs, their hypersensitivity was only gratuitous violence. Of course, he also hated nations like Eiffelland and Lars for being too self-righteous. He knew money was everything, and a few nappers, the weakest Pound of all, yet the most traded currency in Himyar, given to the government and the secret services, was enough for them to facilitate him with a line with probably some of the most conniving Engellachians, yet that will pay back ten if not hundredfold in the long run. He was ready to take this risk.

"January may be a month in which your countrymen can enjoy liberty. And liberty, if it's not won at the ballot is usually won by the bullet. We can come to any agreement you can think of," Riley told Pike as the delegation stopped to watch a group of mercenaries go through an obstacle race as part of their physical training. "Her excellency, the state president," he said as he turned to Yonela Ashleigh Dalasile, "will hate on me for saying this, but I don't want to diss her nor do I think I am a doff for saying tis, but look around you, Mister Pike. This is a state within the state, in the end. This is stratocracy at it's best," he continued proudly. YAD scoffed at that comment, while Burns slowly let a smirk come out. "Like much of the Natalian militarism, it all comes down to tradition. The great warriors of the Impi of Cetshwayo Mbunda of old and the Rozvian Askari are all brought to modern day by the military culture of the NADF and bands such as this," said Robert Burns. "They may not be militant atheists or feel racially superior, but they are either Himyari Natives, believing in the glory of their ancestors and in battle they show no fear, to make them proud, or they are Christians, members of the Utatu Orthodoxy Church, and even if in their creed killing is a sin, it can be forgiven if they kill an infidel, plus, in the Utatu theology, material life in itself is suffering so, they aren't really afraid of what waits for them in the other side. All that make them fearsome warriors. Deadly in the heat of battle, but disciplined in rest," commented Riley.
 

Thaumantica

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The Pike clan was led at present by Clayton County Sheriff Alton Pike, a tall and slim built man with silver dominating his once jet black hair and mustache. A Kinist through and through, each action or inaction he made was either in veneration of ancestors or towards the benefit of his descendants, and regardless of his own campaign for the Engellachian Presidency contacts in Natalia would benefit his kin and kind going forward. Alton’s second cousin, Duncan Derry, would be asked to stay behind in Natalia to put down roots for Kinist Kind. Educated as an engineer, the 28 year old Derry was expected to settle well in the rapidly developing nation and one day grow his own large family as his much older second cousin had.

“Positively enchanting!” Alma Pike declared thrice as they were flying over the Natalian countryside boasting of diverse landscapes that contrasted and complimented one another beautifully. It was true that the Pike’s were sheltered Kinists, and that their patriarch’s fame and prominence among other clans now permitted them to venture much farther than any of them had ever imagined.

Insular to Engellachia as they had been, the Pike’s represented the Kinist model at its finest, with branches spread out across the West Engell Republic in all spheres of influence. In every public or private sphere of power one could find a Pike or a cousin of one working somewhere within, loyal at least some to the support network that could find them new employment over night, gifts for a baby shower, or even protection in the corners of the frontier where state justice ended and private prerogative began.

With the encampment of the Nutter Battalion in view, Alton Pike was in awe of what these truly Himyari Engells had achieved here where few Engellachians ever cared to imagine. “Engellachia ignores her Natalian Kindred at our collective peril!” Alton reflected aloud for both his family and hosts to hear.

Witnessing these clusters of warriors, impressive military equipment, and integration of families to the compound dwarfed what any Engellachian Kinist has achieved since the times of Engellind’s Civil War. Where once a clan could pool together to form a small army, as the Nutters were, the Pikes could only scrap together pick-up trucks, rifles, and some explosives that they might hideaway after “expiring” from Army depots where family or friends might work as quartermaster.

“A state within the state,” Alton repeated from Riley, “this certainly translates well for us, and myself as the Sheriff from Clayton County . . And this is quite similar to what Herr Heydendahl has arranged in Eisgarten, remarkably similar, and likely a challenging competitor for contracts?”

Alton knew that Heydendahl Defense Solutions was of course, the private military company had used the rise of Thaumantic Dominion and his position of prominence within this new structure to cut out his competitors for countless contracts. Karl Heydendahl was a hawk like Republican who was willing to trot the globe twice over, placing his own feet on pavement, dirt, rock, or sand to beat out a competitor. Alton was here to do the same, meet far from home with business contacts who might give him an edge in the coming power struggle.

“Us Pike’s are rich in blood, bluster, but not much else . .” Alton admitted to his hosts, “What we are to achieve at home, or that home away from home we call the Island of the Progenitors, will be paid for in the blood, sweat, and tears of loyal Kinists.”

“Since y’all were kind enough to invite me here, I figure I should be honest about our financials - we simply can’t afford the class of Mercenary you offer for the mission we are after,” Alton continued in the spirit of honesty, “but let me ask you, do you know what us Engellachian Kinists are really after?”

Sheriff Pike furrowed his eyebrows beneath his broad brimmed hat, eyes darting around a bit to catch the telltale signs of Cussian spies. Engellexian spies hardly existed, nor Sylvanian or Pohjan of note, but the Engellachian and Cussian craft were ramping up at such a speed that Alton half expected to be run over in an “accident” every time he crossed the street.

“Bullets and the West Engell ballot box ain’t the half of it, my Natalian Kindreds” the Sheriff drawled, “I think you invited me here knowing I don’t have Heydendahl’s billion pounds to drop on a Private Army, so I want to hear you say it: what do you think I am after with all of this, and how can I repay you if we get ‘there’ together.”

The other Pike’s meanwhile inspected arms and mercenaries excitedly, listening to their hosts faithfully and asking follow up questions on the specifications of each weapon or vehicle, and getting know the origins of each Mercenary if they were willing to divulge their background of how they made it to this unique place.

“Above all we Kinists believe in those who believe in themselves,” Alma Pike offered to one such Mercenary, “That you love and venerate your native ancestors is such an inspiration, I wish only all Engellkind remembered where they came from and to what they must serve.”

Nearby the wives and children of these Himyari men scurried about she saw, and do them she pointed: “You serve them!” Alma easily declared, “A nation’s flag or thinker’s ideology may pretend to rule us, but we all know that in the end you are here working and earning for your family!”
 

Ebria

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A few weeks earlier, Federation House, Camp Hill

"Are you completely sure about this, Mma?" asked Daniel Burns, as they were in the State President's Office. "I will follow your orders, but I want to make sure that you understand the implications," he continued. "Implications..." she scoffed. "Kinists..." she continued. "We are not from the same stock as those northerners. What they see as superiority, you need to understand that we see as an inferiority, a deshumanisation, should a Rozvian say, an ossification I say, unadaptability and blindness from their own arrogant sense of superiority. If I would have seen them as the best way to move forward, I would have tasked you with organising this operation. I would have given enough nappers so that Natal itself could sponsor it. But no, this is an operation in which we were just the liaisons. And we will be paid only for that. In the best case, we might end up with some influence in Vesper and Dulwich, in the worst case, I will manage to make those animals leave this country and die in a foreign land. I don't need mercenaries of all sorts breathing on my back," responded Yonela Ashleigh Dalasile back.

Present Day, Nutter Battalion Compond, Golden Plateau

Lucas Riley was enjoying it all. It really felt like his best and last chance to do something great. If this gave him the chance to finally snub Camp Hill and the Hyenas in power too, even better.

"Mister Pike, look around you. In this group, you see men and women from all the walks of Europe," said Riley as he was leading the delegation behind the lines of soldiers practising their shooting skills. "That man, there," he said, pointing to a huge man, over two metres tall. "He is a faraway member of the old Serenien royal family. The other one there," he turned, showing a man shooting with a sniper gun, "is the nephew of General Pyotr Uvarov, the Kadikistani Ruska general that fought against the communists led by Andrej Rurik, to keep the Slavian Empire alive. The woman there," she shown to a nearby woman, the drill sergeant of the whole exercise, with prominent Toyou features, "you might be surprised to year, but she is the niece and only descendant of the last Khan of Boliatur, before Touzen... aided in their... liberation... You see," he turned then to the Engellachian man.

"People here are outcasts and misfits. They long for a place to call a home. They are not simple travellers who love nomadism, but people of... superior pedigree should I say. Many of them have a long history in which they fought for an ideal or for their families, but sometimes, the odds were stacked too much against them, and here they are now, a legion of exiles in the end, wanting to find a new homeland," he said, before turning towards the State President. "I know her excellency, Miss Dalasile has been an excellent host for us, but I feel that we have overstayed," he threw the acid comment, but not before he offered her a fake smile.

"Mister Pike, I assure you, that our commitment to this, is a long term one and I wholeheartedly understand that you are not in the same position as Mister Heydendahl, financially. What I ask, isn't a bulk sum but rather a more comprehensive agreement. I don't know much about the inner functionings of your country, especially since the whole quagmire that is the Thaumantic Alignment Committee taking over. But I do know, that Heydendahl security is integrated in the defence forces of your motherland. What I ask you, if we help you liberate your country and give Engellex back it's greatness, would be to replace Heydendahl's cronies with us, and in time, the debt will be repaid only by that integration, as auxiliary forces. Imagine it like us and the WER having an agreement to first come to each other to solve our problems, and only afterwards go to somebody else," said Riley.
 

Thaumantica

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Alton Pike narrowed his eyes and stared into those of his counterparts carefully. He did not trust them in the slightest and intimated that Riley and his associates held little faith in him. He shook his head then peered out the mercenaries, who continued to go about their business of drilling at tasks without consideration of the Kinist's presence. These men and women would continue to ready themselves for this war or that without Pike, so he attempted to frame this entire exchange as a development of a business relationship.

"No doubt, y'all are the elite and at the top of my list," Pike agreed, eyeing Riley again suspiciously. He began to consider whether or not he was being double-crossed by Heydendahl, a mercenary boss himself, or the Cussians who were not above spycraft and already had many business relations in deepest darkest Himyar. "There won't be another violent coup in Vesper, at least not by my hand. I intend to win back my country at the ballot box . ." Alton said with a wink, it went without saying that Vesper had the most corrupt election machine in all of Westernesse, "but you know, perhaps your mercenaries would benefit from a northern training compound to compliment this one?"

Alton smiled and offered a handshake, "We can help you arrange that in Upper Engellachia at the minimum! But so far as putting their skills to practical use, I'm not sure I hold the card to match yours with quite yet."

Far away at the other side of the world, the First Thaumantican Guard Division was mobilizing for a staging deployment to an open land reserve between Londinjou and Dulwich, where they were would be asked by Heydendahl's TAC to perform one final practice exercise before joining the Burgundian Campaign on the continent. That the Guard Division might be used in any other way was a morsel of trusted intelligence between Alton Pike and General Wesley Hilliard, commander of the Thaumantican Guard.

"I do have an old family friend in the Combined Armed Forces," Alton suggested carefully, "he may have that card, and I could put you in contact with him. He might want an irregular element to compliment his own, I'd reckon."
 

Ebria

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As much as the Natalian government and it's defence institutions have made use of mercenary companies such as the Green Legion and the Nutter Battalion, we must not be blinded by the fact that those para-statal institutions have been born in a reaction to the inefficiency of the state to provide defence and security during the 1950s Communist agitations and the later 1970-1980 Bush War against the Rhinos. Just by their mere existence, they are a reminder to the people of the failure of the NADF to provide security and represent a big problem in the government's assertion of full sovereignty in the territory of the Federation. Even more so when we know that many of those groups are created out of radical anti-communism and because of that are a threat to our democracy, especially now that the Hyenas have been elected into power. What we can recommend would be a suppression of those groups, in either a non-violent way, convincing them to move to another place (recommending Loago, Nzadiland or even certain parts of the Domain) or to disband (less likely) or to force them to do the latter with military use, but the following bloodbath might be a strong black spot on both the prestige of the Federation as a stable and powerful Himyar nation and on your presidency and the Hyenas itself.
- Excerpt of the INTAF Report on internal defence issues handed to Yonela Ashleigh Dalasile on her first day as State President.

Nutter Compound, Golden Plateau

Both the YAD, Robert Burns and Lucas Riley observed the change of tone Pike had. Dalasile felt a bit disappointed as she hoped this would be the easiest way of also getting some Pounds into her account while also getting rid of the mercs, while Robert Burns slowly suppressed a smirk, happy to see that Pike wasn't falling so easily for the too optimistic visions of the future Riley had. The mercenary boss wasn't that affected by it, as he knew that the chances for an outright approval were minimal.

"We must not forget that the Domain, and Engell politics in themselves are as democratic in tradition as they are ruthless. The TAC and Heydendahl have come to power with a coup and now with the war going on, it provides a good environment for them to state at any point the need for a state of emergency and to suspend elections, should they feel that there are real chances for them to lose," stated Robert Burns. He was weary of such things as he himself played the kingmaker in both Cabaon and Loago, with the State Presidents acting only as rubber stamps to the INTAF's and DER's actions. "I, of course don't mean to disrespect our guests, as I too understand the importance of the democratic process, as this company has been built exactly for that, to defend Natalian Democracy in the face of communists and insane cultists like the Rhinos. Where the state couldn't provide, we were there for the people," said Riley with a quite theatrical bitterness in his voice, making eye contact with Burns and Dalasile for a fraction of a second. "Such militias like ours are a feature of traditional Engellachian and Sylvanian quest for liberty and freedom, out of which democracy is a must," he continued.

He took and shook Pike's hand. "The idea of a compound in Engellachia sounds very good. I think that her excellency, the State President has made it clear that at a certain point we might have overstayed here..." he said throwing a poisonous gaze towards Burns and Dalasile. "I would be honoured if you will help us contact with your acquaintance from the Combined Armed Forces. As for what we expect in the future, if we manage to move to this new compound by January, we will be there, at your call to protect the Engellachian democracy," he concluded smiling.
 
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