Sandcastles

[Mergogne]

Zoronov Armory
Downtown Tirovgrad
State of Buraniya
Kryobaijan

Zoronov Armory, a crumbling stone tower two blocks south of the Tirovgrad city hall, was an iconic edifice in Kryobaijani history. In 1936, during the last days of the Kryobaijani monarchy, king Leonid III took refuge in the Armory while the leftist partisans of Boris Fyodorovich roamed the streets of Tirovgrad. The king's hiding place was not secret for long, as some of Leonid's personal bodyguards revealed his location to the revolutionaries. The subsequent execution of Leonid III and the deposition of the monarchy concluded the Kryobainani Communist Revolution, and began a new age under the KCP. Since then, the building had been renovated numerous times and preserved as a historical landmark. Despite this, the Zoronov Armory exuded a perpetual aura of decay. Vines crept over the dissolving outer masonry of the tower, and the wrought iron and stone wall that surrounded the building had fragmented and cracked.

This had not stopped the Kryobaijani People's Revolutionary Guard from making the Armory its temporary headquarters in Tirovgrad. The Revolutionary Council's elite military cadre had been tasked with eliminating the remaining Kryobaijani Communist Party forces from Tirovgrad, and restoring order in the Vradlan-majority city. In cooperation with the Buraniya State Police, the Tirovgrad Police Department and the KPA, the KPRG had managed to destroy the last of the KCP's heavy weaponry and major bases of operation. But vicious guerilla attacks with small arms and acts of sabotage kept the Intersectionalist forces on the defensive for the moment. Sandbags, barbed wire, and machine gun posts now surronded the Armory, and several APCs and armored cars were parked in the motor pool.

The intense irony of the Armory's occupation by the KPRG was not lost on USSK Director of Security and Investigation, Vyaschleslav Gridenkov, as he sat by one of the windows in the Armory's ornate dining room and stared outside into the pouring rain. He idly leafed through the security briefing that had been created for the Sandown Security Solutions delegate, as he waited for them to arrive. He had risked the trip to Tirovgrad to specially meet with the Cornavians, as the situation in the USSK's northeastern states was grave enough to warrant the full attention of the Revolutionary Council.

The patter of the raindrops on the window pane was interrupted by a knocking on the door to the dining hall. A KPRG officer entered the room.

"Director, the Cornavians have arrived."

"Good, show them in," Gridenkov replied.

 

[Confederal Republics]

A less cerebral fellow could have well missed the irony in that the both participants of the meeting were, as far as Sandown's Director of Operations William Benton was concerned, sacrificing a bit of their own ideals: The Kryobaijanis in their decision to turn to a PMC from a capitalist country, and Benton in doing business with the Reds to begin with. Hell, when he'd signed up for the Commonwealth Armed Forces as a career soldier twenty years ago, Benton and other members of the military had trained to fight off a Communist invasion.

That scenario was still one of the main threats the military trained to overcome, but Cornavia no longer lived in a state of siege as it had before the fall of Tyskreicher and Batavian communist regimes. To a such an extent that Foreign Minister Fenner had given an initial off-the-record clearance for Sandown's planned contract in Kryobaijan, something which would have been an unprecedented act fifteen years ago. However with the "state of siege" no longer a reality, and with the Communist regime in Kryobaijan replaced by another of a different red shade that didn't go well with the traditional Communists, Southport's view on the country had evidently become more lenient.

Chief Executive Officer Sandown had originally planned to go in person, but the arrangements of the firm's contract in Barazi had forced him to delegate Kryobaijan to Benton. Benton hoped that the Kryobaijanis would be content with the delegation that was present, noting to himself bitterly that Christopher was the one to get to remain in their cushy Southport offices while Benton and his team went to a de facto warzone. Still, Benton had seen his share of the world's hellholes before, and besides that Christopher had assigned a full security detail for the benefit of Benton and the others. After all, it would be rather embarrassing for them to end up shot or kidnapped by the remaining Communist Party guerillas, Benton noted to himself. Still, the fact that Christopher had selected him to head the negotiations in Kryobaijan showed to Benton that the man trusted him. And in any case Benton held more trust for the man than he did for the various other corporate executives under whom he'd worked since his retirement from the Commonwealth forces, being that both Benton and Sandown were ex-military like a majority of other Sandown employees.

"Director", Benton said after his delegation had been shepherded in by the KPRG officers, hoping that his school Slavic with a heavy accent of a rather prolish Cornavian would at least remotely be understandable to the man, "William Benton, Sandown's Director of Operations. It's a pleasure to meet you."

 

[Mergogne]

Zoronov Armory
Downtown Tirovgrad
State of Buraniya
Kryobaijan

Gridenkov was simultaneously pleased and taken aback by Benton's unexpected linguistic stunt. It had been centuries since anyone within the Kryobaijani government had spoken the local Sarmatian dialects with any consistency, not since the reign of Viktor VIII, at least. It was under Viktor VIII, and the later kings of the Razuminokov line, that a brutal campaign of reform and forced modernization was carried out in Kryobaijan. The dominance of the popular Hlodna and Krosdiak Sarmatian tongues in the Kryobaijani kingdom had been perceived assigns of backwardness by the monarch, and were banned from useage in the public sphere. Viktor VIII, in an attempt to emulate the successful Western nations that enjoyed the benefits of industrialization and modernity, soon mandated that English would bethe new lingua franca of his kingdom. While this attempt was hardly successful on a macroscopic scale, as the various Sarmatian languages were still commonly spoken in the rural areas of the country, English did become the principal language of the Kryobaijani government. Thanks to its dissemination throughout public schools, English would also become very popular in the Kryobaijani cities, cutting across ethnic and tribal lines.

"Prijatno poznakomit'sa," Gridenkov replied with a chuckle, which sounded more like a protracted gag. Gridenkov never chuckled.

"In all seriousness, it is good that you speak the language. Although it probably won't be of much use to you for your work in Tirovgrad, Sandown will certainly be asked to provide personnel with language skills in order to fulfill other components of the contract," Gridenkov said, once again comfortably stone-faced.

Gridenkov handed Benton a thick manila folder, filled with several inches of documents.

"In any case, this is the contract that we have drawn up, in addition to some cultural, economic, political, and military briefs for you to peruse at your leisure. We will also provide any other information that Sandown requires, of course. The big picture is that, with the KCP out of power, the Vradlan tribe members who have traditionally supported them are upset about their fall from power. At the same time, the KPA and police have been gutted by the desertion or insurrection of Vradlan personnel who made up most of their ranks. As as a result, we are left with huge civil unrest and rioting, mostly in the Vradlan-dominated northeast of the country, and few trained police or military units we can use to control it."

Before Gridenkov could continue, a resounding blast rocked the room. Gridenkov flinched for a moment, before realizing that it was only a peal of thunder from the raging storm outside. The KPRG guard had likewise cringed, until he also recognized the natural source of the noise. Gridenkov resumed speaking, as the rumble faded and once again the only sound that could be heard was the dribble of raindrops on the windowpane.

"You'll have to excuse us, we are still slightly on edge—even after they stopped the mortar attacks last week."

Gridenkov paused to take a legal pad and pen out from under his chair.

"Before we go any further, I want to make one element of this contract perfectly clear. If your staff fail to perform to our expectations in this regard, we will have no choice but to immediately terminate your service, to avoid the risk of further inflaming existing...tensions. I believe this is a clause in contract. I would normally not stress this issue to such a degree, but these conditions are being pushed by the rest of the Revolutionary Council leadership."

Sensing Benton's impatience, Gridenkov cut the disclaimers short.

"Fundamentally, we need Sandown to run a 'culturally literate' operation in Tirovgrad, and the rest of the Northeastern Kryobaijan. Your personnel will likely be interacting with Krosdiak, Hlodna, and Vradlan Kryobaijanis every day, and the Revolutionary Council needs to know if they are going to be able to understand and appreciate the tribal and political relations of those specific ethnic groups, in addition to general Kryobaijani cultural idiosyncrasies. If we choose to expand your services to Hlodnastan, in central Kryobaijan, there is a likelihood that your staff will need special language and cultural training as well. Sandown will also need to take steps to minimize the symbolic impact of its presence—we can't have the Intersectionalists being perceived as cowards who hire foreign soldiers to oppress an aggrieved majority. I could not find of any past instances of Sandown operating in such a politically volatile environment , and I wanted to be sure that your firm is prepared to take the necessary measures to maximize its efficacy in the USSK."

 

[Confederal Republics]

William Benton gave a slight twitch in response to the booming thunder outside. His danger reflexes momentarily kicked in to action before realizing that the sound had not, in fact, come from an artificial source. He eased and his face returned to a smile.

Sandown had plenty of reasons to minimize its visibility in Kryobaijan entirely on its own, Benton noted and shrugged, keeping in mind that the company's involvement in Kryobaijan was bound to be politically controversial. Though Fenner had cleared it, the condition was for Sandown's actions to be relatively low-profile in order to avoid drawing criticism from traditionalists of the Commonwealth Party and the opposition Republican Party. Another condition for Sandown involvement was that in the event Kryobaijan showed signs to a return of old Communist ways, the contract would be immediately terminated.

"Of course, of course", Benton said, handing the folder to his assistant seated next to him, Tara Wyatt, the only female in the Sandown representation and also a former External Affairs official as opposed to Sandown's ex-military leaders. Benton continued, "At Sandown we value rendering all the due discretion to our customers. Mr. Gridenkov, I need to ask you if the terms of such a contract would also permit the hiring of Kryobaijani citizens for the purposes of these operations in addition to involved foreigners? Not only for mundane roles such as support personnel and interpreters, but also partly to admit regular Sandown contractors. In past operations of a similar character, such practices have been useful in legitimazing our operations and in allowing said contact with locals."

 

[Mergogne]

Zoronov Armory
Downtown Tirovgrad
State of Buraniya
Kryobaijan

Gridenkov nodded approvingly at Benton's suggestion of subcontracting out some of the work to local Kryobaijanis.

"Mr. Benton, we can definitely grant that permission to Sandown, but I'm not sure how successful you will be in finding potential employees or contractors. We have endeavored to recruit as many Kryobaijanis as possible in order to rebuild our established security services, so there may not be a very large labor pool remaining for you to draw upon. Not that you won't find anyone, I'm sure that there are many Kryobaijanis who are qualified for support work, but you might find yourself, scraping the bottom of the barrel, so to say, when it comes to finding combat-eligible candidates."

Gridenkov paused for a moment, searching for words, before starting again, with a slightly worried expression.

"But Mr. Benton, what is more important than discretion, is cultural sensitivity, at least according to the rest of the Revolutionary Council. We will effectively be handing over local control of law enforcement to your agency, and we require assurance that your officers are going to be able to resolve interethnic confrontations, and handle delicate, politically-charged exchanges between various parties. While you are free to draw upon the local Kryobaijani populace to help you, the qualified security personnel who will be responsible for keeping Tirovgrad and the rest of Northeastern Kryobaijan safe will have to have at least a basic familiarity with the USSK, and at least some grasp of the language. Can Sandown provide that, or should we rethink some of the contract's...parameters?"

 

[Confederal Republics]

"Alas, my personal belief is that a substantial recruitment effort will have to be made. However, with your concerns in mind we'll be likely to keep Kryobaijani contractors in the operation to interpreters, liaisons and supporting sub-contractors, and the like if the discovery of people suited to our standards proves to be a challenge in excess.", William Benton elaborated in response, at the same time thinking on how to say what he wanted to say in a manner that would not imply inability to handle the contract. He could have done worse, Benton noted to himself, for an ex-Marine. And he thanked himself for getting that Bachelor's degree in History during his younger days, in addition to the Master of Military Sciences one that was obligatory for career officers in the Marines. As annoying as his squabbles with the Ministry of Defense during his last years in service had been, Benton now understood that they had prepared him for his current role in Sandown Security.

"Which brings me to my next inquiry as for the parameters of this contract. First, given what I said, does the Kryobaijani government wish to impose any requirements upon the nationalities of contractors hired by Sandown, and second, what are we looking at as for the level of training you're requiring, in addition to the language and culture needs already mentioned?"

 

[Mergogne]

Zoronov Armory
Downtown Tirovgrad
State of Buraniya
Kryobaijan

Gridenkov decided not to push the "cultural literacy" issue any further. He was sure that a professional organization such as Sanddown could avoid any unfortunate political incidents or misunderstandings once their staff was in the field. And Benton seemed like a competent man. And despite his martial demeanor, Gidenkov was confident that Benton understood how crucial the political and cultural dimensions of the Kryobaijani security crisis were.

While Gridenkov reflected on this silently, the door to the dining chamber opened, and a soldier entered with some refreshments. A plastic tray was set down in front of Gridenkov and Benton, laden with glass and ceramic tableware. Some dusty teabags and a porcelain kettle filled hot water were set aside for the Cornavians, along with milk, sugar, and some lemon in a series of small white bowls, while a tall glass bottle of soda water was presented to Gridenkov, along with an array of smaller bottles filled with flavor syrups. Gridenkov selected a small yellow vial, and poured the contents into the glass bottle, before preparing a glass for himself.

The phenomenon of soda consumption in Kryobaijan, like the english language, had its roots in the extended periods of forced modernization that the country underwent at various points in its history. Many of the "modernizer" kings of the Razuminokov line, in an effort to adopt Western customs and culture, made modern or novel beverages such as soda the de facto national drink of Kryobaijan (along with many alcoholic spirits), ensuring its lasting popularity among all three tribes. From the naturally gaseous spring water that was bottled and sold in the 18th century, to the phosphate sodas of the 1950s, to the modern day mixtures of carbonated water and sugary syrups, the Kryobaijani government had promoted the beverage as a cultural icon of civilized modernity. While the effect on the nation's dental health was questionable, few would question the artistry in which Kryobaijani gourmets would indulge with their sodas. Drawing the finest mineral water from the springs of Gorastan, and infusing it with fresh fruit juices or other flavorings, Kryobaijani soda had attained a state of primacy in Kryobaijani cuisine.

"For security reasons," Gridenkov said, "we would prefer not to have any nationals from LFS nations working with Sanddown for this contract. We believe that Sarmatian personnel would also provoke backlash from those that they were policing, due to both the Khazars' historical dominion in Kryobaijan, and the more recent Great War hostilities, of course. Aside from that, I can't think of any restrictions. As for their level of training, I'm assuming that Sanddown has a strict course and regimen for all their staff, but I suppose we would need to confirm that with documentation and a summary review of your officers' qualifications before any contract was signed. The contractors in Tirovgrad and other cities in the Northeast should have mastered essential policing techniques, and at least some of them will be required to have riot control training as well. Sanddown staff who will be working with surveillance equipment will need to have training in the usage of those apparatuses as well, of course."

 

[Confederal Republics]

Sandown didn't employ a lot of LFS citizens anyhow, Benton noted to himself, with most of the Sandown contractors being from the Commonwealth itself, assorted developing nations as well as other countries in Scania and Gallia. Those recruited to serve in leadership, specialist and high-priority roles tended to be Cornavians, such as those in the Field Services division's Tactical Action and Consultation services.

"We understand absolutely", Benton said, taking a sip of a glass of the non-alcoholic soda that he'd taken from the tray. "As for the composition of contractors we'll be able to draft for this Northeastern operation, we have a pool of Cornavian former members of the Commonwealth Armed Forces that we'll be able to draw upon, these in as broad an operation as this would be serving in command positions and the more demanding specialist roles where we can use their experience and such. Field Operations runs Tactical Action and Consultation teams made up of people who are former Special Operations Command, Special Home Guard and specialist law enforcement, and these will be able to engage in direct action against any paramilitary groups and such."

"With the addition of the aforementioned local interpreters and liaisons which I mentioned, the bulk of our contractors will have to be recruited from outside of this pool, but in a shorter time frame we can fill out the roles for specialist surveillance operations and high-priority missions, though."

 

[Mergogne]

Zoronov Armory
Downtown Tirovgrad
State of Buraniya
Kryobaijan

Gridenkov nodded his head. As the meeting progressed, he realized that there were many details that would have to be worked out once the Cornavian contractors actually arrived in Kryobaijan. For example there was the issue of whether there would be cooperation or confrontation with the Jovarin Brigades — the roaming militia of vengeful Hlodna and Krosdiak that sought revenge on their Vradlans countrymen. Then of course, there was the question of how far the KPA would go in pursuing the KCP partisans into the frozen mountains of Northeastern Kryobaijan, and what role Sandown might play in such an operation. There was much work that needed to be done, whatever the case.

"That sounds acceptable. Along with that draft for a contract that I gave you, there are maps and accompanying descriptions of the specific postings that we had in mind for Sandown operatives—those are our most...strained areas, most having been hit by KCP partisans or Vradlan rioters in the last few months. They will require immediate attention, and we can only provide for a few days, at most, of in situ preparation and briefing for your employees once they arrive here."

Gridenkov drummed his fingers on the table, while he searched for other issues to discuss.

"At the moment, I cannot think of anything else that we could delve into at the moment that wouldn't require several hours of discussion, so I think we would be served to leave the rest of the details to my ministry and your associates. That is unless, of course, you have any other questions or concerns that you'd like me to address?"

 

[Confederal Republics]

"I believe that we're all settled here", Benton said to Gridenkov and nodded. "Once our office back home has gone through all the relevant information, I'd think that we can start putting up the senior personnel as well as the TAC specialists on the ground in Kryobaijan."

William Benton was glad that the negotiations had turned out alright. Only, he was worried about the level of expansion that this contract entailed for Sandown, and if the company could adjust to it without compromising the quality of its services. For Benton and many of his collagues over at the company, the Kryobaijani contract would serve as the major consumer of their time for the foreseeable near-future, and for a good reason.