Gunnland
FTR
The Pretender
Yungdrung Gutsak, O.L.R. Just as he had watched Rigpa Thorlakur do in hundreds of hours of video, Sigbjorn sat stilly and inclined his head at the applause ever so slightly. His beard, which had stubbornly taken two months to grow to Roerich's perfectionist standards - He could be so gay, Sigbjorn thought, reminding him of many friends from his days in the Aren theater - was itching, causing the pretender some annoyance.
Alasdair Symeon was in the political fight for his life. A straw poll of the 50 delegates from all across Olmolungring had been held that showed the pro-treaty faction of the ILO with a razor-thin majority in favor of the new constitution and government, supported by Roerich, Viereskog, and some of the more moderate conservatives. 23-17-10. Of the abstaining ten, four were Swordbrothers in cloaks who had been dubiously elected in show contests in the remote and sparsely-populated Eastern Region. The other six were suspected Eir sympathizers who included one mid-grade retired Skycommand officer who appeared to be calling the shots.
Gutkind, with the solid support of the 15-member delegation from Knýtlingsfort, was earnestly pleading with the neutrals. "Do you remember the days after the War? Do you remember Vidkun Gravplass? Don't you have the courage to resist another fifty years of sham government with the Franconians as puppetmasters? Don't you see the General Secretary has compromised the hope of our Movement? But Knýtlingsfort will stand strong! Have you not heard of our electrification projects, our new water systems, our modernization of mining and industry? What will you tell your children when the last lights go out in Knytlingsfort?"
Knýtlingsfort, O.L.R. "POP." At that very moment, the whir and hum of lights and power lines and transformers suddenly stopped all across the city. A silence like the silence that nobody ever missed settled across the darkness of the valley. Over the secure KSK frequency, Hauptmann Erichsen got the go-ahead from his team. Four helicopter rotors powered up just over the Franconian border.
Cutting the lights at nightfall was the signal for the advance team on the ground to go into action as well. The decision had been made by Hans Schaidinger and Cornelius Stigeskaper to get the advance team in SCO trucks and green uniforms into the unsuspecting makeshift prison compound before taking out the hostile assets on the roof with snipers. Contingency plans were drawn up for seizing the compound in the event that the SCO prison guards began to fire on Stigeskaper's men.
Good planning by the KSK officers made the timing impeccable. By the time the sound of the helicopters came in over the horizon, the advance team had reached the Franconian prisoners and two high-value Oelarian targets were identified as well: Gregor Stoker and Stadhaldr Stubbe.
And then it was just a simple matter of disarming some soldiers, neutralizing the hostile SCO units on the roof, and loading the twenty or so prisoners onto the helicopters...
Yungdrung Gutsak, O.L.R. Just as he had watched Rigpa Thorlakur do in hundreds of hours of video, Sigbjorn sat stilly and inclined his head at the applause ever so slightly. His beard, which had stubbornly taken two months to grow to Roerich's perfectionist standards - He could be so gay, Sigbjorn thought, reminding him of many friends from his days in the Aren theater - was itching, causing the pretender some annoyance.
Alasdair Symeon was in the political fight for his life. A straw poll of the 50 delegates from all across Olmolungring had been held that showed the pro-treaty faction of the ILO with a razor-thin majority in favor of the new constitution and government, supported by Roerich, Viereskog, and some of the more moderate conservatives. 23-17-10. Of the abstaining ten, four were Swordbrothers in cloaks who had been dubiously elected in show contests in the remote and sparsely-populated Eastern Region. The other six were suspected Eir sympathizers who included one mid-grade retired Skycommand officer who appeared to be calling the shots.
Gutkind, with the solid support of the 15-member delegation from Knýtlingsfort, was earnestly pleading with the neutrals. "Do you remember the days after the War? Do you remember Vidkun Gravplass? Don't you have the courage to resist another fifty years of sham government with the Franconians as puppetmasters? Don't you see the General Secretary has compromised the hope of our Movement? But Knýtlingsfort will stand strong! Have you not heard of our electrification projects, our new water systems, our modernization of mining and industry? What will you tell your children when the last lights go out in Knytlingsfort?"
Knýtlingsfort, O.L.R. "POP." At that very moment, the whir and hum of lights and power lines and transformers suddenly stopped all across the city. A silence like the silence that nobody ever missed settled across the darkness of the valley. Over the secure KSK frequency, Hauptmann Erichsen got the go-ahead from his team. Four helicopter rotors powered up just over the Franconian border.
Cutting the lights at nightfall was the signal for the advance team on the ground to go into action as well. The decision had been made by Hans Schaidinger and Cornelius Stigeskaper to get the advance team in SCO trucks and green uniforms into the unsuspecting makeshift prison compound before taking out the hostile assets on the roof with snipers. Contingency plans were drawn up for seizing the compound in the event that the SCO prison guards began to fire on Stigeskaper's men.
Good planning by the KSK officers made the timing impeccable. By the time the sound of the helicopters came in over the horizon, the advance team had reached the Franconian prisoners and two high-value Oelarian targets were identified as well: Gregor Stoker and Stadhaldr Stubbe.
And then it was just a simple matter of disarming some soldiers, neutralizing the hostile SCO units on the roof, and loading the twenty or so prisoners onto the helicopters...