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The State of Steel

Pelasgia

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Sep 30, 2014
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Athens, Greece
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Propontis, Optimatoi Prefecture

The Grand Patriarchal University of Propontis (MPPP), also known by its ancient name, Pandidacterium, was the oldest of Pelasgia's universities and, according to Pelasgian claims often debated by rival universities across the Claret Sea, the oldest European university in continuous operation. Housed in the Palace of the Magnaura, which had at various times also served as the Imperial Chancellery and the Senate House, the Pandidacterium had trained countless generations of Pelasgian scholars, intellectuals, academics, civil servants, statesmen and specialists. Though meant to provide an education for temporal officials, unlike the Grand Seminary of Propontis, the Pandidacterium was formally under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Propontis. In a clericalist country where most institutions of higher education (or, indeed, any level of education) were ecclesiastical, this was far from surprising or uncommon.

Dressed in the long dark robes of a professor, and with a matching short flat hat covering his head, Homerios Makripalamas, a Professor of History and Jurisprudence, sat in the restricted section of the Pandidacterium's Grand Library. Like most buildings of the university complex, the Grand Library was constructed in the medieval Propontine style, with large corinthian pillars and marble bases akin to those of classical Pelasgo-Tiburan edifices being combined with limestone and brick surfaces filling in the gaps of the ancient structures, reflecting the colder temperatures and reduced safety of the medieval period. Countless rows of ornate wooden shelves hosted innumerable leather-bound tomes, stretching out as far as the eye could see; indeed, the eye could not see very far in the late night hours that the Professor had chosen to conduct his study. This was for good reason: flanking him was his trusted research assistant, Alexios Kalokagathos, a third-year student at the Pandidacterium's School of Jurisprudence. Formally speaking, Kalokagathos was not supposed to be in the restricted section of the library; under normal circumstances, Professor Makipalamas would take out what books were needed, and then hand them to him. However, the Professor detested such bureaucratic constraints on research, especially when they prevented someone he trusted as much as Alexios from helping him.

The two men were engaged in a long silent study for quite some time before Alexios broke the silence of the near-empty edifice. "Master Professor," he said, "why did Emperor Ioannes VII prosecute the Pelasgian nationalists?" Homerios remained silent; he continued staring at the book before him, Tiverianos Protonotariopoulos' History of the Judicial Institutions of the True Empire of the Tiburans and of their Struggle with the Great Church of Christ in Propontis. Finally, after several moments of excruciating silence he formulated a response. It was not that he did not know the answer; he was, rather trying to determine the best way to formulate it, given his suspicions about Alexios' reasons for asking his question. "What is nationalism, Alexios?" he asked.

Alexios responded almost immediately, with complete confidence: "The idea that human beings constitute socio-political groups known as nations based on shared traits such as a common tongue, common faith, common ancestry, and common traditions, and that these naturally form the basis of political organisation." Homerios continued looking at the tome before him while he responded. "A standard modern definition," he said, "and therefore inadequate." Homerios' suspicions had been confirmed; that definition was drawn from the Grand Pelasgian Encyclopaedia of 1848, a decidedly liberal and nationalistic source. It appeared that Alexios had taken a bit too much of a liking to a certain classmate of his with whom Homerios had seen the young man frequently as of late; Despoina Renti-Psalida, the daughter of a Deputy of the Liberal Union. "Ideas," the Professor explained, "can never be taken in isolation. They must be perceived in the context in which they were created." He closed the tome before him, having carefully bookmarked the page where he was, and looked at the young man to his right. "Nationalism as we know it was birthed from the Aurarian Revolution. It is inextricably linked with the idea of popular sovereignty, and is therefore liberal by its very nature. Is it any surprise that an Orthodox Autocracy would suppress liberal political ideas?" Alexios was taken aback by the Professor's dismissal of his question. "But nations existed before the Aurarian Revolution!" he replied; "The Pelasgian nation, defined as those who share Pelasgian ancestry, religion, culture, language and customs has existed for nearly four thousand years."

"And yet," the Professor said, "at no point in those four thousand years has anyone thought of creating a Pelasgian National State.* Until some Propontine bourgeois read a bit too much of translated Gallian literature and decided to try and found a Pelasgian Republic." Alexios could not agree: "What about Anaxander and Cassander? Was their state not one meant to unite all Pelasgians based on Aristotle's writings?" The Professor seemed as unconvinced as ever: "Their states was meant to unite all Pelasgian states. This is why nationalism is not merely a belief that nations exist; it is the belief that nations own certain states; and since nations are groups of people, this directly translates into popular sovereignty. Anaxander and Cassander were absolute monarchs, just like Ioannes VII or our current Most Majestic Sovereign. The Pelasgian State does not belong to me or you or to the Pelasgian citizenry at large; it belongs to His Imperial Majesty, Theodore II Laskaris, Emperor and Autocrat of the Pelasgians and Augustus of the South. People used to remember this when it was still called the Southern Tiburan Empire."

*National State (Ἐθνικὸν Κράτος) is a term used by Pelasgian nationalists to refer to a state administered by the Pelasgian nation for its benefit, as opposed to a state that administers the traditional region of Greater Pelasgia and is broadly Pelasgian in culture but rejects Pelasgian nationalism.

"But then Attalos the Great reformed it into the Pelasgian Empire in 1957," Alexios proudly retorted. "And what came of that, Alexios?" the Professor asked; "It took twenty years for the Pelasgian citizenry to make his successors figureheads and to eventually abolish them. Pelasgia had to spend thirty years under a Regency by some General or another to regain its place in the world afterwards." Homerios could see his prodigal student conflicted on the inside: on the one hand he knew that Pelasgia owed its greatness to the Empire; on the other he wondered why the Pelasgians should not be "masters of their own destinies". Certainly, the latter option would endear him to Despoina far more than the former... "Pelasgia," Homerios begun, "is a state of ten thousand races, creeds, ideologies, classes, regions, dialects and tongues. If every single such interest group were to make a faction for itself, Pelasgia would dissolve instantly, leaving behind it a sea of chaos and blood. The only thing saving Pelasgia and the region at large from the doom such a collapse would entail is the whip.** The whip is not the result of simple sadism; it is a form of institutionalised, controlled cruelty that exists to keep a much greater, more brutal barbarism in check. Pelasgia cannot exist without the State of Steel. And the State of Steel must supress any form of nationalism, liberalism, or popular rule, for all it takes for Pelasgia to be undone is for there to be a single faction within the populace. Once that faction is created, all others will follow."
**Vourdoulas (βούρδουλας) is a sort of whip imported in Pelasgia from Azraq sometime in the 1500s. Due to its use in previous centuries to publicly punish dissidents and petty delinquents, its name is still used as a synonym for authoritarian rule based on force rather than reason or consent of the governed.

Alexios knew that quotation all too well: The State of Steel, the seminal work by Petros Tritantaphyllos regarding the history of the reactionary Militarist Junta that governed late Komnenian Pelasgia for nearly three decades before the Laskarid Coup of Attalos the Great. The Professor had merely substituted the word "Pelasgia" for "Tiburia"; otherwise, the quotation was exact. The Professor stood up, putting his hand on the young student's shoulder. "You are a young man, Alexios," he said, "it is normal for you to believe in great ideals. But you must know that you are not the first man to have such ideas; us elders have had them too, and the reason the world around you still stands is because we realised that great ideals are beautiful in theory but terrifying in practice. Ioannes VII was such a man. In this restricted part of the library you will find two books by him, written under the nom de plume 'Ion Vatantzes': A Theory of the Political Organisation of the Pelasgian Race Since the Great Crusade and In Defence of the Propontine Throne's Resistance Against Gallian Modernism. The first, written by a young Ioannes Komnenos who had not yet been enthroned, makes the case for Pelasgian nationalism; the second demolishes it, pointing out what horrors conflicting nationalisms across the Empire would unleash upon the Pelasgians and all other nations of the Empire. And, indeed, how Gallian liberalism would spell the end of Pelasgian culture and its assimilation into the once heretical and now atheistic West."

Alexios remained silent and still for a few long moments, before noticing that his master had begun walking away. "Are you leaving, Master Professor?" he asked. "Yes, I believe it is time I called it a night. Good night, Alexios. Please put everything back in place when you are done."
 
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Pelasgia

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Propontis, Optimatoi Prefecture

The Palace of the Governing Senate was a large marble building constructed in the neoclassical style that so dominate 19th and 20th century Propontis, under the direction of Marquis Pavlos Sarogles, Grand Logothete and de facto leader of Pelasgia under the final twenty regal years of of Emperor Isaakios III Komenos. For this reason it was often termed the Sarogleion, an inscription added atop its main gate by the late Emperor's successor, Ioannes VII, upon his ascension to the Throne under the tutelage of the Marquis, who would soon meet his death in a suspicious but never fully investigated accident, much to the delight of the then rising Militarist Faction. Located on the western end of the complex of building that constituted the Grand Palace of Propontis, the Sarogleion was shaped like a wedge, having been built between the Field of Honours in the Imperial Gardens and the Phrontesterion, where young Princes of the Blood where educated. At the second floor of the building, flanked by a balustrade on either side and lit brightly by large windows was the State Council Chamber, the single most important lieu of political activity in the whole Pelasgian Empire. Inside, one found a large oval table of oak, covered in baize and with an ornate table cloth of purple velvet over it. Likewise, gold-covered chairs with velvet cushions surrounded this table on all directions, save for that facing that far end of the room from the door. There, the table was vacant, while a large throne surmounted on a dais and covered by a baldachin overlooked the room from above. The closest of the chairs to the throne, to the right of its occupant, belonged to the Procurator General, the formal head of the Governing Senate, since it had started off as a quasi-judicial body within the broader Senate of New Tibur. With the passage of the centuries, the Governing Senate had eaten away at the Senate proper and become the country's government, hence the epithet "Governing" attached to its name without actually being part thereof. The Senate had been reorganized into three committees Legislative Council (which dealt with the Senate's original legislative role by drafting and submitting laws to the Emperor for approval), the Senate Court (which dealt with the Governing Senate's original duties as a supreme body of judicial review by the executive for all decisions by appellate courts in the Empire), and the State Council (which was essentially Pelasgia's broader Cabinet). Evidently, it was the last of these bodies whose session would be held in the State Council Chamber.

The various members of the State Council, comprising of around forty members included all Cabinet Ministers of the Throne, led by the Prime Minister, the Grand Officers of State (the Magister of the Ambassadors, the Lord Privy Seal, the Lord First Sword the Imperial Chancellor, the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Imperial Constable, the Marshal of Pelasgia, and the Megas Doux of the Imperial Fleets), the Hierarchs (the Ecumenical Patriarch of Propontis, and the Patriarchs of Hierosolyma, Edessa-on-the-Orontes, and Cassandris), and the Diadochos (Pelasgia's Heir Apparent, also known by the title of Despot of the Pelasgians). At the head of this assortment of Pelasgia's great statesmen, most of them drawn from the nobility of Old Pelasgia, was the Procurator General, the Emperor's senior most legal officer and counsel, fulfilling the duties of Attorney General. The Procurator General was one Alexios Stergiades, 4th Marquess Stergiades, a noble from one of Pelasgia's most prominent "New Peers." For the most part, the Pelasgian Throne had managed to keep the power-hungry bourgeoisie from interfering in the Empire's politics partly by relegating them to the near-powerless and almost entirely ceremonial Chamber of Deputies, and partly by elevating some of the most promising independent statesmen from the middle class to the Peerage, resulting in a class of peers known as the "New Peers." Stergiades was among these men, a devoted servant of the Throne to the end. The Prime Minister, Thrasivoulos Platanias, 12th Baron Platanias, on the other hand was a member of the old Aristocracy of Pelasgia, his family dating as far back as the Great Himyari Crusade. His class certainly had interests which did not always align with the Throne, as the Marmaras Incident had shown but a few years ago, at the start of the Restoration and the end of the Thirty Years' Regency. For the instant, however, they were both perfectly interested in keeping the bourgeoisie out of power, as was the Church, the other traditional rival of the Propontine Throne's absolutist tendencies. Entering the Chamber in a neat single file, the State Councilors were led by the Procurator General to their seats, seating in order.

Then, an usher entered the room flanked by herald, who made the following proclamation: "All stand for His Imperial Majesty, the Basileus of the Pelasgians and Autocrat of New Tibur, and His Imperial Highness, the Diadochos of the Pelasgians and Despot of New Tibur." All immediately stood as the Emperor and Heir Apparent entered the room, dressed in the ceremonial uniforms of the Imperial Pelasgian Navy. The Emperor navigated to the elevated Throne, while the Heir stood to his right. All bowed before the two men, and the Heir then bowed to the Emperor. The Emperor then allowed all to rise, and moved toward the table. Two chairs, larger than the others were placed, one for the Emperor and, to his right, one for the Heir. As the Emperor sat, and then the Heir, all those assembled followed suit in order, starting with the Procurator General.

"Your Imperial Majesty, Your Imperial Highness," begun Procurator General Stergiades, an elderly man with grey, short hair and a bald head, blue eyes and a pale complexion, complemented with a stern and emotionless expression on a face characterized by a preeminent chin and large cheeckbones, "the Your Councilors of State have assembled here, as requested, to discuss matters of State policy." He continued, following the Emperor's acknowledgement, by reading the agenda of the meeting. "The first item for today, brought to the Council's attention by the Right Honourable Prime Minister, is the situation the regions of Himyar south of the Empire's home territories. It is the belief of the Right Honourable Prime Minister, supported by submissions by the State Security Council and Your Imperial Majesty's Secret Service*, that the situation in Nzadiland has degenerated to an unacceptable degree, a fact which, combined with the current Emergency in the Far South, might prove most perilous to the Empire's interests in our home continent." With the Emperor's acknowledgment, the Prime Minister was given the floor. Standing, Baron Platanias made the following lengthy address: "It is the position of the entirety Your Imperial Majesty's Government, along with the State Security Council and Your Imperial Majesty's Secret Service, that Nzadiland has reached a state of state failure such that the Dual Monarchy can no longer be said to hold sovereignty thereover. Indeed, that former colony finds itself reduced to utter barbarism, being split between areas bereft of any organised authority whatsoever and areas ruled by brutal warlords, the likes of which display barbarous behaviour such as cannibalism and many of which endorse communism as a revanchist ideology against the developed world. The buildup of paramilitary forces dominated by communists and cannibals—and, at times, communist cannibals⁠—is certainly perilous to the national interest. More so, if one were to consider the current state of affairs in Your Imperial Majesty's Far Southern holdings. It has been brought to my attention, following a credible report by Your Imperial Majesty's Secret Service, which I submit to this Council as exhibit 1/D, that the so-called Himyari People's Union has begun using the southern areas of Nzadiland as a staging area to raid the northern continental areas of the Far South, particularly the Colony of Antiperama. To make matters worse, we have credible intelligence regarding the increasing alignment of several warlords with the eternal aspiring challenger of Pelasgian hegemony over Himyar: Camp Hill. Should the Natalians be allowed to establish a foothold, even if indirectly, in western Himyar, this would permanently damage our interests and open our own direct frontiers to challenge by Natalian-backed irregulars. Given Natal's well-known opposition to our civilisation of the Far South, the two aforementioned forces might well align."
*the Krypteia

The Megas Doux then rose to speak, having been acknowledged by the Emperor. "If I may humbly submit so, Your Imperial Majesty, the Empire must not hesitate to use any degree of force necessary to effect a more peaceful, humane and stable equilibrium in Nzadiland. At first, we must not hesitate to court some of the warlords for influence, if only to prepare the ground for more direct involvement. Allied sources have mentioned Max Henry as a potential ally in our struggle, a task in which his geographic proximity to our southern Prefectures would certainly aid. Jean-Paul Cornet, though currently leaning towards Natal might likewise be induced to join our faction due to his monarchic ambitions, as we can provide him with the promise of recognition from Europe's oldest established monarchy and certainly the most prestigious one in Himyar. Finally, Jean XIII might be bought without much pomp as with any savage. Having these warlords on our side will certainly buy us time to deal with the Southern Himyari Emergency, which should not take too long following the arrival of our fleet detachment and expeditionary force next week. The real issue will be directly pacifying Nzadiland, something which three warlords, no matter how well-equipped can scarcely hope to achieve. Current PSHC forces, reinforced by elements of the III Marine Division due to arrive in the Far South next week along with significant carrier and guided missile support could push back in border regions north of Antiperama to establish a safe zone, with or without the cooperation of Jean-Paul Cornet. Once the Emergency is fully pacified, the local garrison can join in the assault. I am certain that Kéké units, such as Your Imperial Majesty's Own Nethian Rifles would be glad to enact vengeance on the Kintu-related tribes that inhabit Nzadiland for centuries of ethnic cleansing. Nevertheless, the main issue in Nzadiland would be our intervention from the north. I believe the elements of the Third and Second Armies, particularly the Third Army's First Army Corps and Second Army's Second Army Corps, could introduce a significant force of up to one hundred thousand soldiers for this task. With our sole air superiority, along with support from forces of local warlords, this conflict should not prove particularly challenging. Given that the Dual Monarchy will likely withdraw from Nzadiland soon, there remain two other bordering states which could attempt to inhbit us: Serenierre, whose interests I believe could be shown to align with ours, and Natal, which I doubt would be foolish enough to directly attempt a war against us - and even if it did would be doomed to defeat so close to our own home territories on both north and south and with a sea separating Nzadiland from its homeland."

The seasoned Megas Doux, proudly wearing the all-white uniform of the Imperial Pelasgian Navy which matched his near-white but thick hair well, bowed before sitting down again, his deep blue eyes always fixed on the Emperor in whose service he had given a son and over fourty years of his life. His speech was followed by the Magister of the Ambassadors, the chief of the Imperial Diplomatic Service and, arguably, the most seasoned diplomat in the Throne's employ. Theodoros Metaxas, 18th Count Metaxas, was descended from one of the oldest noble families in Pelasgia and certainly the oldest in the Archipelago not to have given the Empire a Sovereign. Ever loyal servants of whomever was in power in Propontis, the House of Metaxas was a monument of Pelasgian history in and of itself, and Theodoros Metaxas was no exception. An elderly man with a clearly bald head, his dark brown eyes still retained a fire which demonstrated his quick wit and very much living spirit. His wise counsel but reserved manner had earned him the nickname "Cunning Fox," quite like Odysseus, and he certainly lived up to it, speaking in much more frank and less flattering, albeit still respectful, terms with an Emperor whom he had known well before he rose to wear the Purple. Standing up after being acknowledged, he bowed softly and spoke even more softly, but his words carried much weight. "We must not forget, Your Imperial Majesty," he said, "in our rush to pacify Nzadiland from the barbarism which has befallen it and to restore to civilised rule, that Europe too should know that this, and not the annexation of Nzadiland is our objective. There are many in Europe who would look in awe and terror at the prospect of Pelasgia owning the entire western shoreline of the Sea of Buto, not least those on the other shore. We must, therefore, make it clear that the goal of our intervention is to merely pacify the region and establish therein a civilised regime which can ensure peace, order, and good government, and the protection of the interests of local and foreign citizens in Nzadiland, as well as the safety of the borders of its neighbours. This last point will, after all, be the pretext for our intervention, if the Krypteia's reports are to be trusted. Unlike our pacification of South Himyar, which we have annexed and mean to further consolidate, the point of the Pelasgian Army's presence in Nzadiland should be to establish therein some Polity which is nominally independent, even if closely aligned with Pelasgia as its protecting power and suzerain. That way, our efforts will be beyond reproach, or at least certainly more palatable than otherwise. We must then contact the elite of Nzadiland, particularly those in the areas still held by the Dual Monarchy, and find from amongst them some who would be able to act as the figureheads of a new Nzadi government. We have, of course, several rich and prominent Nzadis resising in Propontis who could serve that task, and in fact form such a government here. I believe the the Krypteia has already taken the liberty to contact some of these fine individuals, among them being a certain Jean-Baptiste Katambi. From what I have been told, he could very well be the leader of whatever regime we decide to set up for Nzadiland, and has long militated for Nzadi self-rule from the comfort of Propontis's Himyari District, all the while promoting modern Western governance. A most palatable regime for European eyes and ears, and for our own business and interests."

Several more speakers spoke, but by and large, the point had been made. Firstly, Pelasgia would court Max Henry, Jean-Paul Cornet and Jean XIII to establish an initial foothold. Secondly, Pelasgia would establish a safe zone north of the Antiperama Colony, in response to HPU raids therefrom. Thirdly, and soon afterwards, Pelasgia would form a government-in-exile in Propontis to succeed the Dual Monarchy's colonial regime, and then relocate it to the safe zone when the time was opportune. And, finally, with the approval of the said controlled regime, Pelasgia would intervene in Nzadiland under colour of a policing operation to restore law and order, having alleged repeated attacks on its borders from militants in Nzadiland. Ultimately, the goal was for Pelasgia to vassalize Nzadiland, ensuring its permanent alignment with Propontis, independence from the Dual Monarchy and, especially, Natal, and relative safety in the areas near its borders, containing important resources, and near the Sea of Buto's seaways and ports.
 
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Pelasgia

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Athens, Greece
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Mount Masis, Thapson Prefecture

Mount Masis was the largest of the Haydian Highlands, a mountain range of massive peaks that separated the Thapson and Voukellarion Prefectures from the Pedinon and Alexandrinon. Snowy and unforgiving, the steep slopes of these towering natural walls had kept the region of Perama (the Empire's southern frontier area whose name meant "Far Away Land") culturally distinct and isolated for centuries on end. Away from the overbearing magistrates and gendarmes of Old Pelasgia and of the Empire's coastal urban centres, Perama was a wild land, still mostly agricultural and alien to the interventionist statism that characterised the Empire's northern heartland. In a way, Perama was semi-autonomous, given that, outside of military bases and major urban centres, the whole province might as well be administered by the local notables of each peasant community. The local culture was rich and unique: a peculiar mix of Pelasgian, Haydian, Kyphtic, Urudoah, Tiburan, Slavonic and other traditions, topped by a spiritual framework combining Pelasgian Orthodoxy and various local traditions and superstitions. The major urban centres near the Thapsos and Aronas rivers, and the Lake of Hagios Ioannes were decidedly Imperial and Pelasgian, with clearly delineated minorities, such as the Haydians and Melingians. Every other town and village, however, might as well have a dialect and religion of its own. It was in these small towns where the least reported and most important battle of Pelasgian political and social life was taking place: nationalism awakening.

Despite the active persecution and repression of the Empire's reactionary authorities, nationalism, both Pelasgian and other, was making a comeback in Pelasgian, almost two centuries after its first iteration in the Empire's northern coastal centres had been violently suppressed by Imperial troops. Nationalism, the idea that the Pelasgians formed a nation and were supremely sovereign over their own country as a people, was an idea entirely toxic to the Propontine ideology of the Pelasgian Empire. The Pelasgian Empire was still, very much, the Southern Tiburan Empire, a state which, though Pelasgian-speaking and Orthodox, was hierarchical and monarchic in nature. To this state, one might be a Jew or a Kypht, but as long as he paid taxes and was a loyal subject, he was worth more than a disobedient Pelasgian. This was achieved mostly because the said Jew or Kypht had the same amount of impact on the Empire's decision-making process as the average Pelasgian commoner; that is to say, none. In a country as diverse as Pelasgia (or, rather, a collection of countries) ethnic squabbles would be catastrophically dangerous. They were thus to be avoided, for the sake of common prosperity and peace. And peace and prosperity the Empire had brought, to a degree unseen in any other Himyari state. However, it was this very peace and prosperity which had begun to undermine the Empire's own ideology. More and more young men and women, educated and with their basic needs taken care of, started to doubt the Empire's ideology, especially as they moved into cities, where the dominant agrarian narrative of the clericalist authorities seemed out of touch and irrelevant. The Pelasgians, Haydians, Kyphts, Jews, Urudoah, Melingians and so forth met one another, and realised they were quite different. They realised that they formed distinct groups. And they realised that the Empire had not the interests of any of these groups in mind, not even the Pelasgian one; the Empire cared for itself, for the small elite that ruled, that administered most of northeastern Himyar as a colony or a fief. That was certainly not an ideology they could easily accept. Their parents, who had known the civil strife of the 1950-1970s had come to embrace the stability that this simple lie promised them during the Thirty Years' Regency. But these young men and women, raised in the good times made by strong men, saw no need for the sacrifices and blatant lies necessary to upkeep the Empire.

They begun to form associations, groups, secret societies, clubs, cliques, and the other sorts of little gatherings that human beings form when left to their own devices. Unsurprisingly, the Empire's major universities were hotbeds of this activity. Last year, the Empire's authorities had raided the Empire's major universities, starting with the Grand Patriarchal University of Propontis and the University of Therme, arresting hundreds of students and academics. Officially, this had been done to suppress anarchists, post-delegationists, liberals, and socialists. And though that was certainly a secondary objective, the main goal was different: to find and suppress these nationalist groups, which had begun to recruit the Empire's new crop of leaders. Alas, the Krypteia's efforts were too little too late. The Jews already had the Israelite National Congress; the Haydians already had the Internal Peramiotic Revolutionary Organisation; the Kyphts had the Kyphtic National Delegation; the Melingians had the Melingian Revolutionary Committee; and the Pelasgians, in turn had the Pelasgian National Council. Of course, these groups could not operate in the Empire's core regions, save for Philistaea which had always been a wild card (and even then, the Empire's repressive apparatus was especially careful to track down ethnic activists). Perama, on the other hand, offered the perfect theatre for them operate. They could practice national conversion by converting various villages and towns to their cause; and they could fight amongst themselves (and against the Imperial authorities) when needed. Given the area's demographics, the Pelasgian National Council (PES), the Internal Peramiotic Revolutionary Organisation (EPEE) and the Kyphtic National Delegation (KEA) were the primary adversaries. The Israelite National Congress (IES) and Melingian Revolutionary Committee (EEM) generally allied themselves with the various other local groups, merely using the area as a safe heaven away from their more heavily policed homelands. As the Empire increasingly indebted itself to expand against adversaries and incursions in the Long Sea and southern Himyar, its own inland areas devolved into ethnic infighting.

As the summer sun broke on Mount Masis, Alexios Kalokagathos had already started preparing himself for the long march ahead. Dressed in surplus camouflage fatigues of the Imperial Pelasgian Army (or was it the Gendarmerie?) and carrying an old Type 3 rifle of the kind the Empire was replacing with the Type 36, Alexios had trekked through half the Prefecture as part of a band of irregulars the size of a small platoon, around thirty-five strong. A small hat and a balaclava covered his head, while the only distinguish insignia on his uniform was the flag that many Pelasgian nationalists had taken to using in lieu of the Empire's standard (which merely represented the Laskaris Dynasty): a golden Chi-Rho symbol on a blue field. Inside the chest pocket of his fatigues was a letter to Despoina Renti-Psalida, the young woman who, against the best efforts and warnings of his trusted mentor, Professor Homerios Makripalamas, had converted Alexios to the cause of Pelasgian Nationalism. Officially, Alexios was on a trip to document the local systems of justice, in preparation for a research paper he was to write (something which he kind of did, whenever his group stopped by a Pelasgian village). Unofficially, he was doing much more, as his choice of vestments could attest to. Despoina's role was not much different: officially she was volunteering at several charitable institutions of the Church linked to the University. Unofficially, she was spreading the ideas of Pelasgian Nationalism, especially among the youth. This was, of course, the aspect of ideology that the Empire could never control, for all its repression: grassroots national awakening among the populace at large. As Alexios checked the magazine of his rifle and prepared for the day's march, he heard the all too familiar sound of gunshots from afar. Immediately, he took cover, as did all those around him. "Where the fuck are they shooting at?" asked Tiverios, a young Seminarian turned platoon chaplain from Selymbria, pointing out that the fire seemed to be directed quite afar from the PES rebels. Crawling on the ground slowly, Alexios and Tiverios reached a small hedge, from which they observed the source of the fire. A group of Imperial Gendarmes was exchanging fire with a group of Haydians. Unsurprisingly, the Gendarmes bore insignia of units from Philistaea, as Pelasgia, like any multi-ethnic Empire liked to use units from outside a region to police it, ensuring their absolute loyalty. The Haydians, for their part, looked sorrily unfit for guerilla warfare, being even more hopelessly urbanite in origin than the Pelasgian insurgents.

"They must have been looking for us since, Thursday," said Alexios, referring to the time when the Pelasgian rebels raided a mixed Haydian-Pelasgian village and expelled the Haydian rebel-aligned notables, before converting the village to their cause by getting the local teacher to teach Pelasgian nationalist curriculum, and the priest to hold liturgy in Pelasgian. "And then they bumped into an Imperial patrol, the fools," Tiverios responded. As their foes traded blows, the PES men prepared for an ambush. "We can't let them kill the Haydians and leave, they'll find their intel on us," Tiverios noted. "And if we kill the Gendarmes, eventually the local Commander will notice one of their patrols is missing," Alexios responded. "They know something is up anyway," Tiverios replied; "Let them blame the Haydians, since they won't know we were here." Alexios agreed, and the men prepared to fire. As the last of the Haydians started to fall, the Gendarmes, by then at near half strength became more bold and started advancing, the flank being wide open for the Pelasgians. After a few more moments of waiting, the Pelasgian insurgents opened firing, wrecking havoc among the Imperials. Confused the Imperials tried to turn and fight back on both sides, but ended up hitting their own men in the crossfire. Finally, after almost half an hour of intense gunfire, the last Imperials fell. The two Haydians left were wounded and in no shape to fight. After a short debate, the Pelasgians agreed that it was best to deliver a coup de grâce, lest the Haydians live to tell their tale to any Imperials, or Goldcoats as the rebels called them. Then, the small contigent of rebels, unhurt during this whole engagement, promptly buried the bodies of the dead Haydians and Imperials, with a quick service by Tiverios, and continued to the east, where they were to meet a band of Israelite National Congress and Melingian Revolutionary Committee men regarding cooperation against the increasingly aggressive Haydians.

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Therisus, Archipelagion Prefecture

With the Chamber of Deputies in summer recess, most Deputies were free to return to their constituencies, where they could go about their business and discuss with their constituents. However, as political developments inside the Empire and outside of it kept piling on, it became increasingly clear that the recess of the Chamber was more of a way for the Throne to silence the parliamentarians than a reflection of a lack of need for their political input. As it became increasingly clear that Pelasgia would have to choose between the West and Kadikistan, and that the powers that be in Propontis' halls of power favoured the latter, the Western-aligned majority of the Chamber of Deputies, largely drawn from the mercantile and liberal bourgeoisie, found it urgent to act.

Representing the largest group in the Chamber, the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, Deputies Philippos Merkoures of Thoricus (for the former Constitutionalist Party) and Ioannes Kravatas-Apostolakis of Therisus (for the former Liberal Union) met in the latter's constituency, ostensibly on the occasion of the engagement of one of the latter's children. Walking through the lush gardens in the Kravatas Family Estate, the duo of powerful statesmen lost no time in discussing the Empire's future, once out of the earshot of other guests.

"It appears that the New Peers mean to drag Pelasgia into the Germanian mess," said Kravatas-Apostolakis; "Ironic, given that they left the Trier Concordat precisely to avoid dragging Pelasgian into a Germanian war. Then again, we all know they just did it to keep their alliance with Kadikistan. The security agency veterans that run the Imperial State know a kindred spirit when they see one, and what better friend is there for the soulless Machiavellian bureaucrats of Propontis than their friends in Ivar? Both run autocratic Empires with countless nationalities in them, and both seem to like to pretend that the Aurarian Revolution never happened."

"Indeed, I very much doubt that the Palace will side with the West, even despite Natal's overtures," Merkoures responded; "The DDI has done everything in its power to court the ODS and to aggravate the Imperials, and the Imperials have done everything to reject the DDI's advances in the Long Sea. Back when your grandfather was in charge of Pelasgia, the Long Sea was open for trade and we were partners with those across it. Today, the fools in the Senate House see it as a fief, and have managed to alienate half the world and give the Anarchists an excuse to set foot in it. I fear that we might have to act very soon, if a catastrophe is to be averted. Pelasgia must realign with Gallo-Germania, or else the whole continent will become an Engell and Post-Delegationist colony out of fear of Kadikistan."

"There is not much we can do now, unfortunately," Kravatas-Apostolakis responded with a deep sigh; "We shall have to let the New Peers slam their head against their wall a few times, in the Long Sea, in Nzadiland, in South Himyar, in Perama if need be. Once that is done, and their regime has been weakened enough, then we will have a window to act. Not before. Until then, we will have to watch and prepare. It pains me to say, but we might have to see Pelasgia suffer before she can be forced to change and adapt to the modern world, as was the case in both preceding centuries. In the meantime, we could try contacting our old friends in Eiffelland and Natal, to remind them that some in Pelasgia have no yet lost their mind... and to see what allies we have in the centres of power within Pelasgia, for when the time comes."
 

Pelasgia

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From: General Staff of the Armed Forces, Propontis, Northern Military District
To: All Commands, All Units, All Branches
Classification: Top Secret / Urgent / Most Rapid
Subject: OPERATION PYTHIA IN IMMEDIATE EFFECT

***START OF MESSAGE***

As per Emergency Directive 101/1953, Law 395/1990 and Compulsory Law 509/1947, Operation PYTHIA is hereby enacted with effect throughout the territory of the State.

All units are hereby notified that:
1. Civil control over the military power is hereby suspended;
2. Articles 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 20, 95 and 97 of Constitution of the Pelasgian Empire are hereby suspended;
3. Supreme command over all military and civilian agencies of the State are transferred to the Chief of the General Staff of the Imperial Pelasgian Army (A/GES), General PORHYRIOS THEOSOPHIDES;
4. Governmental control over the State is suspended and all civil powers of HIM Government are transferred to A/GES;
5. A State of Siege is declared throughout the territory of the State.

Empowered by Emergency Directive 101/1953, A/GES hereby orders:
1. The immediate liquidation of all DKKP members, agents, sympathizers, and "fellow travelers" as designated in Krypteia Lists 101/1953/12A and 101/1953/12B;
2. The immediate liquidation of all members of HIM Cabinet;
3. The immediate liquidation of the all journalists and public figures found in Krypteia List 101/1953/13;
4. The enforcement of military control over all urban centres and strategic hardpoints in the Empire listed in Readiness Plan ARGO;
5. The immediate liquidation of Liberal and Absolutist Deputies found in Krypteia List 101/1953/14.

STAND BY FOR FURTHER ORDERS. REPORT TO DIRECT SUPERIOR FOR UNIT-SPECIFIC ORDERS REGARDING ENACTMENT OF PYTHIA.

***END OF MESSAGE***
 

Pelasgia

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Propontis, Optimatoi Prefecture
As dawn broke on Propontis, the residents of the city must have felt a peculiar feeling of déjà vu throwing them back to New Year’s, when scarcely a single Pelasgian must have slept through sunrise. Gunfire had dominated the night, with flashes and loud sounds echoing throughout downtown Propontis and the working-class port district of Pyrgos. The men and women of the DKKP and its associated labour unions and underground groups found themselves engaged in an all-out battle with the Imperial Police and Gendarmerie, along with Imperial Military Police and Imperial Naval Police units spread out throughout key installations in the capital. They had certainly held the advantage of surprise, blowing up several targets, attacking police stations and assassinating hundreds of political opponents, especially Christian Labour Syndicate leaders. However, as the night progressed, it became increasingly clear that the DKKP’s foothold in Propontis was untenable: the local populace was not sympathetic to the DKKP, and the recent events with Kadikistan (including persecution of Orthodox Christians) had only deepened public resentment against Communists in the deeply religious country.
Hundreds, then thousands of civilians, largely belonging to the National Self-Defence Civil Guard Detachments, the Pelasgian regime’s stay-behind anti-communist and counter-guerilla network, armed themselves and joined the fray against the DKKP troops. In the working class port of Pyrgos and the poorer districts of southwestern Propontis, all sense of peace and normality gave way to a hellish warzone, dominated by street to street firefights and executions of political opponents on both sides. Eventually, the tide turned clearly when the Pelasgian First Army’s First Army Corps, which was stationed in Selymbria, just outside the Imperial Capital, with a clear counter-rebellion and defensive focus, begun moving into Propontis. Originally, military units had contained themselves to guarding the government quarter, especially the Imperial Palace and Defence Ministry. A helicopter of the First Fleet had evacuated the Emperor to the relative safety of the island of Prinkeponesos, a stronghold of the Imperial Pelasgian Navy. As the night progressed, however, the Empire’s military started advancing into the city.
Tanks rolled through Agoras Avenue, the large central thoroughfare passing by the old Forum of Valentian the Great, and then circled around to continue onto Hippodromou Avenue, heading straight for the port district. Soldiers occupied the bridges across Propontis’s main rivers and outside connections, while Marines of the First Imperial Marine Division landed in the port of Hagios Simeon and begun advancing towards Pyrgos. Militarised units of the Mobile Gendarmerie flocked to the capital form the surrounding region, further outnumbering the hopeless DKKP insurgents. By the end of the third day of the insurgency, it was blatantly obvious that it was doomed. Surrounded into small pockets, most DKKP rebels started surrendering to Imperial troops, hoping that the regular forces of the regime would be more civilised than the armed mobs of Civil Guard paramilitaries. Among these was the small band of Artemis Gasmoulos, a young dockworker and diehard DKKP supporter from Pyrgos’s Distillery District.
“There they are boys,” he said, wiping back sweat as he noticed a squad of Gendarmes approaching behind a light APC. His section, reduced to just five men, was held up inside a post office, or at least what used to be one, the building now riddled with bullet holes and corpses. “We surrender!” shouted Artemis. “Come out with your hands up!” shouted back the stern voice of a Gendarme. The men complied, coming out tired, starved, half-bloody, and demoralised. Immediately, the regime troops threw them to the ground and handcuffed them with plastic handcuffs. They tied them tightly, partly for safety, and partly out of spite. The men were loaded onto the back of a truck which moved behind the APC, along with a dozen other captives. Another truck, this one open, followed, to pick up the corpses of their fallen comrades and any victims they had taken out.
The truck with Artemis branched off from the convoy and turned towards an empty parking alley next to a shipyard in Pyrgos. “Out! Now!” shouted two Gendarmes with rifles and bayonets, kicking and shoving the occupants of the vehicle as they were forced out rapidly. There, Artemis noticed a large ditch which seemed to have been dug out in a hurry, and a line of captives already standing by it. He was taken to the line, alongside the rest of the men in the truck. Across him, he noticed another group of armed regime troops, this one dressed in black and not in the olive-green of the gendarmerie. They were the infamous Special Security Detachments (ETA) of the Empire’s secret police, the Krypteia. Wearing all black and with their faces covered, the men of the ETA loaded machine-guns already aimed at the massed captives and started firing. Artemis was struck by three rounds and fell inside the ditch, followed by the other captives. This scene was repeated several times that day in the cordoned-off district, until an excavator covered the improvised mass grave. Overall, hundreds of captives on both sides were killed through such executions during the near week-long insurrection in Propontis.
As Pelasgian troops retook control over most of northern Pelasgia’s urban centres over the rest of the week, the mass arrests and executions of DKKP insurgents were repeated across northern Pelasgia, often by the Krypteia, but also by the Civil Guard. Ultimately, as the situation stabilised and most of the important DKKP insurgent leaders were eliminated, the detainees were instead transferred to the Extraordinary Courts Martial, which carried out the same liquidation process, albeit with more lawful means, such as banishment to penal labour camps or (more rarely) painless execution by hanging, as the preferred methods to eliminate the DKKP rebels arrested by Imperial authorities. DKKP supporters and members of the party's associate organisations, such as communist trade unionists, would also fined themselves subject to internal exile and stiff prison punishments, and sometimes even death, depending on their importance and the gravity of their offences. What DKKP insurgents were not captured started to flee to the more mountainous inland areas of Pelasgia, being mercilessly pursued by the Krypteia and Gendarmerie, as well as the Army’s Mountain Raider Commandos (LOK). Their goal was to reach Voukellarion Prefecture which, outside of a few urban centres and military bases, was basically outside of the control of the Empire, even more so now, as the Empire itself unfolded.
Initially, the frontline would stabilise near Nestani Province on the border between Pelagision and Euxenoi Prefectures, a mountainous region with a strong DKKP presence, as the Imperial troops focused on clearing northern Pelasgia of DKKP insurrectionists. Then, the frontline would move further south, into Pedinon and Alexandrinon Prefectures, and then finally into Thapson and Voukellarion Prefectures. The broader impact of the July Revolt would be to expose the deeper fault lines within the Pelasgian Empire: conflicting ethnic nationalisms, conflicting views on government, conflicting foreign policy priorities, conflicting views on regional distribution of power, and conflicting power interests between old and new elites, and between elites and the populace at large.
 

Remuria

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The Swissman
REMURIAN HUMANITARIAN AND NOT SO-HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO PELASGIA

As the Pelasgian Empire authorised the Remurian evacuation and repatriation missions, the logistics sprung into place. Planes chartered by the Remurian government would fly in first to designated areas to pick up passengers. They wouldn't fly in empty, however, as the Remurian Commonwealth shipped off quite some impressive humanitarian assistance. Actual humanitarian assistance, namely hospital and medical supplies, rations to boost food stocks in case the civilian population might require it, industrial disinfectants and other means to help avoid sanitary breakdown in major cities in the immediate aftermath of the intense fighting and other supplies that were not useful in direct fighting, but were there to support the civilian population in the areas worst hit, up to the Pelasgian authorities were to employ this.

Flights were chartered planes from RemurAir, the national flag carrier, civilian airplanes. For security purposes, some Special Operations Command troops accompanied the flights to provide security, as well as control and discipline any panic among the evacuees. One or two medics were along for the flight, mostly as well to ensure that nobody overly cardiac had any arrest during the repatriation flight because of all the stress. The Remurian Air Force itself would currently not be employed directly, because as the Imperial Armed Forces strengthened their control over northern Pelasgia, the number of people actually seeking to leave was less than the actual number of Remurians and their dependents in Pelasgia. And so the Federal Government was able to arrange somewhat more expensive, but more comfortable flights than piling people up like sardines in a military transport plane.

This was the aerial part.

The naval part came in with a bit of a delay as obviously boats sail slower than planes can fly. But they can also bring in much more cargo, and so even more humanitarian assistance was brought in, with containers unloaded from ferries at the docks, before Remurian nationals, their dependents and any civilians from nations friendly to Remuria and their own dependents boarded the ships. Yet again, a reasonable Special Operations Command security presence, mostly there to ensure the good process of loading and unloading, as well as ensuring a disciplinary presence onboard in case of any over-panic incidents. And of course, some medics to yet again ensure nobody had cardiac arrests during transit or suddenly gave birth unattended. Crazy things happen during massive evacuations, after all.

The delivery of the humanitarian assistance was a publicly known fact, something stated by the Federal Government, as Remuria believed firmly and unconditionally in the Commonwealth's right to provide hospital supplies to whomever the Commonwealth wanted. This was all fine.

What was not public, however, were the crates and containers mixed into the supplies, unrecognizable from the lot. Once the whole lot of containers and crates were moved into covered hangars and storage depots, formally for storing before distribution, but actually to keep further process away from prying civilian eyes, a couple Remurian soldiers would walk through the rows of containers and crates with scanners, seeking if they would pick up a special signal from inside the container, sometimes stopping by a container and giving it a casual knock with a fist. The Pelasgian soldiers following them would acknowledge and then identify the containers for special processing. On the looks of it, it was not clear what was going on, seemed like maybe a prioritization of cargo.

And, in fact, it was. These special containers and crates contained cargo more useful for direct military operations. There were no guns or ammunition, as the Pelasgians clearly had that in vast supply, given how communist militias were even able to mount up portable anti-armour capability to resist Pelasgian armour in the south. Instead, the Remurians identified that Pelagians didn't have that much a shortage in offensive equipment, as of yet at least, rather that the Pelasgians might sooner or later run into a shortage of offensive personnel, given how the immediate clashes with communist militias had an impressive casualty toll on troops.

And so Remuria supplied protective and support equipment. Combat medicine, such as to allow troops in the field to quickly stop bleeding so that soldiers could be moved back to hospitals on time and actually survive, night vision and thermal vision equipment to allow troops to better fight in adverse conditions and help them identify targets better and faster, assault bulletproof vests so that troops on the frontlines would have higher chances of surviving from bullets and shrapnel, helmets obviously as you want to minimize the surface of your head that can be hit by shrapnel, thermal underwear to be a bit more comfortable when running around streets on fire and sweating like a pig, and all other kinds of nice goods to make the individual soldier more combat efficient.

Portable counter-battery radar systems to complement any heavy ones the Pelasgians had in their ranks and allow more counter-battery capability on the tactical level, which would come in useful if communists sported some form of artillery or mortars, and would definitely come in useful in the east, where the Empire was facing a rebellion of actual military units.

Finally, some of the Special Operations Command troops would stay for some time in Pelasgia, to provide instruction and education on how to operate Remurian systems and how to best integrate them into the Pelasgian combat control and command systems. Given that there were no public information on the number of troops going in and the number of troops going out as security detail, that a small amount was staying overnight in airports and ports shouldn't really spark that much attention.

Overall, for now at least, the Remurian Commonwealth was acting within the concept of plausible deniability, when all assistance delivered to Pelasgia was factually non-lethal. And was, thus, somewhat overall humanitarian. So the Commonwealth was not stepping into troubled waters here.

Sooner or later pictures of Pelasgian troops in Remurian bullet-proof vests, sporting Remurian NVG models on their Remurian-model helmets would appear. This was of course well understood and even then, the Remurian Commonwealth was not providing any lethal equipment and it was not a secret that Remuria and Pelasgia had some sort of low key military cooperation going on. So the Federal Government would acknowledge that Pelasgia purchased some non-lethal equipment and this was delivered, as this was non-lethal. But this would come much later.

The goal was to phase in assistance and ease in any concerns with the Remurian public. Any further steps would depend on what other international actors would do, how the public opinion in Remuria could be directed and what the Serene Assembly Broad and Wide would say.

@Pelasgia
 
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Pelasgia

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Khalkaiotis Province, Voukellarion Prefecture
"SABOT it!" shouted Sergeant Pangalos, the tank commander. Giorgos, the tank gunner, had his sights aimed on a small shed in the middle of the Voukellarion flatland, somewhere north of the rural city of Khalkaiotis. Moments later, a blast ripped through the shed, reducing it to rubble. Giorgos' tank was a , the kind that formed the backbone of the 211th Tank Battalion, 21st Armoured Brigade, Armour School Division, 1st Corps, 3rd Army of the Imperial Pelasgian Army. His platoon, 14 tanks in total, was one of the many making their way through the flatlands of Perama, the Empire's southern region formed by Thapson and Voukellarion Prefectures, to clear it of DKKP insurgents. So far, their assault was progressing with little real resistance; the rebels, mostly peasants and workers with light arms (many out of date) and next to no projectile weapons (let alone anti-tank equipment) had already started retreating to the mountains the moment the 3rd Army was activated. Fighting in the region had mainly gone on near the city of Khalkaiotis, the 3rd Army's HQ. There, the rebels had, for two days, held most of the city, though they failed to take the army buildings and the Gendarmerie regional HQ. The nearby city of Kellia and the prefectural capital, Ioannoupolis, had successfully resisted attempts by DKKP insurgents to gain a foothold. Though the Gendarmerie, not too numerous in these parts, had had a hard time containing the rebels, the Army's intervention had turned the tides. Originally preparing to intervene in Nzadiland, the 1st Corps, 3rd Army had to readjust and turn its sights on its own cities. Nevertheless, it was getting live practice in exactly the kind of combat it had been preparing for in Nzadiland: asymmetric warfare against a technologically inferior foe. Albeit this one lacked the numerical advantage the Nzadis would have had.
"Contact, infantry group, four o'clock, near the chapel!" shouted Sgt. Pangalos, telling apart the group with his thermal sight. Giorgos obliged and acquired the target, as Nikos, the loader, loaded an anti-personnel round. "Hold up!" interrupted Pangalos, "these are Civil Guard boys." Giorgos took a closer look at the men; surplus Army uniforms from the 1990s, with old Type 3 rifles and a golden Chi-Rho symbol on a blue field on their shoulders. "Nationalists," Giorgos exclaimed, "Yesterday's guerillas are today's anti-insurgent volunteers." The Sergeant paused for a moment before responding: "We'll take anyone we can get, right now. Let's rid the Fatherland of these pests, and we can settle our scores with these university brats with rifles once the insurgency's over." The tank continued its northward approach towards the Haydian Highlands, ripping through any resistance it could find. Around twenty minutes later, they came upon another target: an enemy trench with a machine gun nest. The Nationalist guerillas, who knew this area well, had alerted them that a group of Melingians who had joined the DKKP had probably set up a defensive position in the area. As before, the tank ripped through the nest with a couple of shots and then continued its advance. Behind it followed troops of the 28th Mechanised Infantry Brigade and 1st Motorised Infantry Brigade, who would clean up any lighter resistance. The 58th Artillery Brigade, the 1st Corps, 3rd Army's pride and a pillar of Pelasgia's southern border defence strategy, had already begun softening up the Haydian Highlands' lower mountains with its self-propelled howitzers. Looking through his sight, Giorgos could not but stare in awe as the heavy artillery exploded the surface of Mount Aras, turning trees, ground, and rock into an indistinguishable mass of rubble and smoke.
Soon, the Imperial Pelasgian Air Force would join the fight. Voukellarion and Thapson Prefectures were home to two major bases: Hagios Artemios Military Airport, near Potamia, and Khalkaiotis Military Airport & Air Base. The former hosted the 16th Air Wing and an Airport Detachment of troops, and the latter hosted 17th Air Wing, another Airport Detachment, the Paratrooper Training Centre, and the 2nd Paratrooper Brigade. Initially, the bombers and fighters of the 16th and 17th Air Wings, mostly and , would pummel the region's mountains to eliminate surface-level installations. Later, the paratroopers would come along, to support the mountain raider infantry's advance. Thermobaric weapons and deep mountain-penetration bombs were in store, having been purchased from ODS states, though their usage would only start in the second week of the campaign, to avoid depleting local stockpiles until new ODS shipments were moved in from the north. The Imperial Corps of Gendarmerie's air wing also made a significant contribution to the fight, using older light attack aircraft and attack helicopters to gun down large concentrations of DKKP troops in the plains and forests of southern Pelasgia. As a squadron of Type 16s passed overhead to deliver incendiary bombs against a forested area on Mount Aras, Giorgos thought of his brother, Sophokles, who was a pilot in 16th Air Wing. Two days ago, his brother's unit had destroyed a convoy of DKKP technicals and transport pickup trucks on a highway, as they retreated from Pelagision Prefecture towards Euxenoi Prefecture to try and link up with DKKP units in southern Pelasgia. He vividly remembered the sight his brother's email had described, a sight which internet videos later confirmed: dozens of trucks lined up on the road, while tens if not hundreds of rebels burned alive from the incendiary bombs the Type 16s had used. When land units approached the destroyed convoy, they found no survivors; only the charcoal-like bodies of the dead, and the smell of burned flesh throughout.
For a moment, Giorgos remembered that, for all their faults, these were his countrymen that he was fighting. It was one thing to shell some Kintu militant halfway across the world with white phosphorus rounds. That he could justify however he wanted: "They're just savages, they'd do much worse to us if they got to us - besides they've no concept of human rights"; "Their fault for rising up an Empire much more powerful than them"; "Have you heard what these folks used to do to the Kéké and to any settlers they captured?"; "They aren't your people, why do you care?". But here, things were different. These men might have gone to school or church with him, might have reaped the wheat that made his bread, might have walked the same streets as him but a couple of weeks ago. For a moment, war, especially civil war, seemed absurd to this young grunt from Metaxoupolis. However, Giorgos' short epiphany was cut short by the all-familiar shout of Sgt. Pangalos: "RPG crew, twelve o'clock!" Giorgos acquired the group of hopeless, inexperienced irregulars trying to load a sixty-year old Himyari copy a Kadikistani RPG (which couldn't get through the Type 24's armour anyway) and pressed the trigger. A cloud of smoke and rubble replaced the spot where they had stood a moment before, as a tank round crushed them. Their sacrifice would have been admirable, had it not been pointless to the point of sheer stupidity.
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Propontis, Optimatoi Prefecture
General of the Army Porphyrios Thesophides was the sort of man who had been born and bred to lead an army. Comfortably taller than the average Pelasgian at 185 cm, he had a strong muscular body and large frame. His skin was dark enough not to be pale, but not dark enough to be olive either, laying in the in-between shade that characterised many urban Pelasgians. A large chin, a clearly oval head, straight hair always cut short, dark, piercing brown to black eyes, and a sharp face reminiscent of a fox gave him an austere, severe look. His voice, deep and commanding, certainly accorded with such a presentation. The son of a line of staff officers who had been in Propontis for at least three generations, and a committed member of the Constitutionalist faction, Theosophides had been educated in military schools since childhood. While sitting the Pampelasgian Examinations, the university ranking exam all Pelasgian lycaeum seniors who wished to be admitted to tertiary educational institutions had to pass, he attained a score of 19029 points. With such a score, he could have comfortably made it into the Medical School of the Grand Patriarchal University of Propontis, arguably Pelasgia's most prestigious academic institution. Instead, he aimed for the alma mater of three generations of his ancestors: the Imperial Military Academy for Aspiring Officers of the Imperial Pelasgian Army. Certainly not lacking in talent, he had finished first among his class, and was the youngest modern Pelasgian officer to be promoted to a General rank, becoming a Brigadier General at the age of 30. His steel had been tested in the Melingian Emergency, and he had been one of the men to draw up the plans to crash the short-lived Orestias Revolt against the Laskarid Restoration.
Dressed in the olive green uniform of a Pelasgian General, with the cross of the Imperial and Military Order of Saint Valentian the Great hanging from his neck, Theosophides confidently walked towards the Throne Room of the Grand Palace of Propontis to meet the highest man in all of Pelasgia: Emperor Theodore III Laskaris. Upon entering, he stood in attention and saluted, facing an Emperor dressed in a uniform of the Imperial Pelasgian Navy, Pelasgia's traditional leading branch of the Armed Forces. "General of the Army Theosophides, Army General Staff, reporting as ordered, Your Majesty," he said. The Emperor returned the salute and allowed the General to stand at ease. "We understand that you have brought the situtation in Our capital under control, General Theosophides?" the Sovereign asked. Theosophides remarked at the stoicism of Theodore, a man who had been raised since childhood to see everything in life as a duty, as one should when being the symbol of a nation. His blue eyes betrayed not the slightest hint of emotion. "Yes, Your Imperial Majesty," he responded, "Propontis is fully under our control. Most of northern Pelasgia should be free of insurgents by the end of the week. Already, most urban centres have been cleared of insurgents, who have started moving further southward, into the Agraian and Leontian Mountains. Even Nestani has largely been cleared, thanks to the 2nd Corps, 1st Army's rapid intervention and the aerial support of 7th Air Transport Wing the Nestani Airport Detachment." The Emperor was pleased, though he betrayed no emotion. "Very well," he responded, "so I take it this insurgency should not concern Us for very long?" The General nodded in agreement. "Indeed, Your Imperial Majesty, within two weeks the insurgents will be limited to the mountains of southern Pelasgia, and within a month they will be nothing but a low-level nuisance. Much like the Melingians and Haydians our local Gendarmerie units are used to dealing with."
The Emperor stood, prompting Theosophides to stand in attention again, before the Emperor waved him at ease. The royal, at the exit of middle age and the threshold of elderly years, stood before a large map of Pelasgia that had been put up at his request. His eyes fixed on the eastern half of the Empire, over which lay the inscription «ΜΕΜΦΙΣ Η ΤΩΝ ΚΥΦΤΩΝ» (Memphís hē tôn Kyphtôn), meaning "Memphis of the Kyphts" or "Kyphtic Memphis." He sighed, before addressing the General yet again. "General, you are Our Prime Minister and, for the foreseeable future, will be the de facto leader of Our Government for as long as this situation persists. Tell Us, honestly, how wide is the rift between Memphis Command and Propontis?" The General had thought it best to avoid this line of questioning, but saw no point in hiding the truth from the Emperor. "Truth be told, Your Majesty, Memphis might as well be a separate country. Every level of government in Souchoton and Rhakotaion Prefectures is staffed by hardline Absolutists. The 1st and 2nd Corps of the 2nd Army are staffed by hardline Absolutists. The local populace believes in Absolutism. Pelasgia will never be at peace unless we have a Constitution; and Memphis will never accept one. We may try to force them into compliance, as I am sure will they against us, after what the Krypteia did to several high-ranking Absolutists in Propontis; but, in the long run, it might be best to go our separate ways." The Emperor kept silently staring at the map for several moments before responding. "Our Grandfather," he said, "was told the same in 1956 during the Septemvriana. And yet we held on to Philistaea, thanks to Brigadier Levitis. The day might come that we shall have to give up Memphis; but let us not do so so easily. Still, prepare as you must. Leave whatever units you need in Pelasgia to deal with the DKKP, and start moving regulars towards Memphis."
"Of course, Your Majesty, that is clearly the best option. If I may say, the Interior Minister has recommended we merge all irregular units into National Guard units of the Army, and let them take care of the DKKP, along with the Gendarmerie and certain less elite military units. The new equipment the Remurians have sent us should make this a rather easy task, and the DKKP has no hope in pitched battles against Your Majesty's Army, which is why they're already running for the hills. Unfortunately for them, 21st century air power makes guerilla warfare much deadlier and harder. In any case, it is Philistaea that shall prove a real problem for us; the local Army units are full of Urudoah who seem to want their own country, and are determined to fight for it. Though largely non-violent so far, they have declared their support for the mass protests for Philistaean Independence. The local ethnic Pelasgians and the Jews are all against it, of course. For now, we can definitely keep Philistaea inside the Empire by force. But, should Memphis decide to make its grievances heard by the sound of gunshots, we might very well have to let Philistaea go. We cannot fight a war on two fronts at home, and Memphis is a much bigger threat than the tiny province of Philistaea. Besides, it would throw an immense weight off our backs..." Theosophides' Pelasgian nationalist leanings were starting to show. To suggest letting a province go in front of the Emperor, simply to avoid its ethnic strife, would be unthinkable for a more hardline Conservative officer but a week ago. "And we would lose the Holy City with Philistaea," remarked the Emperor. "Alas," he acknowledged bitterly, "we lose a Patriarchate either way: either Hierosolyma or Cassandris. To think three weeks ago, our greatest concern was letting South Himyar go..." That was another matter altogether.
 
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Kadikistani Union

Established Nation
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
2,841
Location
Belgium
Capital
Ivar
Nick
Spelev
Sremsk Revolutionary Army Training Facility
Socialist Republic of Kalavarskija
People's Federal Socialist Republics of Kadikistan


The International Association of Communist Workers' Parties had called upon its followers from around the world to join the fight of the DKKP against the Pelasgian Armed Forces. They did so in accordance with the fall of the Reformist Faction of the All-Union Communist Workers' Party as the former mainstream, already years in decline, had lost all credibility this past week. Their two stronghold policies, economic liberalization and pragmatic foreign policy, had blown up in their faces. The Pelasgian betrayal surrounding the Treaty of Spesse and the subsequent economic attack through divesting in the All-Union Special Economic Zones, thus the fall of the Status Quo Treaty, had given the Rejectionists the final push they needed to bring back fanatical rule. Regardless of faction all eyes of the A-UCWP were now pointed in the same direction on this matter. Pelasgia had to bleed, as long as possible. The All-Union had its own prestige to consider and that meant that no action could go without a reaction. Even with the realization that Marxist-Leninovism had little chance to gain the whole of Pelasgia under its wings, these endeavours would be worth it as long as those who showed the All-Union aggression suffered for it. It also provided the rejectionists and their anti-revisionist allies with a welcome opportunity to demonstrate the reignited revolutionary fire that the All-Union would once again seek to project to all corners of the world.

The DKKP neither had the military equipment nor the manpower to wage a conventional war against their domestic foes. Early initiatives to take several cities, especially in Northern Pelasgia came at a high price and proved to be unsustainable. Only in the south did this strategy seem to be somewhat effective as most of the Voukellarion Prefecture had fallen under DKKP sway, safe from nearly all the cities. The order from Ivar to the DKKP leadership were clear; abandon unsustainable positions, cease all forms of conventional warfare with some strategic exceptions, consolidate regular forces in rough terrain and make all preparations for a war of attrition. There was no point to have hundreds of Pelasgian comrades run themselves to death on the steel plates of a Type 24 for the sake of some non-defendable square in some forsaken suburb. Instead they would hide in terrain that was inaccessible for heavy military equipment, like they were doing in the Voukellarion and Euxeno Mountains, but also in urban centres and their many apartment blocs. Those who were stuck under siege and had no way of escape were told to fight until the last man or women. If their ideological fire wouldn't last these martyrs the stories of what happened to the communist prisoners would offer yet another incentive. If the choice was to die in combat or to be captured, depraved, tortured and killed it wasn't much of a choice. Martyrs were mentioned in propaganda as heroes of the people and through the International Solidarity Initiative for Himyar, Ivar added financial incentives for the families of the fallen along with the right to ask asylum in the Rurikgrad Pact where housing and social services would be provided by the respective State.

The armed wing of the DKKP, the Pelasgian Red Guards (PKF), were divided into two distinct branches, one encompassing the PKF forces in the urban areas and another significantly larger one consolidating the fighters in the rural areas. These two branches were divided along various military sectors, which often differentiated from the borders of official prefectures and were based on separating urban centres from the rural lands around them. The Urban Proletarian Guards (APF) would be trained and educated in the finer arts of urban guerilla warfare, hiding amongst the public and making extensive efforts to conceal their identities. They would organize in cells that operated completely independent from each other once their objective had been made clear. Such objectives would include political and economical assassinations, bombings, arson attacks, shootings and other such hit-and-run attacks. Several cells would be activated at all times, divided over various geographic locations while the rest of the cells would activate once an earlier one had been vanquished. Civilian casualties would be avoided as much as possible during these attacks to prevent the public opinion from turning against the DKKP insurrection even more. Instead the targets chosen would always be military, political, economic or social in nature with messages send to the main media outlets explaining the reasoning after the attack happened.

The rural DKKP sectors were significantly larger geographically than their urban counterparts. The Rural People's Guards (FTA) were also larger in numbers not only because communist control in especially the southern rural areas remained significant while a massacre occurred in the north, but also because these areas were where all the known party members and affiliates would be forced to go to keep fighting. With modern surveillance and intelligence equipment those who were known to be affiliated with the DKKP before or during the insurrection were no longer safe in the cities. Even if they did want to join the APF such requests would be denied as they would pose a liability for the entire cell. In the south they could hide in the mountain caves, thick forests and even the less developed remote villages with much less chances to be discovered. Like their comrades in the urban centres the FTA would engage in a guerilla war with their technologically superior and far better equipped enemies. Rural villages with FTA encampments nearby would come under a sort of flexible occupation. Meaning that the locals would be confronted with DKKP rule by fighters and functionaries mingling amongst the local population, but when the Pelasgian Army is spotted they would disappear only to return once the army left again. The Pelasgian Army would then have three choices; brutally bombing every village at the slightest sign of movement and by doing so swelling the ranks of the FTA through their brutality or place a garrison at every village which would be unsustainable and provide smaller targets for the insurgents or play the exhausting cat and mouse game each time confronted with the possibility of IEDs and other booby-traps or ambushes.

From their nearly inaccessible hideouts in the mountains the People's Guards would in such a way exert control over the nearby villages. These villages would not only offer resources, manpower and occasional shelter, but could also be used as staging grounds for other attacks. The overall strategy was not to go head-to-head with the Pelasgian Army and instead slowly tire them out. Tactics would include ambushing patrols, attacking checkpoints, targetting supply-lines among others with an extensive use of remote detonated improvised explosive devices to minimise communist casualties. In the short-term it was expected that Propontis would come at them with all the military might at its disposal, which the DKKP would be forced to endure. Over time, it was hoped, the fighting of an invisible enemy would start eating at morale along with the financial costs and consistent list of casualties reaching their northern strongholds. Only when the Pelasgian security forces were weakened and demoralized enough could they consider conventionally occupying towns and cities again, but even the most optimistic prognosis didn't see such an event occur before the end of this year. To successfully damage the Pelasgian war machine the outdated weapons depots of the DKKP needed an upgrade and the warriors wielding them needed proper training.

That's where the Sremsk Revolutionary Army Training Facility came in. Ever since the days of Andrej Rurik Kadikistan had hosted training camps meant to turn eager Marxist-Leninovists from any nationality or ethnicity into trained revolutionary warriors. The last time these camps were used for forming an international battalion was during the 7 Days War, when the International organised brigades of foreign volunteers to help fight on the Western front. Even before and after that war the training facilities had never been completely empty as the All-Union and its unitary predecessor had consistently offered military-grade training as part of an education/indoctrination program. In fact many of the Pelasgians that went through a training program through some educational exchange or by simply travelling to the All-Union to run the course were now often field and sector commanders of the PKF. Yesterday the International issued another call to arms in solidarity with the struggle of the DKKP. While the bulk of these recruits had yet to arrive in Sremsk the first dozens that did were instantly subjugated to the first day of their month-long training. This month included basic military training with an extra focus on guerilla tactics. While specialist and officer training was included, only the very best recruits were chosen for those roles. Not that they always liked being chosen as it meant three extra months of training and not seeing any action while their inner revolutionary fire was at its brightest. Until the point when these men were ready and in circulation such specialist roles would be carried out by Kadikistani 'volunteers' with often very specific and convenient military backgrounds.

Besides a steady flow of manpower the DKKP also needed better equipment that would suit the guerilla war. This meant portable recoilless launchers, anti-tank missiles, anti-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, heavy calibre machine guns, mines,... and other such weaponry along with the standard infantry equipment like assault rifles, grenades and knives. Equally important as the weapon would be the fact that the fighters using them would know how to identify a target and know what weapon to destroy it with. With such weaponry a carefully planned insurgency could turn the south into a graveyard of burned out tanks, APCs, IFVs and other heavy equipment along with the occasional downed helicopter. To get the weapons and the recruits into the right hands a major role was preserved for another long time regional affiliate of Ivar and fellow International member, the Central Himyari Communist Workers' Party (CHCWP). The latter held a sizeable presence in the north of Nzadiland which was co-ordinated from its stronghold in the Central Himyari Republic, where they were popularly known as the 'Ferrets'. Through the Northcott Channel shipments of fighters and weapons would be smuggled in on alternating points along the coast of either Natal or more preferably Nzadiland. The shipments were disguised as merchant or fishing vessels, which were impossible to all be controlled by the Imperial Navy. Until the first batch of All-Union trained international volunteers were ready the shipments mainly contained military and logistical equipment along with Kadikistani seasoned soldiers, but often brought back DKKP fighters to the All-Union because they were either unable to fight or wanted a chance at better training. Once on Himyari land the volunteers would make their way to territories under de facto DKKP control using the know-how of affiliated or bribed local smugglers.

The Kadikistani lesson would never be over, for it does not forget and it does not forgive.
 
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Ebria

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Oct 7, 2018
Messages
1,463
Location
Bucharest
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Valls
Nick
Ovi
Blue Bay, Rozvi Kingdom, Central Himyar

Nhoro Tekere, a Rozvian man in his late 50s, over two meters tall wearing a greying afro and a greying goatee, which he always said that he took from pictures he saw of Andrej Rurik and wanted to copy his style, was sitting on a small folding chair on the pink gold sands of the southern shores of the Sea of Buto, at the shade of a palm tree, with a small dog chilling near him. Around him, some children were playing some rugby in the sand, some fishermen were unloading the fish they just caught from their boats, and some auto enthusiasts were revving up their car engines on the seafront road, not caring that they were covering the sounds of the sea waves, and of the gulls, while also blasting loud music.
He couldn't but smile looking both at the ones with their cars and the ones playing rugby. and then looked at the document in front of him. It was an accountancy report of the volume and type of fish captured by some fishermen in the sea of Buto. When he looked at it, he frowned and growled a little. He build up the Ferrets to be a respectable political party that while it had no hopes to taking over through the democratic process, nor any hopes of starting and being successful in a revolution, was there for the working class, especially in Blue Bay where with the shipbuilders and the Hartnett Auto plant, they had quite a loyal following. He followed Ivar's line of reformism, pragmatism, acceptance of the Status Quo Treaties and the situation they brought, but now, he was concerned. Rejectionists in his own party were calling him a coward, they were calling for an armed revolution. But even worse, from what that document stated, once the code was breached and the interior of it understood, they were moving to Pelasgia to aid the DKKP in Voukellarion. Not only smuggling weapons that were coming from the other side of the Long Sea, but even weapons that were supposed to be in the arsenal of the Central Himyari National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the CHCWP. He knew that the armed wing of the Ferrets could only manage to fight through a limited rural guerrilla and an urban one further south on the Natal River valley, but he didn't want to see his own resources being sent to the DKKP, which he saw as being doomed.
The header in the local news about the "People's Lions" a volunteer group of Central Himyaris going to Pelasgia was in his mind. It was clear for everyone that those weren't the Rhinos, the NRA of old, or their successors, the HPU, no, those were armed ferrets going against for war after a hiatus of nearly 70 years. He was against this, as this meant that his party, the CHCWP, or the Ferrets, have become again in the views of any Central Himyari, a tainted party, agents of Ivar as they were dubbed, again, nothing but trouble makers, and the fact that it was not only made public, but a group of those were even captured as they strayed off course and ended up in Memphis rather than Nzadiland, made things only worse. He was not ready to fight Camp Hill, and he was not ready to be in the forefront of the press for what other radical members of his party were doing.
The engine revving from the group near him and their loud music has stopped as a white-green police car, with the MAPURISA, signs on its hood and doors, meaning police in the Rozvian language, drove by. At first, Nhoro ignored it, but when he saw that it stopped nearby and two coppers in the dark green uniform of the Central Himyari Police Service were coming towards him, he immediately knew what was happening. He took a sealed envelope, which contained about 15,000 Central Himyari Pounds but his wallet too with him. He always knew how to interact with the police. "Dumela, comrade Tekere!" said the first policeman, who was also the driver, a fat Rozvi man in his mid forties, a captain by his insignia, while the other one, a coastal, white corporal, skinny as a rake just nodded. "Dumela, captain, how's your patrol?" Nhoro asked. "Not bad, not bad, can't really complain 'bout anything but the weather. it's a bit too warm and humid today," the captain moaned. "They should really put some air conditioning on those shitty cars, am I right, bru?" said the captain again, but this time towards the corporal, who just nodded and mumbled something. To captain came closer to him, while the corporal stood behind, looking around a bit nervous. "Comrade Tekere, how's the... you know... fishing business going?" he asked. "Quite good, now that you asked. I must say that some of my fishermen are a bit too enthusiastic, but what is here should pretty much show how good were' doing," Nhoro Tekere responded. The captain smilled, nodded and took the envelope. "Also, captain," said Tekere as he took his wallet and took two red notes with the lion on them, 500 pounds each. "Buy something nice for your wife and give the other to the your corporal too, it might relax him a little," Tekere said smiling. The captain started laughing. "I'll take the two of them, I have three kids to raise while he is a Blackmere boy, his family has enough money," said the captain as he took the two notes, put them in his pocket still laughing. "But between you an me, Comrade Tekre, I like you, but you should be in Camp Hill, as the parliament is in session and considering the recent changes in the communist movements in Himyar and knowing yourself.... you would be safer there," said the captain after which he turned around and went to the car, leaving.
Nhoro knew what he meant. The Marxist-Leninovist democratic centralism was quite a harsh and severe system and once you were pushed out, you really were out. Once in power, your best hopes were to retire. But with the changes both with and within Ivar, and the fact that he was a more pacifist ferret, preferring to be ready before striking, rather than a radical youth, kind of marked him down in the eyes of the newer, radical generation. For them, he was just the Nethian version of the reformist gerontocracy.
"How does one prepare for the end?" he said to the dog as he sat himself back on the folding chair. He signalled to a small boy that was sitting on the door of a nearby spaza shop and asked him to bring him a bottle of cold beer to refresh him. Only a few minutes later, another man came to him. "Comrade, you have been called to the headquarters," he said. "Which ones?" Tekere asked. "The military ones," he said and then led Tekere to it. The military ones just meant a small apartment a few streets away that acted as a meeting place for the armed wing of the CHCWP, the Central Himyari National Liberation Army. There, they were expected by five men, all of them higher-ups of the CHNLA. In the middle, Ethan Hunter, a white man probably of Gunnish descent, with a Hartonite accent, and a set of fiery eyes that were not subtle at all in showing the hate he carried for Tekere.
"Do you know why we called you here?" Hunter asked without greeting. "Dumela, first and foremost. I would probably say that I should answer at most to the Central Committee of the Party, not to you, but enlighten me," said Tekere annoyed. "You are accused of defeatism and of actively working against the Himyari people's revolution!" said Hunter, with the others nodding in approval. His hate could be felt in his voice. "How could I be the one accused of that when I have to cover the shit you are doing by giving up your manpower and resources to a doomed Pelasgian revolt. I had to pay too much for the police to ignore the smuggling from here to Voukellarion through Nzadiland, just because it was you the one who pushed us in this shit!" shouted Tekere back. He promised himself that he would be calm. He was expecting already the younger generation to turn against him, but him being called a coward and an anti-revolutionary was too much. "You are the one that turned his back on our Pelasgian comrades, on our Loagan comrades two years ago and you are abandoning them to be butchered by the monarchists in Pelasgia as you abandoned them in Loago! That is nothing but right wing deviationism and for me myself, I start to even wonder if you really are a Marxist-Leninovist or just some sort of governmental informer," shouted Hunter back. "Have you lost your mind?! Me, an informer?! Boy, when you and your posh parents were tending to their cattle station and exploiting the workers at it, I was on the barricades, fighting for the emancipation of the workers in the mines of the Northern Grans! This is outrageous!" Tekere shouted back, even more annoyed. "The Central Committee has come to a decision and we are actually just here to enforce it! Nhoro Tekere, you have been accused of defeatism, right wing deviationism and the betrayal of our movement and goals to achieve workers' emancipation. The Central Committee has sentenced you to death by necklacing!" Hunter said as the other four men came towards him.
 

Pelasgia

Established Nation
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Sep 30, 2014
Messages
4,255
Location
Athens, Greece
Nick
Demos
From: General Staff of the Armed Forces, Propontis, Northern Military District
To: Third Fleet Command, Iole Naval Base, Evosmos, Western Military District
Classification: Top Secret / Urgent / Most Rapid
Subject: Orders for Deployment

***START OF MESSAGE***

I/3S is hereby ordered to deploy off the Zarakas Sovereign Base Area immediately, via the Hamar Sea. Once in area, join up with Tephanon Naval Garrison await further orders for deployment towards island of Justiza. Third Fleet forces still in Pelasgia are to join up with Second Fleet.

***END OF MESSAGE***


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From: General Staff of the Armed Forces, Propontis, Northern Military District
To: First Fleet Command, Second Fleet Command
Classification: Top Secret / Urgent / Most Rapid
Subject: Orders for Deployment

***START OF MESSAGE***

First Fleet is hereby ordered to deploy to the the Claret Sea, to ensure safety of shipping. First Fleet is to block off all Kadikistani or other Rurikgrad shipping to Pelasgian ports. First Fleet must not otherwise inhibit shipping. First Fleet anti-submarine assets are to conduct constant anti-submarine readiness missions. First Fleet submarines are to lay in wait and shadow Kadikistani shipping.

Second Fleet is hereby ordered to deploy to the Kalahari Sea off Justiza, to the south of the island and within a safe distance from land-based anti-shipping systems. Anti-submarine assets and destroyers must be constantly alert for enemy.

***END OF MESSAGE***
 
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Pelasgia

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Sep 30, 2014
Messages
4,255
Location
Athens, Greece
Nick
Demos
Decree 259/2020 (Th. III) - St. C. / G.S. | Pub: FEK 73/2020
THEODORE
EMPEROR AND AUTOCRAT OF THE PELASGIANS

Imperial Decree no. 259 of 2020, "A Decree Respecting Elections for the Constitutional Convention"

Article 1.
(1) At the advice of the State Council, We hereby modify the Date of the Elections designated in Our Decree of July 10th to July 17th.
(2) We hereby redesignate the Constituent Assembly as a Constitutional Convention under Article 110 of the current Constitution of the Pelasgian Empire.

Article 2.
(1) The representation of our Realm in this Constitutional Convention shall be apportioned between three General Delegations: one for Memphis, containing the Rhakotaion and Souchoton Prefectures; one for Philistaea, containing the Hieron and Makrinon Prefectures; and one for Pelasgia, containing all other Prefectures of the Empire.
(2) Elections to this Constitutional Convention shall take place based on current electoral boundaries, laws, and districts.
(3) Notwithstanding anything in paragraph (2) of the present Article, elections to the General Delegations of Philistaea and Pelasgia shall take place using universal suffrage, such that every adult Pelasgian citizen be allowed to vote for a Delegate. The General Delegation of Memphis shall, nonetheless, be allowed to elect its members using the current electoral system of qualified suffrage.
(4) Each General Delegation shall have equal plenipotentiary negotiating power in Our Name, and shall be duly authorised to conclude agreements equivalent to Constitutional Acts and International Treaties.

Article 3.
Our Interior Minister shall use all necessary forces of the Imperial Gendarmerie, National Guard, and Police to ensure the safety of polling stations and electoral activities and facilities. The Imperial Pelasgian Armed Forces shall render all necessary military aid to the civil power in this regard.

Article 4.
Pursuant to our Decree of July 8th, no communistic party or body of any kind shall be allowed to participate in this Convention in any capacity.

Article 5.
The present document is effective from the moment of its publication in the Government Gazette.

Propontis, 12 July 2020

Theodore
I.

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The State Council
The Chairman
General Por. Theosophides

The Vice-Chairman
Ecumenical Patriarch Cyril VIII

The Members

[...]
 

Rheinbund

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Oct 30, 2006
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11,806
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
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Fehrbellin
Streng geheim — Segretissimo — Strictement confidentiel — Top secret

State Council of the Pelasgian Empire

To whom it may concern

Dear Sir/Madam,

We want to be of help to the Pelasgian Empire in these dire days. It is our intention to send food packages and medical materials (medications, bandages, equipment). It is also our intention to send in a different type of aid you could use in your struggle against the DKKP and other factions you currently fight against. We can, for instance, deliver you a type of bomb with which you can destroy large hardened structures like bunkers, as well as underground targets. This type of bomb is called bunker busters by the Westernessers; we ourselves call them bunker destroyers.
Another type of weapon we can deliver you, is thermobaric weapons. These weapons rely on the oxygen in the area where they ignite, unlike other bombs which have to take the needed oxygen with them. The disadvantage of thermobaric weapons is that they cannot be used under water, at high altitudes or in bad weather situations, because then they lack the oxygen they need. The advantage of these weapons is, that they can deplete a complete area of oxygen by using it during the ignition. This can be advantageous when they are used in bunkers, fox holes or large underground complex, because they not only cause a large detonation, but also take the oxygen away for the survivors. But now we are probably telling you things about thermobaric weapons you already know. We can deliver these weapons for use on hand-held launchers, but also as bombs to be delivered by planes or missiles.

Please let me know your thoughts. We are open for delivering other kinds of equipment as well. For instance a demonstration model of the in the interdictor, ground support or deep-strike configuration. Your Navy is already using the Fallwind in the naval configuration.

Best regards,

General a.D. Egon Kranzer, Demissionary Minister of Defence
Christian Rathenau, CEO Rathenau Militärausrüsting
Joachim Rieger, CEO RRF Flugzeugwerke
 

Pelasgia

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Athens, Greece
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Demos
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PELASGIAN EMPIRE
HIM GOVERNMENT - STATE COUNCIL
HIM DEFENCE MINISTRY

Propontis, 13 July 2020 | Top Secret

General a.D. Egon Kranzer, Demissionary Minister of Defence
Christian Rathenau, CEO Rathenau Militärausrüsting
Joachim Rieger, CEO RRF Flugzeugwerke


The Pelasgian Empire thanks our Eiffellando-Retalian partners for their support in these trying times. Rest assured, your contributions, both humanitarian and military, will not be forgotten once our Nation recovers and finds itself in a position to reconsider its alliances and foreign policy alignment.
Pelasgia readily accepts both the anti-bunker and thermobaric weapons mentioned, in all their delivery methods. We shall arrange payment with your respective industries, which have long supplied Pelasgia with high-tech armaments. Regarding, the RRF Fallwind, we would certainly be interested in trying it out, once a new permanent civilian government has been formed in the coming weeks.

Signed and sealed,

Nikolaos Margarites
HIM Foreign Minister
State Council of Pelasgia
 

Rheinbund

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Streng geheim — Segretissimo — Strictement confidentiel — Top secret

HIM Foreign Minister Nikolaos Margarites
State Council of Pelasgia

Dear Minister Margarites,

Thank you for your interest. Given the current situation, we will deliver the bunker destroyers and the thermobaric weapons against a reduced price. We will start the humanitary aid and the delivery of the weapons as we speak.

Best regards,

General a.D. Egon Kranzer, Demissionary Minister of Defence
Christian Rathenau, CEO Rathenau Militärausrüsting
Joachim Rieger, CEO RRF Flugzeugwerke
 

Pelasgia

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Propontis, Optimatoi Prefecture
Michalis Tiveriades awoke with a burning cold on his forehead, his head slumped on top of some metallic surface. His was sitting on a chair, his hands tied behind his back. A feeling of numbness gradually gave way to pain in several parts of his body; his memory was blurry. He last remembered being driven in a car, heading towards the Propontine district of Hagios Simeon, before another car crashed into his, striking the side of the car that he was sitting in. An unknown set of hands gripped him and sat him up, removing a blindfold from his eyes.
"I see you are awake, Mr. Tiveriades," said an unknown man standing before him. The bright white light of the room obscured Michalis' vision, allowing him to only see a dark, blurry outline of the man. As his vision gradually cleared he noticed more details: an olive green uniform with black lapel markings and the insignia of a Lieutenant of His Imperial Majesty's Secret Service, the Empire's infamous secret police, known commonly as the Krypteia. The man threw a file in front of Tiveriades.
"You've lived quite the life, it seems," the Lieutenant said; "one has to wonder what sort of transition takes one from IT specialist to DKKP terrorist. Truth be told, I always wondered whether people like you would also be anti-regime in a communist dictatorship. That is to say, I wonder whether you are one of the DKKP's useful idiot idealists, or just some sociopath who's willing to starve a few million people to death for power he could never attain in a normal society."
Tiveriades spat at the officer, though his spit could not reach him. He noticed that some blood had come out with the saliva. "If you're going to kill me, do it now. I won't talk to the likes of you," he said.
"Kill, Mr. Tiveriades? It is not us who want to kill you." A guard, standing to the officer's side, came up and opened the file in front of Tiveriades. In it was an order from DKKP HQ in Ioannoupolis to "liquidate" Tiveriades for his close contacts with the Christian Labour Syndicates, which he had tried converting to the DKKP's cause. "Christianity is no longer allowed in Kadikistan, Mr. Tiveriades. You were close to the Christian unionists. Who could blame you? You honestly wanted what was best for them; what was best for all Pelasgian workers. You are an idealist. Part of me admires your kind, truly. But you see, that's why you are not just an idealist, but also a useful idiot. Your friends in the Central Committee, they couldn't care less about the Pelasgian worker. They killed plenty of those just a couple of weeks ago. Not as many as their masters in Ivar, but still, quite a few. They wanted to cut ties with the Christian Syndicalists and kill them off. You wouldn't let them. So you had to go. You see, you were 'dividing the labour movement.' It says so clearly, on line 15. We've highlighted it for you. Of course, you thought you were uniting the labour movement. But that's because you're an idealist. The labour movement is not the same as the 'labour movement.' One is Pelasgian workers who want better wages and some basic health and safety at work. The other is whatever the DKKP and its useful allies consist of at the moment. That's how Ivar ended up selling its workers off as cheap labour to Pegasus A.E. in the 'special economic zones.' The same company that hires scabs to put you out of a job employs Kadikistani peasants at a tenth of the cost it takes to employ you. All for the 'labour movement.' I'm sure the fat pigs in Ivar need a lot of labour to stuff themselves with caviar while the local proletariat starves to death."
"You're lying, you monarcho-fascist pig! If you expect to get anything out of me, you're fooling yourself. Your days are numbered. Once the liberals get their parliament, they'll neuter your lot. Then my comrades will pay you and your family a visit, one of these days."
The Lieutenant laughed. "The liberals, Mr. Tiveriades? I expected more from a dialectic materialist. Let's be honest. Pelasgia could become a Republic tomorrow, and it'd still be the same people calling the shots. Once the liberals put a show parliament in place, the Propontine bureaucracy will confine them to a nice little box, where they can pontificate about the 'Constitution,' while people like me go on about their business. Once trade relations with the ODS improve again, the liberals' owners will tell them to relax and stop rocking the boat too much. They'll go along with it, as long as they keep their fancy titles and jobs, and their kids get into good schools and sinecures. It's the same in Ivar. How many of the great 'revolutionaries' were kulaks, or bourgeois, or nobles? How many of the current bureaucats and party apparatchiks?"
Before giving Tiveriades a moment to respond, the officer started playing a recording of the DKKP regional secretary for Propontis discussing with Tiveriades' second in command. "We'll do it in Hagios Simeon. We'll blame it on the Krypteia and the Christian Syndicalists. That way, we'll be rid off the reactionary prick, and nobody will be able to pin it on us." Tiveriades' blood begun to boil. The betrayal of his second in command was one thing; the sheer dishonesty of the way they meant to kill, supposedly when he was on his way to negotiate with the Christian Syndicalists was another.
"Where did you get this?! It has to be a fabrication! The Christian Syndicalists sold me out to you, didn't they?" he shouted.
"Of course they did, Mr. Tiveriades," the officer replied. "You should be thanking them: you owe them your life. Without that tip, we wouldn't have looked into your path and the surrounding... preparations of your DKKP colleagues. Did you know they had three cells mobilized to take you out? They wanted to make sure you wouldn't live to annoy them."
"Whose?!" Tiveriades shouted, by this point red with anger. The Lieutenant betrayed a faint smile.
"It's all in the file, Mr. Tiveriades. Read it yourself," he said. The Lieutenant motioned another guard, who had entered from behind Tiveriades, to untie his hands. The seasoned DKKP veteran, demoralised completely, placed his hands on the table. Shaking, he opened the file, slowly reading through it.
"You shall have all the time in the world to read through the file, Mr. Tiveriades. If you need more information, feel free to ask one of my colleagues here. They shall make sure to feed, wash, and and clothe you. And to see to your wounds. We took care of the more egregious ones without your consent; I hope you don't mind," the officer added, moving towards the metal door of the cold, marble-floored interrogation chamber.
"Who are you?" Tiveriades asked, with a hopeless, shocked look in his eyes.
"Let's just say I used to be an idealist like you. Thankfully, I woke up to the reality of the world before it was too late. You can call me Lieutenant Simeonides... for now. We shall meet again soon."

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Prinkeponesos, Optimatoi Prefecture
Ptolemaios Patrinos and Philippos Merkoures made an unlikely duo in any sort of context. The leader of the Absolutist Party's delegation from Memphis to the Pelasgian Constitutional Convention and the head of the moderate conservative Constitutionalists who made up the right-wing half of the Liberal Constitutionalist coalition were supposed to be on opposite camps, after all. And yet, politics had a way of bringing opponents together. This time, the nightly reception of the first night of talks had found both men walking through the gardens of Laskarides Palace, that majestic neoclassical residence that served as the home residence of the House of Laskarides, a cadet branch of the Laskaris Dynasty from which the current Emperor hailed, and the main Imperial residence in Chrysoupolis, the suburb of Propontis located across from the city proper.
"It appears that your colleague from Therisus is determined to reducing the Absolutists to a fringe opposition group in your new Pelasgia," Patrinos said, referring to the Liberal Union leader, Ioannes Kravatas-Apostolakis. "I wonder how long it will be before he starts moving leftward and ends up hitting against you. His grandfather, after all, was the man who allied with the Socialists to keep the right out of power in 1956."
"And then he allied with the right again," Merkoures pointed out. "But, truth be told, he always saw us as necessary burdens. Whereas the Socialists... them he actually had some respect for. Not liking, but respect. They're idealists... we're relics. I wonder how much space either one of us will have in the new Pelasgia. We as an eternally second party for coalitions... you as an overglorified prefecture, with an increasingly assailed regional elite."
Patrinos was content to see that his colleague was starting to understand what he was alluding to. But, of course, he was waiting for Patrinos to voice the matter.
"Perhaps then, we should work together to change that new Pelasgia," Patrinos said. "How about a Pelasgia where you are in government, and the Liberals are the ones begging for a coalition... and we are much more than a regional elite. That would never happen within a Pelasgia containing both Propontis and Cassandris; our interests conflict. But if the two were separate enough to guarantee each elite its protected sphere... well, then I'm sure we could come to an understanding that would keep us both in power at both levels of government. Let's call it the Northern Tiburan solution."
Merkoures paused for a moment before responding, and lowered his voice. "With a federal structure of some kind, or some state union perhaps. Within Memphis you would be uncontested. And within Pelasgia, if you put together the clergy, the rural voters, the conservatives and a combination of Absolutist and Constitutionalist voters... that's how we used to win all elections to the Chamber after all. Only the Constitutionalists will be the senior partner now."
"We're willing to let you be the senior partner and to have the Propontine Absolutists tow your line, as long as you agree to let us have a nominal independence in Memphis. We do not want to have to look over our shoulder for Propontine liberals every four years, you see. The local peasantry gives us enough trouble as is," Patrinos responded.
"That's a reasonable settlement. And if we control both Realms, we can control their Union Government just as easily. We'll be the ones deciding the makeup of its institutions after all. If we divide the Liberal vote in Pelasgia proper and Memphis, the Liberal Union doesn't stand a chance. Civic nationalism only works in the same state. Whereas Clerical Nationalism - well, both Pelasgians and Memphians are Orthodox Christians. The Liberals kick back of course, but we'll need an excuse for the political divorce anyway."
"And the Philistaeans? Like all minorities, they'll keep supporting your friend from Therisus to the grave. They're afraid of solid blue majorities, and with good reason," Patrinos said, referring to the traditional colour of both the Pelasgian right and the Pelasgian ethnic group in the Empire.
"Well, we'll just have to chop them off the body politic then. Give up Philistaea and all its troubles. And have a small population exchange to ship off gauranteed yellow voters in exchange for guaranteed blue ones. We can force some sort of understanding for the Pelasgian and Jewish minorities and the Patriarchate on the Urudoah; I bet the yellows will even agree to it, with the hope of getting votes from the minorities in Pelasgia. Then, we'll add the population exchange clause at the last minute, along with a separate Memphian Realm, and they won't be able to block it. We have the votes, after all. Heck, we might even get Europe to leave us alone about the Philistaean Question."
"Glad to see we can come to some understanding," Patrinos said. "That whole thing in Propontis was really unnecessary. Though, truth be told, even the Cassandris Absolutists had started getting fed up with the Procurator General and his antics. Realpolitik is one thing, and dragging a whole nation in a military alliance with a gigantic tumor is quite another. We have him safely under control now. Unlike that lot, we know Pelasgia's ideal borders end off the Archipelago."
The two men shook hands quietly in the dark, and went about their separate ways. Tomorrow, they would have to pretend to be enemies.
 
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