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Rheinbund

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5 April 2021
Trier, Eiffelland

After the old Lothar von Walsrode died, his sons Felix and Armin inherited the Jugendstil villa in Trier-Dahlem. Because Felix was about to retire, he decided to buy Armin’s share in the villa so that he could live in it himself. The renovations took a year, and were finished when Felix actually retired. For the first time in his life, he lived in the country he served. Although, not really for the first time. He went to secondary school in Eiffelland, at the boarding school for children of Eiffellandian diplomats in Trier. Then he served military service in Eiffelland, and studied in Weissenfels. After that, he was admitted to the internship for diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From age 32 until his retirement at age 67, he was sent across the globe.

The reason why the boarding school for the children of diplomats was established was to give the children of diplomats some Eiffellandian roots. Diplomats were not obliged to send their children to this boarding school, but most of them did. The reason was, that there were quite some families who were diplomats by family tradition. In order to prevent that the members of these diplomat dynasties never actually lived in the country they served, they went to secondary school in Eiffelland, served society service in Eiffelland, and studied in Eiffelland.

This year it was for the first time since his student time that Felix Herzog von Walsrode would celebrate Easter in Eiffelland. And even more extraordinary, with his complete family. His eldest child Stephan was currently working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Trier. The reason was, that his wife was currently pregnant. Normally that would not be a reason not to be sent abroad, but his wife had become pregnant through an IVF procedure. With sperm cells of Stephan’s brother Jonathan, because Stephan himself was infertile. But this was a family secret. Officially, Stephan was the father. The only persons outside the family who knew about this were the treating physician, her team, and Jonathan’s boyfriend, Prince Ludwig.
It was not the first time that Stephan’s wife Angela had undergone an IVF procedure. The first time was three years ago, also with Jonathan’s sperm cells, and led to the birth of the young Lothar von Walsrode two years ago. But according to the idea “a heir and a spare”, a second IVF-procedure was initiated.
Meanwhile, Ludwig and Jonathan had started to philosophise about having children themselves. What if a lesbian couple would conceive children through sperm cells of Ludwig and Jonathan?

But that wasn’t a discussion point now. Today they were looking for easter eggs in the garden. Early that morning, Felix had hidden them. Now everybody was looking them up. The young Lothar had been told that the Easter Bunny had hidden the eggs. Until decades ago, the Catholics had their own story for the children: During the Lenten Season, the church bells of Catholic churches didn’t ring; the children were told that the church bells had flown to Tibur and would return at Easter while dropping the easter eggs in the gardens. But this story had been jostled by the Easter Bunny story.

Indeed, the Von Walsrodes looked for easter eggs on Eastermonday. They had already done so the day before, but without Ludwig and Jonathan, who had spent Eastersunday with the Royal Family. It was impossible that Prince Ludwig would be absent from the Easter Mass in the Hofkirche, Trier’s largest church, next to the Royal Palace in the city centre. So Jonathan had to be there as well, as Ludwig’s boyfriend. That also meant that Easter Day was for the Royal Family. Like Christmas Day.
So Ludwig and Jonathan celebrated Eastersunday at the Royal Palace, with looking for eggs in the palace garden, going to Church and having an Easter brunch. Ludwig’s two brothers were there as well, his brother Friedrich with wife and three children Philipp (who would turn 3 in two months), Mathilde and Charlotte (who both would turn 1 in two weeks).
As was the tradition for royal princes, Friedrich, Johann and Ludwig had served in the armed forces for four years before they went to Weissenfels for studying. When Friedrich started to study, the King bought a villa in Weissenfels-Blasewitz where all his three sons would live during their studies together with security staff. Crown-prince Friedrich studied history and law to prepare him for his work as King, Johann studied economics and started a company producing software for the pharmaceutical and medical device industry with three friends (TrialValid), and Ludwig studied law and was active in a student orchestra. Currently Ludwig and Jonathan lived together in the villa. Ideal for Jonathan, who studied medicine, because it was close to the university hospital of Weissenfels.


Wetzlar, Eiffelland

Another man who was celebrating Eastermonday with his family, was Segimer von Heidemar-Siegen. He was a relative of the King, but that family tie went in male line back to 900 years ago. Towards the end of the 11th century, Lothar von Hadamar became the Fürst of Lotharingen. This Lothar had two sons: Lothar and Segimer. Because Lothar was the elder son, he became the Fürst and would become the progenitor of the main line of House Hadamar, as well as the Kings of Eiffelland. But the main line died out in 1784. Originally, the house rules stipulated that the oldest side branch would inherit. And the oldest side branch was the Segimer-line. But King Lothar XV had changed the houserules without the leader of the Segimer-line knowing it. This went to court, but the court ruled that King Lothar XV was allowed to change the house rules. Since then, there is an enmity between the King of Eiffelland and the Segimer-line. Meanwhile, the sidebranch inheriting the throne died out as well, so that currently a new sidebranch is ruling. And that while the Segimer-branch never debranched.
Segimer von Heidemar-Siegen was a conservative man. Very conservative. Actually, he was far-right. Segimer von Heidemar-Siegen saw with regret how Eiffelland became a liberal lovefest.
But he had plans. Chancellor Von Seydewitz was very active during his reign. He not only broke down Horst Jörgens's drugs empire, but also eliminated the Gotisch-Eiffelländische Liga (GEL). Now Segimer was building up a far-right organisation again. But nobody could prove that. From the outside, he was a businessman with a good reputation. Of course the secret service knew that something was brewing, but not exactly what. Von Seydewitz was proud about "dismantling" the GEL, but a consequence was that the far-rights went underground. Now the authorities hardly had a focus on it.
 
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Rheinbund

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23APR2021
Trier, Eiffelland

Normally the cabinet meetings finished around 3pm, but this time it lasted longer. The reason was the situation in Bajorország.

“Zimmermann, it is not as simple as you think it is,” the Chancellor said to the Minister of Internal Affairs Rüdiger Zimmermann. He called the Minister just by his family name. This would never happen in public in Eiffelland, but this was the workplace. Furthermore, they were all Ministers, so equal in rank. OK, the Chancellor outranked all, but also he was just called “Rheinfeld” by the Ministers.
“Indeed, we can stop the arms deliveries to Bajorország, but that will have consequences. Not only that we will loose money. Also more. Furthermore, how much sense will it make when Bajorország simply goes to other countries for weapons, or starts to make its own weapons?” Rheinfeld asked.

“But we have to make a statement,” Zimmermann said. “Shooting a complete apartment building to pieces because one of the apartments houses a terrorist cell, that is the action of a madman. And it was an Eiffellandian-built tank.”

“Rheinfeld, it is not only about how much effect such a boycot will have. It is also about our reputation, how the world looks at us. You saw the images of the demonstration in front of the Eiffellandian embassy in Wekerletelep. You saw the letter from the Remian foreign minister. At this moment, the world is looking at us as well. Kovács is clearly considered the bad guy at the moment, and we are associated with the camp of the bad guy. This has consequences to us on the longer term,” Schmelzer said.

“But how certain are we that it will make a difference?” Rheinfeld asked. “Will Kovács really back down when we suspend the weapons delivery?”

“We don’t know beforehand, but that is not the most important question,” Schmelzer said. “Zimmermann is right; we cannot sit by idle when Kovács is sending in the army against civilians. Because that is what is happening now: This attack on this apartment building was not just an action against terrorists; it was an action against innocent civilians. Maybe unintended, but still it was. We have to give the signal that this is a despiccable deed. Not only because it is, also because we have a strategic matter to handle. It remains to be seen whether he is seeing it, but Kovács is demolishing Bajorország’s international reputation and turning the country into a rogue state. When we continue our weapons deliveries to Bajorország, we will end up in that league as well. There is currently a momentum against Bajorország; the only wise thing for us to do is joining that momentum.”

“But then there is another thing we have to look at. I want to keep up a neutral stance in this. Even if it affects us, this is an internal matter of the nation of Bajorország. We cannot commit ourselves to an independent state for the Zarans. Should this become the end result of peace negotiations, it is fine, but we can’t actively commit ourselves to that, because then we loose our neutrality,” Rheinfeld said.

“And I have to add something to this,” Minister of Defence Jean-Marc Dupont said. “And that is Tarusa. That country is siding more and more with Kovács. This can lead to surprises. We really have to be careful.”

“So here we have all the 10,000 pieces of the jigsaw puzzle,” Rheinfeld said. “How are we going to stop delivering weapons to Bajorország in such a way that still uphold our neutrality and doesn’t give Tarusa an excuse to do funny things?”

“It is all a matter of formulating,” Schmelzer said. “We have to make clear that we condemn the terrorist attacks by the ZFA as well, and that we completely understand that Kovács wants to arest the culprits. But we also have to make clear that we cannot agree with the way Kovács is tracking down the culprits. Furthermore, we have to make clear that we are neutral in the matter of independence for Zara. Let’s start formulating.”
 

Rheinbund

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01MAY2021
Eiffelland


The first of May is a special day in Eiffelland. It is a public holiday. Also the shops are closed, to be precise all shops. Normally, shops have to be closed on at least one day of the week. That can be the Friday, Saturday or Sunday, based on the holy weekdays in Islam, the Jewish faith and Christianity. Cafés, bars, restaurants, danceclubs, motels and hotels are excepted from this rule; furthermore, essential services like hospitals, police, the fire departments and undertakers go on 24/7 as well.

Of course the most important reason why the first of May is a public holiday, is because it is Labour Day. Another reason is the traditional celebration of Walpurgisnacht. Although it is a well-known fest because of Goethe’s Faust, it is not widely celebrated in Eiffelland: Only the island Rügen and the rural areas of the province Thorsringen celebrate it (especially on the mountain Brocken). This tradition goes back to several prechristian legends; it is believed that in the night from 30 April to 1 May the demarcation line between life and death is the narrowest, and it is a fest to celebrate the start of Spring. Part of the celebrations is the ignition of bonfires, but in Thorsringen it is also traditional for the women to dress like witches as a reference to the belief that in the Walpurgisnacht witches are allowed to celebrate on the Brocken.
A third tradition is the surrection of the Maibaum. This happens mainly in the smaller villages of Eiffelland. This is a pole with on top a wreath and short decorative ribbons that is surrected in the evening of 30 April. Then after the pole has been planted, everybody in the village dances around the pole until after midnight; this is called “Tanz in den Mai” (dance into May). The Maypole remains surrected during the whole month of May; then it is removed for next year. The pole is permanently guarded by the villagers, because it is tradition that people from other villages try to steal it. It depends on the region whether the maypole is surrected on 30 April or on other days; in Rheinland, it is surrected on the Saturday before Whitsuntide/Pentecoste; in Rügen, it is surrected on the evening of 20 June to celebrate Midsummer.

Emser Sümpfe
Emsland, Eiffelland

Celebrating the Walpurgisnacht as a reference to the history of the Germanics fitted in Segimer von Heidemar-Siegen’s ideology. This year he celebrated it at a farm near the Emser Sümpfe, the big lake and swamp system in the Eiffellandian province Emsland. The farm belonged to one of his followers. Yesterday evening, there was a large gathering of Segimer and his followers at this farm to celebrate Walpurgisnacht according to pre-Christian pagan rites. About 100 people were there, ranging from the top of his organisation to local young loyal followers.
The morning of the 1st of May was reserved for recovering. Especially for the younger guests. Eiffellandians are known for their restraint with alcohol, because getting drunk is frowned upon, but people aged 16 to 30 years are not subjected to this frown. In the afternoon, there was a meeting with Segimer von Heidermar-Siegen and some of his confidants.


Trier, Eiffelland

The larger cities were the place where the first of May was celebrated as Labour Day. It was mainly party time for leftwing people, and sometimes radical leftwingers got into fights with the police. But there were also many more relaxed festivities, although all dedicated to themes related to oppression. Of course Bajorország was a big theme at those festivities.
Christoph von Weizenburg and Bastian Holzbrenner were at such a festivity with some of their friends. About half a year before, Christoph and Bastian had knelt down for each other and proposed to marry. They had decided to do so to honour the tradition that the man kneels down for the womant to propose to her; given the fact that they were both men, they both knelt and proposed to each other. On the one hand, they wanted to wait a couple of years so that they would have the money to throw a big party and none of their friends would have to worry about exams. On the other hand, they would be together for ten years this year, and that would be a good symbolic moment. So on the 1st of June, they would marry with a simple and small party, and then they would throw a big party in five years.
University studies lasted five years in Eiffelland, but most people studied longer because of activities next to the study, like committee work for fraternities or student associations, or for playing in an orchestra. The government stipendia lasted seven years.
Christoph obtained his engineer diploma in electronics in January. He had followed an internship at the Roussillac-factory of chip manufacturing machines in Trier, and he had been offered a job there. He had accepted that job. Bastian was still working at the computer and internet department of the Reichsnachrichtendienst; he obtained his MSc. in September last year. Now they were considering to move to a bigger house, also because they were thinking of getting children with a lesbian couple.

OOC: Indeed, I took my inspiration for the Walpurgisnacht from a recent discussion on Discord concerning this.
 

Rheinbund

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Wetzlar, 17JUN2021

“So new elections in October,” Segimer von Heidemar-Siegen said.
“I’ve done what I could to get them earlier,” political leader of the Volksunion Günther Ziesche said.
“I know, Mr. Ziesche, I know. But it did surprise me that they let you join their motion of distrust. This is historical: Grün and the communists bond with us to get Rheinfeld out of office, and even those breakaway people from the SPE and the LDP don’t see a problem with bonding with us,” Von Heidemar‑Siegen said. “Unseen up to now. Is this hatred towards Rheinfeld, or is this really about the looming war in Pannonia?”
“I do think that some people would love to decapitate the CDP close before elections,” Ziesche said. “Because it is the only chance to finally get the CDP out of the government.”
“True,” Von Heidemar‑Siegen said. “But the coming elections will completely depend on Pannonia. If the situation remains as it is, Rheinfeld will remain Chancellor but De Chambéry will replace the Sociodemocrats. If a full-blown war breaks out, the situation becomes different. If Eiffelland, The Federation and Remion win, Rheinfeld, Zimmermann and Fritschler are the big men. But if Eiffelland, The Federation and Remion lose, things become different. That could lead to big losses for the coalition, and for the UFD. If we play it nicely, we could become by far the biggest force. Maybe we could even coalide with the CRVP and the TKP.”
“So we must hope for a loss of the war,” Ziesche said. “Is there a way to enlarge the chances on that?”
“That can backfire, Mr. Ziesche, that can badly backfire,” Von Heidemar‑Siegen said. “If this becomes known, we are in serious trouble. I really have to think about whether I want this, and if yes, how I will play it.”
“We have our allies in the armed forces,” Ziesche said.
“I have to think about the risks,” Von Heidemar‑Siegen said. “We get the RND on our trails if this flares up, and they are different guys than the police."

Von Heidemar‑Siegen thought for some moments. Then he said: "No, we are not going to do it. We don't betray our country to the enemy so that Eiffellandians die.”
 
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Rheinbund

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Weissenfels, 10 July 2021

Eiffelland has a temperate continental climate. The winters are cold and quite snowy, and the summers are warm and a bit dryer than the winters. Daily highs of 30 degrees Celsius are quite common during Eiffellandian Summers.
But not today in Weissenfels. Today it was 22 degrees Celsius with a thin altostratus sky when Jonathan von Walsrode woke up. He and Ludwig had been partying a lot the night before after Jonathan had performed the Erste Reichsexam of his study Medicine. He didn’t have the results yet, but he was confident. He had absolved the University exams with very good notes as well, and he knew the things he had to know.

When Jonathan woke up, Ludwig was still sleeping. Jonathan was still amazed that he was the boyfriend of who used to be Eiffelland’s most desired batchelor. The fact that he and Ludwig got together was a nationwide scandal and even a topic in the elections three years ago. But it was worth it.
Prince Ludwig von Heidemar-Loorburg, third son of the King of Eiffelland, was extremely gorgeous. His bright-blonde hair and sapphire‑blue eyes, plus the fact that he still could be considered 18 despite being 28, brought him the nickname Angel‑Prince. The fact that he looked so young often led to the situation that he had to show his ID-card to document his age when he ordered alcohol; in those cases, he always drew the ID-card of his incognito-identity to not embarras the waiter. And indeed to avoid the situation that the waiter would not believe that the ID‑card with his real name was real.
But the real special thing was, that Ludwig acted as if he were not aware of his special position and his looks. He was polite and slightly aloof like the typical Eiffellandian, but also very humble. He never used his identity to get personal advantages, only to help other people. He was not aware of the fact that he could steamroll everyone with his position and his looks. Or maybe he was aware of that, but had decided not to use that skill.
When Ludwig’s brother Prince Johann moved his company to Engelsheim in order to be closer to the biopharmaceutical industry, Jonathan moved in. Since then, they lived together.

Jonathan went to the kitchen to make some coffee and sandwitches. He placed the coffee and the sandwitches on a plate, added two mugs of milk and went to the bedroom with the plate. Then he kissed Ludwig awake.

“Actually, you would be perfect for an anatomy-in-vivo class,” Jonathan said after breakfast. They were still lying in bed, naked, like they had gone to bed the night before. Ludwig was lying on his belly.
“Why that?,” Ludwig giggled.
“You see each and every major superficial muscle,” Jonathan grinned.
Jonathan kissed one of Ludwig’s lower legs. “There. The musculus soleus.”
Another kiss. “Caput laterale of the musculus gastrocnemius.”
Another kiss. “Caput mediale of the musculus gastrocnemius. The musculus gastrocnemius and the musculus soleus form the musculus triceps surae together.”
Jonathan moved to Ludwig’s upper leg. Kiss. “Musculus vastus medialis.” Kiss. “Musculus sartorius.” Kiss. “Musculus gracilis.” Kiss. “Musculus semimembranosus.” Kiss. “Musculus semitendinosus.” Kiss. “Musculus biceps femoris, caput longum.” Kiss. “Musculus biceps femoris, caput breve.”
“Musculus biceps? Isn’t that a muscle in your upper arm?” Ludwig giggled.
“Well, in your upper arm, there is the musculus biceps brachii. In your upper leg, however, there is also a muscle called musculus biceps, the musculus biceps femoris. The reason why these muscles are called musculi bicipites is that they are two-headed muscles,” Jonathan taught.
Kiss. “Musculus vastus lateralis.” Then Jonathan placed a trace of kisses on Ludwig’s upper leg to end at the next musle. Another kiss. “Musculus tensor fasciae latae”. And another kiss on a muscle. “Musculus glutaeus maximus.” Then a series of kisses along Ludwig’s spine. “Musculus erector spinae.”
“I do hope that I am a bit more than a study-object,” Ludwig giggled.
Jonathan started to lick Ludwig’s ear. “Ludwig, you are my alpha and omega,” he said sensually. Then he placed a love-bite in Ludwig’s neck. “I love you with all my body, mind and life,” he said. Then he covered Ludwig’s face with kisses. “I love you beyond eternity,” he said.
Ludwig kissed Jonathan on the mouth. One more time. Then they started to kiss, and started to make love.
 

Rheinbund

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14AUG2021
Barqah, Al-Magrab

A plane from Luftfahrt Eiffelland touched down at the runway of Barqah International Airport. Eight hours earlier, it had taken off from Rheinland Flughafen, the airport between Düsselstadt and Köln. Among the passengers, there was a group of about ten friends. All ten came from the city of Marburg, or its surroundings. One of them had a famous father. Lukas Rheinfeld was 18 years old. Six weeks earlier, he and his friends had received the Abitur, the diploma that provided access to Eiffellandian universities. Lukas and his friends had worked a lot during the vacation, so they had enough money for a tourist trip to Eiffelland’s EF mandate. There was more than enough to see there, and of course the beach of Barqah was attractive, as well as the pubs and clubs. The friends had decided to turn their vacation into a combination of sightseeing, beach and party. Unaware of what he had escaped from, Lukas unboarded the plane with his friends.


18AUG2021
Recklinghauser Heide, Eiffelland

“So we can conclude that we didn’t succeed in freeing the Chancellor’s wife and children,” RND-Hauptkommissar Eric Léotard said. “Mmmmerde!” The team securing the traces was ready with investigating the scene, and was packing its monstra and equipment. The dead bodies were about to be transported away.
Léotard’s colleague RND-Kommissar Udo Mertens nodded his head. “Horrible,” he said. And after a few moments: “It will be impossible to show the Chancellor his wife and children.”
“The chase has been opened,” Léotard said with a grim tone in his voice. “And this time the catch will be better than the chase.”


Ministry of finance, Trier, Eiffelland
A few hours later

Demissionary Minister of Finance and Demissionary Vice-Chancellor Andreas Fritschler suddenly had more power than he imagined to ever get, and more power than a member of the fifth-largest political party of Eiffelland would ever get. And suddenly he had to take decisions beyond his imagination. As a Minister of Finance, he was used to taking decisions with a large impact, but now he was in charge while Eiffelland faced an attack on the constitutional state from the inside. In any case, that was what the blackmailing of parliament members and the kidnapping of parliament members’ relatives meant. Especially the fact that whichever movement who did this was capable to put about 80 parliament members under pressure was disturbing. Was this the maximum this organisation could do, or was it capable to do more?

But even when this was the maximum, it was disturbing.

“OK, we have talked to all the people in our fractions who voted against,” Fritschler said during a meeting with Dr. Schmelzer, the political leader of the UFD/UDL Jacques de Chambéry, the president of the RND Jürgen Farnbach, the director of the department contraterrorism of the RND Jules-Martin Fougasse, and the president of the Reichskriminalamt Alain Lebret. “Basically, they were all blackmailed because of corruption, extramarital affairs or special sexual preferences. Furthermore, relatives of parliament members and Demissionary Chancellor Rheinfeld were kidnapped. As far as we know, Demissionary Chancellor Rheinfeld was the only one who withstood the blackmail, with known consequences. It could be that there were more people who didn’t give in, but we don’t know that yet. We will find that out as soon as we see the nasty revelations. The good news is, that all kidnapped people of the parliament members who gave in have been released.
Now the further actions. The fact that all these parliament members voted against can’t remain without consequences for them. In the case of the victims of kidnapping, we can justify that they remain on the election lists, but the others have to go. But I do think that that is the maximum we can do, unfortunately. Of course extramarital affairs and extraordinary sexual preferences are no criminal deeds, but corruption is. However, if we charge all the people who were blackmailed because of having been corrupt in the past, it will look like we punish them for having voted against. So they are lucky with getting away with six years bridging money. We also have to do one other thing: Screening everybody currently on the lists and about to appear on the lists extra thoroughly on things that make them blackmailable. This is what I propose to do.”

All agreed, but Schmelzer had an additional question.

“What are we going to do with the kidnappers and the organisation behind them? Basically, there is an organisation inside Eiffelland which doesn’t shy away for very drastic measures to influence votes in Parliament. We have to take measures to make such attacks impossible, but we also have to go after this organisation. Not only because of Chancellor Rheinfeld’s wife and children, but also because of the attack on the democracy, as well as to set an example, and because this organisation may be bigger than we thought of,” he said.

“The most important measure we will take, is that votes in the parliaments will be conducted anonymously, so that it will be impossible to check who voted for and who voted against. Furthermore, we should discourage people from taking their spouses and families to political gatherings, unless those spouses and families are politically active as well. In that way, it becomes more difficult to find out who the spouses and families are. And of course the RND and the RKA have to go after the kidnappers,” Fritschler said.

“And there I have some information,” Alain Lebret said. “We found out that a couple of employees of government institutions, including policemen, soldiers and officials, were actively searching for the home addresses of the Demissionary Chancellor and the parliament members whose relatives were kidnapped. We are interrogating them. Other traces are very scarce, but there are some. We are trying to find out more.”

“Also we are following some traces,” Jules-Martin Fougasse said.

“Any indications on who did this?” De Chambéry asked.

“Not at this moment,” Farnbach said. “It is clear that the Tarusans benefitted most from this, but we don’t have evidence that they actually did this. Everything is still open.”


Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Several hours later

In earlier days, politicians met each other at home when needed. But the kidnappings had changed that as well. So Schmelzer, De Chambéry, Farnbach and Fougasse met at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“What are we going to do when the evidence we have is enough to determine who the culprits are but not enough to get a sentence before court?” Schmelzer asked.

“What are our options in that case?” De Chambéry asked.

“We can show the world how important the constitutional state is to us and let this go unpunished. Or we can go after them anyway and kill them,” Schmelzer said. “I personnally consider this attack very crucial. I fear that this will not be the last action of the group in question. It could even be that it is capable of more than what it just showed. Maybe it is even capable of overthrowing the government. And then following the principles of the constitutional state will exactly result in the dissolution of the constitutional state.”

“So basically, you want to go after them also when we can’t get them in a legal way,” De Chambéry said.

“I’m getting a déjà vu here,” Farnbach said.

“What do you mean, Mr. Farnbach?” De Chambéry asked.

“At the beginning of this talking, we agreed that everything we say here is classified and top secret. Correct?” Farnbach asked.

Na jetzt wird’s spannend,” De Chambéry said. Then after some moments: “Correct.”

Schmelzer said “Correct” as well.

“In 2010, we found out that Chancellor Jörgens had a lot of connections with far left factions and the drug cartels. Around the same time, the King fired him, but for something else. We wanted to arrest him, but he escaped. Soon afterwards, Von Seydewitz became Chancellor. He ordered us to go after all of Jörgens’s connections, and he ordered us to kill people when no legal solution was possible. We did. In 2011, we had the troubles with Georg von Weizenburg. We managed to solve that legally, but in 2015 Von Seydewitz ordered us to go after the Gotisch-Eiffelländische Liga. Most GEL-members could be caught legally, but some not. They were killed. From that moment onwards, the GEL was history,” Farnbach told.

Schmelzer already knew this. Earlier that day, Von Seydewitz had called him. Fougasse also knew this, as one of the directors of the RND. But to De Chambéry this was new. Von Seydewitz’s cabinets were always coalitions with the market liberal UFD /UDL, so the political leader from those days, Rudolph Kögler, knew about this as well, but Kögler hadn’t contacted De Chambéry.

De Chambéry whistled between his teeth. “This is quite a story,” he said. “Is this still standing policy?”

“No,” Farnbach said. “It was immediately clear that Zimmermann and Fritschler didn’t want to continue this. Zimmermann litterally said: ‘How can we present Eiffelland as a constitutional state when we as the government violate the principles of the constitutional state?’ And Fritschler seemed to agree with this.”

“Hhmmm,” De Chambéry said. He thought for some moments. “Basically, you want to follow the line Von-Seydewitz again. Let me call it that way. That is what you want, otherwise we didn’t have this meeting.”

Schmelzer, Farnbach and Fougasse nodded.

“To be very honest, I do understand what Zimmermann meant with his quote. When we violate the principles of the constitutional state behind the scenes, upholding it on stage will turn us into hypocrites,” De Chambéry said.

“I fully understand that, Your Grace,” Schmelzer said, adressing De Chambéry as the first son of a Duke. “The problem is, that we may be in the situation that the constitutional state itself is at stake. An up to now unknown organisation tried to blackmail the Reichsparlament into a certain direction, and even kidnapped people for that goal. Especially the kidnappings may frighten off capable people from going into politics. That is something we can only counter when we give enough protection to their relatives, and when we show that kidnapping relatives of politicians will not go unpunished.”

De Chambéry took a few minutes to think. Then he started to quote Sartre: “Comme tu tiens à ta pureté, mon petit gars! Comme tu as peur de te salir les mains. Eh bien, reste pur! A quoi cela servira-t-il et pourquoi viens-tu parmi nous? La pureté, c'est une idée de fakir et de moine. Vous autres, les intellectuels, les anarchistes bourgeois, vous en tirez prétexte pour ne rien faire. Ne rien faire, rester immobile, serrer les coudes contre le corps, porter des gants. Moi j'ai les mains sales. Jusqu'aux coudes. Je les ai plongées dans la merde et dans le sang. Et puis après? Est-ce-que tu t’imagines qu’on peut gouverner innocemment?” «You cling so tightly to your purity, my lad! How terrified you are of sullying your hands. Well, go ahead then, stay pure! What good will it do, and why even bother coming here among us? Purity is a concept of fakirs and friars. But you, the intellectuals, the bourgeois anarchists, you invoke purity as your rationalization for doing nothing. Do nothing, don’t move, wrap your arms tight around your body, put on your gloves. As for myself, my hands are dirty. I have plunged my arms up to the elbows in excrement and blood. And what else should one do? Do you suppose that it is possible to govern innocently?»

Schmelzer, Farnbach and Fougasse all knew the quote, but despite that they frightened up a bit. Schmelzer was the only one who did not visibly frighten up. He heard exactly the same quote from Von Seydewitz two hours before.

“Does this mean that we can discuss this with Fritschler?” he asked De Chambéry.

“Yes, it does,” De Chambéry said.


A few more hours later

Krreiz Krruzifix,” Fritschler said grumpily, “now you people come to me with a quote from a famous communist of all persons to get my approval for using illegal means to fight those kidnappers.”

His accent already betrayed that he was from the South of Eiffelland, but his swears made it even clearer.

“Well, in later life he was only an anti-anti-communist, so it’s not as bad as it looks,” Schmelzer said. “In any case, we are at a point that not violating the constitutional state may lead to the destruction of what we want to preserve.”

“What if it were indeed the Tarusans? Or the Vrijpoorters? Or the Csengians?” Fritschler said.

“Then of course we have to reconsider, but when it is a group from within Eiffelland, we have our hands free, I think,” Schmelzer said.

Fritschler took a few minutes to think. Then he started to talk again.

Krreiz Krruzifix,” he said again. “Sakrrament, Herrr Gott, wohin hast Du mich gführrt?” And a couple of more swears and laments followed. Then 20 seconds of silence before he started to talk again.

“May God forgive us all for this decision. But indeed, I’m afraid as well that we have no other choice. If we have no legal means to punish these kidnappers, AND if they are Eiffellandians, AND if we we can do it within Eiffelland or Al-Magrab, you can kill them. If it has to happen abroad, make it look like an accident,” he said.


19AUG2021
Rheinland Flughafen

The plane from Barqah touched down without any problems. It was the earliest plane Lukas Rheinfeld and his friends could get. They all had decided to return after Lukas had been called by his father. It had been decided to keep the news of the kidnapping a secret until after the voting; therefore, Lukas had only been called after the bodies of his mother and siblings had been found.
Lukas and his friends were received by Lukas’s father, and the mothers of three of his friends. They would drive to Marburg together, although Lukas and his father would be driven.


25AUG2021
RND headquarters, Trier, Eiffelland

Ferdinand Strauss wheeled to the whiteboard. It showed the names of the people who had searched the home addresses of Demissionary Chancellor Rheinfeld and the parliament members whose relatives were kidnapped.

“What do we currently have?” he asked his team.

“I found out that Felix Rauter often uses Telescribe. I am trying to find out which chatgroup he uses there,” Bastian Holzbrenner said.

Other people said the same about the people they investigated.

“There are no striking money flows to the four persons we are investigating. We are trying to check if they received bitmoney recently,” somebody said.

Some more information was exchanged. Then Strauss let the people continue their work.

But it was difficult. There was not that much progress in the search for the kidnappers.


OOC 1: The French quote is indeed from Sartre. It is from the play “Les Mains Sales” (Dirty Hands). Sartre being an anti-anti-communist in his later life is historic.

OOC 2: “Herrr Gott, wohin hast Du mich gführrt?” is an attempt to write down a German sentence with a Bavarian accent. It means: “My God, where did You lead me to?”
 

Rheinbund

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15SEP2021
Pforzheim, Eiffelland

RND-Hauptkommissar Eric Léotard and RND-Kommissar Udo Mertens had done a precise job. Together with Ferdinand Strauss’s IT-department, they had managed to identify all the kdnappers, as well as the one who ordered everything. Nobody less than Segimer von Heidemar-Siegen, head of the oldest side branch of Haus Heidemar, the Royal House of Eiffelland.

But how to guard 130 prisoners who constitute a high risk to society and a high risk to be freed, when those 130 prisoners are arrested at the same moment?

The government decided to relocate all the prisoners of the prison in Pforzheim to other prisons, put the arrested kidnappers in that prison, and have the prison guarded by a batallion of infanterists and a couple of SAM-batteries. Another infantry batallion patrolled the city.


Trier, Eiffelland

Normally coalition negotiations take place after the elections, but the highest levels of the Christiandemocrats, Market Liberals and Social-Liberals were unofficially already discussing things with other parties. There was one thing they wanted to work on after the elections at all costs: Extending the armed forces. But there was a problem: According to the polls, they would not get a majority together. So a fourth party was needed. But which one? A coalition with the far-right Volksunion / Union du Peuple was out of the question. A coalition with the Sociodemocrats was unwanted, because they were the ones who caused the current political crisis in Eiffelland. The Greens? They disagreed with extending the armed forces, but maybe they would want to change their minds if they received something in return? The Conservative Christians? But how far would they demand to turn the clock back? The Protestant-Christian party wanted to abolish the vaccination obligation, and both Conservative Christian parties had wishes regarding abortion, gay marriage, information campaigns on homosexuality at secondary schools, and prostitution. Items the Social Liberals wanted to keep as liberal as possible.


Hohensee, Bourdignie

But no matter what the coalition negotiations would bring, Christiandemocrats, Market Liberals and Social-Liberals were determined to extend the armed forces. One focus would be the Navy. It was already clear that it would be impossible to get a naval vessel through the Csengian-controlled Serault Canal, so Rheinmund Schiffbau built a dock in Hohensee to build corvettes and submarines there. Furthermore, the part of the air force stationed in Bourdignie was trained in naval warfare, and planes and helicopters specialised in submarine detection and fighting were based in Southern Bourdignie as well.


Al-Magrab

Eiffelland did not want to take a risk in Al-Magrab. For two reasons: It considered itself to have received the order from the European Forum to manage and guard Al-Magrab, and it wanted to secure its investments. Eiffellandian companies had their factories here, and Eiffelland got its oil and uranium from here. So Eiffelland had stationed a complete army of 130,000 men in Al-Magrab, as well as two air force divisions and a fleet (albeit the smaller one of the two fleets).
Rheinmund Schiffbau had a dock in Al-Gharb, where sometimes also naval vessels were built. That dock was currently extended, so that more vessels could be built there.
 

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Eiffelland

There is one detail in Eiffelland’s defence strategy that not many people make thoughts on. Eiffelland knows very well that even a big fish could be beaten by many small fishes. Or two or more big fishes. Or a mixture of big and small fishes. And of course there is this big fish in the east. Eiffelland knows very well that it is not invincible. So it made sure that conquering Eiffelland would come at a price. A price that was higher than the value of Eiffelland.

The country only has a few bombers, but it does have many missiles. Also ICBMs. Also cruise missiles and other kinds of large missiles to be attached to planes. More missiles than the world knows about. When it would become clear that Eiffelland would be conquered, all the cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants of the invading countries would be targeted. Targeted massively.
The locations of all nuclear power plants in the world are known. And all nuclear power plants of the invading countries would be targeted. Targeted massively.

Eiffellandian scientists have been very active in clinical research. Many medical developments were conducted by Eiffellandian scientists. Eiffellandian biomedical research have done much good to the world.

But there is also a dark side in Eiffellandian biomedical research. A dark side only a few people know about. That dark side consists of two endospore forming bacterial stems: Bacillus antracis and Clostridium botulinum. Tests with many kinds of bacteria were conducted, but the decision favoured endospore-forming bacteria. Endospores can be described best as canned bacteria, resistant to soaps, desinfectants, radiation, extreme cold and extreme heat. All biological processes have come to a halt, but endospores are not dead. As soon as the circumstances are good, they turn into full-fledged bacteria. Eiffelland has large amounts of anthrax endospores in stock for use against invading troops.

But some variants coming out of Eiffelland’s laboratories are very virulent, as well as resistant to each and every known kind of antibiotics. They would all be launched to the invading countries when it would become clear that Eiffelland would be conquered. It would be a matter of time before the bacteria would spread over the world. Humans and animals would die massively.
Of course Eiffelland has remedies against these bacteria and their toxins: Antibodies. They are stored in liquid nitrogen, as well as cell lines creating these antibodies. But of course these remedies are only used for treating accidental infections of the laboratory staff. They would not be provided in the case of a dooms day attack. And if the electricity supply to the laboratories would cease, the liquid nitrogen would start to boil, the temperature inside the device keeping the antibodies and the cell lines cold would rise, the antibodies would degenerate and the cell lines would die.

Eiffelland would make sure that the post-war world would be a hellhole.
 

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The government had been sworn in. The plans to extend Eiffelland’s armed forces could be carried out. Rheinfeld c.s. started to work.

As a democracy, Eiffelland had one disadvantage compared with Tarusa: It could not keep a secret that it would increase its government budget. Even if it would have become a decree, it would have to be carried out in the open. The only thing the Eiffellandian government could keep a secret, at least for a while, was where the additional money would be spent on.

One of the air force commands still used planes from the 1970s, to be precise Wirbelstürme. These planes were already due to be replaced. Because of a lack of an own design of a 5th generation aircraft, the Eiffellandians approached The Federation of Westernesse for that, as well as for large bombers and early warning planes. The development of a 6th generation aircraft, which had already started, would receive additional funds.

The structure of the Land Army would be changed. It was decided to turn one conscript army into a professional army, while the two remaining conscript armies would get the same structure as the professional armies. This would lead to an increase in the number of tanks, attack helicopters and missile firing installations, but also to a decrease in the number of soldiers.

The Navy would undergo an extension as well. The number of planes and helicopters in Naval service would be doubled, partly with 5th generation fighters (if The Federation of Westernesse was willing to deliver them). The number of nuclear attack submarines would be doubled. Eiffelland’s newest design of a nuclear attack submarine, a submarine capable to fire both torpedos and cruise missiles, would be used for that. Four additional frigates would be built as well, but they had a lower priority than the submarines, planes and helicopters.

Finally: Missiles. An enormous lot of missiles. In all kinds and forms, but mainly of the kind that could hit cities and other targets in Tarusa, the HFE, Csengia and (if placed in Al-Magrab) the Noks Free State. Also ICBMs to hit targets further away were built. The number of missile silos in Eiffelland and Al-Magrab would be doubled, to fire off ICBMs.
Of course the defensive missiles were not forgotten; Eiffelland would massively extend the possibilities of its anti-ballistic-missile systems and other anti-missile defence lines. Anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles were built as well, in large numbers.
But Eiffelland was not willing to take up the damage of the next major war alone. It would lose that war, but it would drag its enemies with it in its fall. All in all, so many attacking missiles would be built, that none of the cities in Tarusa, Csengia and the HFE with more than 200,000 inhabitants, and none of the nuclear power plants in those countries, would survive the war when all these missiles would be fired. That was also a purpose of the bombers to be bought.
The strategy behind such an attack would not be to hit strategic targets, but to cause as much havoc as possible. Eiffelland would not be the only one to die; or at least the Pressburg Pact would not be able to enjoy the victory.
 
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Rheinbund

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"We have a serious problem," the new Minister of Defence, Ralf Clausewitz, said. "We sold the T4 and the I4 to Pannonia. You can count on it that the Tarusans are investigating them on a microscopic level now. Not only to learn from it for their own designs, but also to find out where the weaknesses are. The same to the backbone of our air force: The Fallwind. We sold them to the Empire, and now look whom our beloved Emperor considers his friend. The Tarusans will know all ins and outs of our planes sooner or later. And that is an extra risk: They will know what our radars are capable of, and adapt the plans for their own 5th and 6th generation planes based on that."
"Well, there is indeed a risk," Joachim Rieger from RRF Flugzeugwerke said. "This means that we have to investigate our equipment throroughly ourselves as well."
"And also we have to do some investigations," Joseph Magarus said.
"What happened, happened. Who expected one year ago that Pannonia would explode? And who expected three months ago that the Empire would ditch centuries of good relations with us? Please investigate the Fallwind, T4 and I4 as thoroughly as possible. We need to find each and every weakness in the designs, and either fix them or instruct our soldiers how to make sure that the weaknesses don't harm us."

In the same meeting, Clausewitz made clear that Rathenau Militärausrüstung would get extra funds to develop a hypersonic missile.
 
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