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Simon_Jester wrote:You do realize you're opening yourself to a massed bombardment of 'beached whale' jokes if one of your ships ever runs aground on a mudbank or something, right, Thanas?

Sure, that is half the fun. Alongside with the obvious "harpoon meets whale" jokes when it comes to antiship missiles.

Also, your submarine underway resupply vessels, have they upgraded from milk-cows to milk-whales?

Simon_Jester wrote:Also, your submarine underway resupply vessels, have they upgraded from milk-cows to milk-whales?

All underway replenishment vessels (even those supplying task forces) are named among some variation of Milk/father/mother/carer-something.

First post is up.

And what do you know, its the first on the second page too.

sorry for the quiet, i was a bit overwhelmed by the interest in the reactor. and work, but mostly the former.

I'm a bit surprised by it too, until I think about the fact that most nations would want to be seen as doing something, especially if they themselves have reactors.

Ahem:

Exception!

Umeria doesn't give a crap if it's seen as doing something or not, it just wants there to not be a huge cloud of radiation wafting across the land and sea. Especially not Umerian land and sea.

It's called good will missions. And common interest in policing nuclear systems.

Feel free to turn some or all offers down as you think necessary.

Simon_Jester wrote:Ahem:

Exception!

Umeria doesn't give a crap if it's seen as doing something or not, it just wants there to not be a huge cloud of radiation wafting across the land and sea. Especially not Umerian land and sea.

I did say most nations for a reason

Lead elements of the 83rd arrive at a military airfield in Champa some time in the early afternoon. Colonel Stone was first off the plane. Not sure what kind of arrangements would logically be in place to get the engineers to the site. Things get a bit interesting if the Champans don't have enough transport for a few hundred men and the gear they carry available, but I would be surprised if they don't.

They did bring a few of their own vehicles, a mix of sealed CBR variants of the Umerian light armored vehicle, plus a number of trucks that are not radiation-sealed and which they're basically planning to write off, because expending a truck that's just there to move a pile of firefighting silvers or inflatable shelter tents is sometimes more cost-effective than paying for a thoroughly sealed vehicle to move them inside.

Simon_Jester wrote:I figure that since SANDEX explicitly has an air transport division, and since Eastport is a major city (population probably not upwards of ten million, but might be close), they'd have their own office in the city to coordinate international cargo/airmail flights.

It does. I don't quite understand why the CoC wouldn't have the number of someone way higher up the corporate foodchain in his rollerdex though. He presumably wouldn't call the foreign office central switchboard if he wanted to talk to a colleague abroad either; he'd connect directly instead of spending hours in telephone loops whilst people figure out why the man isn't simply calling their boss' boss immediately.

Siege wrote:It does. I don't quite understand why the CoC wouldn't have the number of someone way higher up the corporate foodchain in his rollerdex though. He presumably wouldn't call the foreign office central switchboard if he wanted to talk to a colleague abroad either; he'd connect directly instead of spending hours in telephone loops whilst people figure out why the man isn't simply calling their boss' boss immediately.

Sorry, you're right; the scene appealed to me while I was writing it. I'll retcon it out and put it as a spoiler.

So, new post. A slight step back in time, but a necessary one. The idea pretty much just came to me tonight so I wanted to put it up.

Well, I'd always had this general idea in my head for the characters, but the scene itself is something I thought up randomly as the day went on and I liked it a bunch, so here you go.

Simon_Jester wrote:Sorry, you're right; the scene appealed to me while I was writing it. I'll retcon it out and put it as a spoiler.

It doesn't matter that much, it's an amusing scene. I just wanted to point it out for future reference. Presumably the governments of the world are provided an index of what number to call in what situation, so it doesn't take hours to get through to anyone of actual importance.

Which is why I spoilered the scene rather than deleting it.

I actually pictured this only taking him like 15-20 minutes, not hours. Realistically even spending half an hour on the phone to make it happen would impose zero delay because it'll take the general staff an hour or more to figure out the consist they want to load onto the planes, even given that the Umerian general staff are pretty good.* And even then it'd take the 119th Guards Engineering Regiment time to unass, drive the vehicles to the airport, and get them ready to drive onto the planes as they arrive.

But anyway, what I had in mind is: he called a senior receptionist who is responsible for screening the calls that go to SANDEX executives in Eastport, to make sure they don't get harassed by wrong numbers and crank calls to their private numbers. There are like 5-10 million people in the Eastport metropolitan area, many of whom are biased against San Doradan megacorps; they have GOT to have a way to screen their calls, and it would be literally unheard of for someone like the premier's chief of staff (factotum-general is probably the most literal translation of the title) to call them directly.

The receptionist (promptly) redirected Mr. Bell to, say, the seniormost person available at the Eastport branch, who (promptly) redirected him to someone at headquarters who could actually order that many cargo jets diverted on short notice, who said something annoying and got browbeaten (which Clever Bell is fairly good at), and then he was on the line with Ms. Winters.**

No getting stuck on hold, no voice mail, or robot automated help lines.

Even so, though, you're basically right.
___________________

*Significantly better than the actual Umerian army, as a whole...
**By the way, I have a policy on stealing made-up San Doradan character names from bit players in SDNW2, unless you'd rather I avoid doing so...

It'll probably take a week or more for most of those carrier groups to get to Champa, save the Rheinland one if Thanas is sending his group around Ostrheinland.

Arcadia's ships will most certainly take some time...we are on the other side of the planet, more or less.

Presuming, of course, they get accepted.

Orion's forces were conveniently close, so as of the last story post they are holding just outside CHampan waters.

A poor country dosen't turn down favours. Besides. Reactor, north coast, january. We have a month to get the site locked down before it's typhoon season again.

EF - I'm writing the acceptances now.

Steve wrote:It'll probably take a week or more for most of those carrier groups to get to Champa, save the Rheinland one if Thanas is sending his group around Ostrheinland.

Like I said, it was shadowing Orion.

And why do people assume I always have a carrier group around Ostrheinland? I do not.

A further note: Adjective for Rheinland are either Rhenish or Rhenan.

Simon_Jester wrote:I have a policy on stealing made-up San Doradan character names from bit players in SDNW2, unless you'd rather I avoid doing so...

Like, from players? No, no objections, but you'll probably run out of names quite quickly... Interesting idea though.

Ah. Meanwhile my carrier's not even heading that way until Champas signs off.

Hold a second, what's this 'Chengdu Security' thing? Forced labor for rent?

Maddoctor, did you also accept the help of the engineer bataillon I was offering?

Summary of coming Komradistani posts:

Diplomatic fuss being kicked up at Fuso for our impounded ship and imprisoned citizens, Intelligence being conferred with. Naval deployments considered to rattle sabers.

Reaction to the Champa nuclear meltdown: Offering humanitarian aid to the displaced refugee people of Champa.
I, OOC, am not personally sure what aid can be offered to help with the melting reactor directly.