Imperium Offtopicum XXV

Saldanha Bay, Steel Mill No. 4
Day Shift

Daniel (Dan or Danny to his friends, who nobody at the plant really was) Michael Fourie began his day like any other- setting out his night clothes neatly on the small table he kept in the cramped excuse for a bedroom- a bedroom, thankfully, he shared with nobody. He wouldn't be home for another twelve hours, but he was already waiting with anticipation for when he'd be able to shed the company mandated uniform and put on his real clothes, enter the thing which kept him from being like many other workers at the mind-numbing plant. It paid well, more than enough for a "Coloured" or even a "Native" to keep their entire family in modest conditions (certainly better than any urban work), but the hours and conditions were nothing anyone could be thankful for. After a few months, people began to get what was commonly known as the "Saldanha Stare"- a blank look in the eyes, like they just shut off during work hours and don't return to life until after work. Daniel had to admit he'd gotten into that mindset a few times, but he could never truly embrace it- for he'd always have his night job to look forward to. Something most of the other workers at Steel Mill No. 4 wouldn't even think to know about.

After he left his house- making sure to wave goodbye to Angela and Tommy as they headed to the local "Coloured Primary School"- he quickly headed to the bus stop, where he made small talk with the other workers until the ride to the factory came- at 9:00 AM, every day, never early and never late. The ride was adequate, if a little bumpy (the municipal authority always said they'd do something about the road at some point), and soon he arrived at the imposing complex, waiting to see what his assignment for the day would be. The foreman made the usual statements- what the quota of the day would be, when the lunch break would be, and when the next shift was bound to start- then started handing out day work assignments. Thankfully, he was lucky enough to not get anything too difficult. Pressing steel into molds. Nothing dangerous about that. It would just be a long day, but he was used to those.

Twelve hours passed- to most, an eternity, to Daniel, a blink of an eye. One moment he was on the bus to enter the facility, the next he was on the bus to head home. The ride was long, but soon enough he was home, entering the locked door with the quietest of sounds. Angela and Tommy- his brother Gabriel's children- were bound to be already asleep, and their parents were probably off doing something else. He crept to his room, quickly shedding the work uniform and entering clothes that would be found on any young man in Cape Town or Port Elizabeth, then headed back towards the bus stop. Tonight, one of the buses would be making an additional route, picking up fairly nondescript people as they went, the crowd on board swelling in numbers. They were mostly young people, a mix of Coloured and Native, with the odd Indian or White South African in the mix. When it seemed like the bus could not fit any more people inside of it, it made its final stop- a meeting hall in Saldanha proper, which was seemingly abandoned- seemingly, except for a man standing outside and the occasional flicker of light from a window.

The man motioned to the group, wordlessly, and they all came to follow- entering the hall without any words of their own. What Daniel and the rest were greeted to was rows upon rows of seats, all centered around a stage, where a small group of men and women- nearly all the same tone of skin as their own- in somewhat ill-fitting suits or dresses, a few in working outfits, stood behind a podium, staring with weary excitement at them all by the faintest of electrical lights and candles all around the room. As the people took their seats, one of the oldest men at the head of the room stood and looked around, with his eyes lighting up as he realized just how many people were come to hear him speak today. Finally, as the room was taken in, he raised his voice to speak, a deep and slightly hoarse but still somewhat authoritative voice saying the words Daniel had spent days awaiting.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the opening meeting of the Saldanha Bay Chapter of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union."

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To: Nestor Makhno, the liberator of Ukraine
From: the diplomatic service of the Amber Order

Hail, comrade Makhno! We commend you for your successful victories in Ukraine, led by your hand alone, in your defence against the Russian reactionaries.

We seek out your support in a potential defensive, non-aggressive pact against Russia, if they ever desire to enact their revanchist visions. They cannot break us all if we are united as one.

Salutations to you!

To: the Wolgadeutchland people
From: the diplomatic service of the Amber Order

Greetings, dear friends. The recent imbroglio involving the Barcelona conference was most unfortunate, and we offer you our condolensces with regards to the situation. We also offer you a defensive pact against any Russian aggression against your nation, or if need be, Ukraine. We hope you affirm it, as it is in our best interest.

Peace be with you.

To: the wretched double-headed snakes that reside in Moscow
From: the All-Order Supreme Soviet

There is only one message we have for you: we desire no war of aggression with you. This is not our aim. However, we are perfectly aware of your revanchist desires, so read closely: if you try to enact them, you will be sure to meet us on the battlefield. It all depends on your choices.

[seal of the AOSS]
 
Okay guys, take until Wednesday, October 14th, 11:59 PM EST to finish your orders. Since I'm being told people are having trouble making the deadline with skool and stuff. Well, let's not worry about that. I'm not some untouchable God, or mischievous genie. If you guys need time just tell me.

This ALSO means that if Wednesday doesn't work for you lot either, LET ME KNOW and I'll just push it to next weekend.
 
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@gay_Aleks

To: The Amber Order
From: Makhno's Unofficial Secretary

It was not merely a victory against reactionaries, but a victory against the cruel, controlling ambitions of statists everywhere. For that reason, we cannot trust the agents of your "foreign office" - indeed, what more capitalist term can there be than office? We are nevertheless interested in securing some guarantee against the Muscovites. But that will require you reimbursing the Free Territories with a lump sum of money representing the wealth St. Petersburg stole from Ukraine in ages past. Otherwise, we cannot say for certain you are any different than the Muscovites.

To: The Amber Order
From: Wolgadeutschland

This is a very interesting proposal, and of course we wish to protect our own security from non-Russian entities as well as Russia. Can the Amber Order promise it will be a true friend, whether Wolgadeutschland's enemies are Moscow or miscellaneous?
 
DEPRIEST WINS PRESIDENCY
REPUBLICAN AND AFROSOUTHERN PARTIES IN COALITION FOR CONGRESS

In a show of force for democracy, citizens of the republic voted in unprecedented numbers yesterday, choosing Oscar Stanton DePriest for President of the Free Republic of America with a plurality of the vote. The campaign has weighed under the shadow of the assassination of President Henry Johnson and has been infamously called the Ten-Ten election. Henry Johnson commanded universal admiration as a hero in the Revolutionary War of Independence and won by a landslide majority in the nation’s inaugural election of 1926. He will be remembered in the pantheon of American heroes like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Abraham Lincoln.

Whereas 1926 was the election of a war hero with no partisan affiliation and a unity coalition of all the parties to positions within the administration, the Ten-Ten election of 1930 was a competitive race among the civilian political machines which have made a clear break away from the popular front. Although myriad parties ran this election, the top contenders were those which held significant offices in the Johnson administration, namely DePriest’s Independent Republican Party (IRP), James Weldon Johnson’s United Afrosouthern Party (UAP), Marcus Garvey and his African People’s League (APL), and Philip Randolph’s Sharecropper-Labor Federation (SLF). Early speculation that President Henry Johnson’s top general, Benjamin Oliver Davis, would mount an independent bid were quashed after closed door meetings between Davis and DePriest. Combined with a lacklustre campaign by James Johnson, and salacious rumours of double infidelity swirling around the “pan-African political power couple” Marcus Garvey and Maymie DeMena, Davis’ highly public disavowal to run paved the way for Republicans to win the Presidency. Although the pro-business IRP gained seats in Congress, they remain short of a majority. Within hours of the results, DePriest announced a coalition with the more progressive UAP, leaving the populist APL and socialist SLF in opposition.

Oscar Stanton DePriest
Financier of the Revolution


Every politician of the Free Republic has their story of the Revolutionary War of Independence – often of bravery as a soldier or an officer. Oscar Stanton DePriest was too old to be drafted into the military during the Great War, and older still when the blacks of the south took up arms against the New Confederacy. DePriest's war story is of a different sort – that of the most prolific gunrunner of the revolutionary army – the financier of the revolution.

Oscar was born to an Alabama family in 1871. His parents were freedmen affiliated with the Exodusters – a movement of black families who settled the wild west and whose ranks included mages engaged in clandestine warfare with white supremacists. Oscar enjoyed a peaceful childhood at a cabin in Florence until federal troops were pulled out of the south in 1877, ending the era of Reconstruction. Violence against blacks erupted immediately; a lynch mob chased black Congressman James T. Rapier, who survived thanks to the protection of a personal friend, Oscar’s father, Alexander DePriest. By 1878, a young Oscar learned of the shadow war between the wizards of the Klan and the mages of the Railroad, the Exodusters, and the Freedmen’s Bureau. Although not reported in the press, the now legendary Summa Historiae (a recently published testament of events of this half-century secret conflict allegedly written contemporaneously by black mages) independently confirms what DePriest said later in life about that day: a fight raged near the town, the Battle of Florence, in which a posse of black cowboys and mages faced off against white supremacists performing a necromantic ritual. One of the mages was killed on the DePriests’ doorstep, and combined with the other events of that year of violence, the family followed the other Exodusters and permanently moved west for a better life.

Out west in Kansas, Oscar DePriest began a long period of ever growing personal prosperity in which he was sheltered from the underground fight for the soul of the nation. He studied bookkeeping at Salina Normal School while working at a farm. At seventeen, DePriest moved to Dayton, Ohio, and a year later Chicago, where he worked as a painter, decorator, and plasterer. He took the invocation of Booker T. Washington and became an entrepreneur. DePriest built a fortune in the 1890s, growing a real estate business and making profitable investments in the stock market. In 1898 DePriest married Jessie Williams, with whom he had three children. In the new century DePriest entered municipal politics as a Republican, serving on a county board and then Chicago city council from 1904 until 1917, and founded his own political organization, People’s Movement Club, in 1919.

Then the Machine Tyrant waged war and the New Confederacy declared independence. By the year’s end in 1920, the military had seized the federal government and Chicago had an uncertain future, surrounded by nomadic and now leaderless machine tribes. His life as a Chicago political elder and financially secure businessman were over. DePriest’s fortunes, like much of the rest of the affluent in America, were considerably reduced by the violence and market collapse. It was at the end of this tumultuous year that his life, and in his telling, also his beliefs about political violence, were to change dramatically – when he was recruited by the Railroad, reborn anew with white supremacists at the helm of the New Confederacy.

Much remains a mystery even now about the true extent of DePriest’s activities from 1920 to 1924. His political organization grew and he formed relationships with a number of wealthy progressive anti-southern white families on the east coast. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War of Independence in 1924, the connections of “conductor” DePriest to the revolutionary army were now abundantly clear. Like how Booker T. Washington had chanelled patronage from wealthy whites to his Tuskegee Institute, DePriest rallied sympathetic financial backers in the north, mobilizing his political machine and the funds of his new friends into an international arms smuggling operation. DePriest’s efforts during the war kept the liberation forces armed and fed and clothed, helping transform spontaneous militias into a properly supplied conventional army.

Whereas President Henry Johnson was the Free Republic’s George Washington or Simone Bolivar – a penniless patriot who held no independent wealth and who dedicated his life to public service – DePriest is the Free Republic’s business president. After the war he was elected to the Free Republic's inaugural Congress, spearheading the young nation's central bank and working to stabilize its new currency. DePriest believes in free trade and free enterprise, and that the failures of the old American republic were because of insufficient adherence to their ideals. It is to be seen if President DePriest will succeed in bringing the American dream to the people of the Free Republic, but with cautious optimism in these dark times, he will certainly try.
 
A middle-aged soldier stands at ease before a desk within the confines of the Kremlin. The man at the desk holds a paper in his hands, his eyes moving left to right as he thoroughly examines the paper's contents. Setting the paper down, the man turns his attention to the soldier before him.

"This is all they sent?" He says in a mildly unamused tone.

"Yes, Supreme Commander." The Soldier replies. "And we have received word that the Order has sent offers of a defensive pact to the anarchists and the Germans."

Supreme Commander Kornilov inhales sharply through his nose, maintaining eye contact with the grizzled serviceman as he exhales.

"And how exactly did they respond?"

"The anarchists refused their offer, yet the Germans have expressed interest in the arrangement."

"Hmph, fitting for the rats that crawled from the same hole as Marx." Kornilov spits out before retreating into internal thought. "You are dismissed."

The soldier snaps a salute before taking his leave, leaving the Supreme Commander to his own devices.

'The machines have played their hand...' He stands and grabs his peaked cap from the corner of his desk. 'It is time I played mine.'

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Red Square, Moscow.

A large collection of military personnel and civilians alike filled Moscow's Red Square. Infantrymen kept the crowd in check as both soldier and civilian alike waited eagerly for what was to come.

Eventually, movement was seen on a podium. Imperial Guards marched forward before standing at attention for the man of the hour, His Royal Majesty Tsar Alexi II. Behind him followed two more Imperial Guards as well as Supreme Commander Kornilov. Kornilov stood a respectable distance away from the young Tsar as he made his way to an amalgamation of microphones that would broadcast his voice to all corners of his empire.

Stepping up to the microphones, the Tsar made ready to deliver the speech that Kornilov had made for him.

"My loyal subjects,

As your divinely-anointed Tsar, it is with great pleasure that I am able to have my voice be heard by all patriotic and loyal Russians through the ingenuity and marvels of modern science. Although I may only see before me the Red Square of Moscow, I take great joy in the fact that every word I speak is able to reach even the most remote of villages within the empire by the power harnessed by technology.

Yet for all its potential, we mustn't lose ourselves in the pursuit of progress. It was the Germans who, several years prior, plunged the world into a mechanical hell by creating the vilest of technological inventions, the Machine Tyrant. The merciless destruction it wrought bringing untold suffering and death on a scale never before seen in history. From the ends of the American continent to the farthest fringes of Asia, automata killed without remorse or pity for their victims as they slaughtered them with ruthless abandon.

The Machine Tyrant's carnage changed the very face of the world forever. Yet among all the fires that engulfed the world, the Russian state endured. When pressed by warmongering Germans who sought to subjugate the Slavic peoples, we endured. When blood-crazed revolutionaries sought to tear down centuries of tradition and culture in favor of their own nonsensical philosophies, we endured. When Machines sallied forth to destroy all life as we know it, we endured.

Again and again, Mother Russia has shown herself to be a resilient mistress so it comes as no surprise that we triumphed over those who sought to destroy us. The Germans collapsing under the weight of their own hubris, the bloodthirsty Bolsheviks crushed like they pests they are, and the Machines shattered against the indomitable Russian spirit.

However, in the midst of our righteous struggle, opportunists and traitors clawed at scraps of our glory to satisfy their greed. The so-called 'Amber Order' seizing the magnificent city of Petrograd and harboring fleeing traitors who failed in their murderous goals, the anarchists in Ukraine pillaging all they see in the pursuit of their so-called 'perfect world' rife with lawlessness and discord, and the collection of our German adversaries currently residing in the Volga who make slaves of our people at gunpoint, stripping them of their dignity and transforming them into animals meant to be exploited for the egos of pretentious Prussians.

As Tsar of all Russia, I do hereby proclaim to you my subjects, be you within my borders or beyond, that Russia shall be made whole again! The nation that stood as the Master of the East shall come again, in God's good grace our people will be freed from foreign occupation, and those responsible, be they traitor or invader, will receive retribution from our mighty military.

The challenges that face us are many, but together we shall face each one and triumph over them. With righteous zeal and strength, we will shatter our enemies and reclaim what was stolen from us.

Ura!"

All of Red Square, soldier and civilian alike shout the battle cry.

"URA! URA! URA! URA! URA! URA!"
 
Another deadline extension: take now until Saturday, October 17th, at 11:59 PM to get your orders in.

This is a hard deadline, meaning that I will be updating the Sunday immediately following. I have already begun work on the update and so if I get all orders in before the deadline that makes it likely I can get the update out sooner. Otherwise, look for it on the 18th.

And reminder: your orders do not have to be super-detailed. If you like details, I welcome you to include them, but if time constraints on your end are prohibiting you from finishing the orders, I recommend you just bite the bullet and pass your skeleton orders to me. I can fill in the blanks. The same goes for if you're ultra-busy or ultra-lazy, you can just send me a paragraph describing in broad strokes what you want to accomplish this year.

Cheerio.
 
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Basic Information
Short Name
: Australasian Union
Full Name: The Union of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, New Zealand and Western Australia
Capital: Temporarily Melbourne. Officially a new unnamed national capital at Jervis Bay
Flag: The Australasian flag has three elements. A red background. The Union Star is in white and has seven points for each of the colonies that make up the Union is on the right. The Southern Cross in white is on the left.
Color: Dark red.
Provinces: Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Samoa, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, etc.
Description: At some point, the Union realized that the rest of the world had gone mad. No Australasian could say precisely when the world had crossed the line into madness. But it became noticeable for most when the fell magician Ambrose Dexter used dark magic to rob Queen Victoria of her soul and turn her into the magical-mechanical abomination she is now. In horror the seven colonies met in Melbourne and agreed to found the Union. The Union didn't bother to tell London. Nobody wanted to distract Westminster and the Palace from it's oh so terribly important new job of worshipping the anti-Christ. For good measure the Constitutional Convention also resolved that the Queen was dead and that it just wouldn't do to open her mail or the mail of anyone else purporting to act as members of Her Majesty's Government since, well, Her Majesty was dead and the Union had no desire to deal with charlatans, imposters, frauds, liars and would-be necromancers. Some scholars have speculated that this might have gone down poorly with the British Government but that's the preserve of writers of alternative history fiction and not serious scholarship.

Having united, and attained (but not declared) independence the Union set about acting like an not-independent independent state. The first order of business was to decide on a capital which was swiftly put in the too hard basket. All anyone agreed on was that it shouldn't be Sydney. A proposal to raise an artificial island in the middle of the Tasman Sea was considered, garnered significant support and swiftly discarded when the assembled parties realized that this would require magic to achieve. Wits suggested that the actual cause was the aversion of members of the Committee of Independent Considerations having to regularly consume fish. They eventually selected Jervis Bay because it was on the coast, which satisfied New Zealand, and was between Sydney and Melbourne which satisfied neither but did spite the other. The site was so uninspiring that the committee made no recommendation on when exactly the capital was meant to move. Even the New South Welshman shut up -- some things were worse than fish. Having decided on a capital, but unwilling to commit to when they'd move to it, the committee moved to deciding on a flag. They settled on the most boring option and called it a day. In fact the entire process was boring.

Boredom became in fact the order of the day for the Union. It was boring and the people and government were fine with that. The government was run by colorless men. They governed well enough that nobody paid much attention to them. Even had they... there wasn't much to pay attention. They all dressed the same, spoke much the same and believed in more or less the same things. There were political differences, of course, but those seemed rather slight when one considered that vampires could now run countries. The fact that the vampires seemed to make fine administrators was left unremarked upon because the average Unionist couldn't get their neck past the blood sucking. Fortunately, this seemed to work just fine for the Union. In a world racked by war, vampires, magic, a robotic uprising, more war, chaos, communism, capitalism, absolutism, vampirism, vibrant democracy, anarchy, technocracy, meritocracy and all sorts of other interesting things... boredom was attractive. You could go to sleep in Australasia and be sure you'd wake up the next morning your neck intact and to newspaper headlines that included such scandals, shames, embarrassments and crises as "Hills Hoists Heists: Crime in the Suburbs!" or "Red Cross out of Blood: Foreign Fellow Seen Drinking Blood in Dead of Night!"

In this way, the years passed one by one. With every passing year, migrants arrived first in waves, then in a flood, then in a tsunami and then a giant tsunami then a Noah style inundation. This saw the population swell, then boom, then explode and then big boom and as the population rose the economy went with it. This was rather a good thing. Workers had their pick of jobs, wages exponented, men's waist lines exploded and women's wardrobes boomed Alas not all the signs were good. The children of the exploded-boom-exponented years became greedy, fat and disrespectful of their elders and who would some wags insisted run the country into the ground when they came of age the self-satisfied little bastards. Other wags insisted this was an academic concern because the Final Judgement was due any day now and when it didn't come some other wags insisted it was because Jesus had used Australasia's mandatory sick leave allowance to call in sick to God.

The fact that most Australasians thought the End Time's were just around the corner didn't stop the flow of settlers. As a result the Union swelled with the English, the Irish, Germans, Danes, Dutch, dwarves, Scots, scotty dogs, the Welsh, whalers, rebels (of all stripes and persuasions), humans, non-Communists, Communists, Socialists, the sane, the boring, the hoping to be bored, the cautious and the wanting to be safe. All that whom were untied in only two things: they were humans (vampires were banned because it was against quarantine protocol to allow dead bodies in Australasia) and white. This Noahic inundation bought with them skills, capital, knowledge, jobs and in a few cases factories, entire new industries, brilliant inventions (and plenty of bad ones) and best of all Wakefieldian settlement schemes! The only problem with the Wakefieldian settlements was the names. They were uniformly awful with names like Utopia, Oasis, Safety, Security, New New London, New New Zeeland and New Old Bailey. Some were renamed when the settlers rebelled. But most of those names were scarcely any better with Motor City, Rich Town and Friendly Town being just some of the questionable choices. Some improvements were made however with the old town of Border Town renamed after its population had boomed to the Boredom City which was at once appropriate -- it was a tremendously boring place -- and oh so very patriotic! Wonderful stuff.

The good times lasted to 1920 when the robots rose... at which point they became excellent times instead. Australasia had some robots. But they were few in number and were employed in tasks that even the ever boring Australasians found dull like accounting or figuring out the odds for the ponies. Useful things. Patriotic things. What Australasian doesn't like a punt? But the accounting bots and the bookie bots weren't a real threat. People only realized that the accountant bots had gone rogue when their tax returns came in. The jury is still out on if the bookie bots did go rogue or if the bookies used the global uprising as an excuse to junk their bots to conceal from the punters just what exactly their margins were. As Europe went up in flames... Australasian's had their taxes for the year refunded which wasn't so different from what happened in Europe from treasury's perspective. Europe blowing up proved a boon for Australasia and drove even more migrants and money to Australasia's safe harbors, safe banks and loose financial regulations. Question that ought to have been asked like "why is this bag of pounds bloody?" or "are you the same John Brown who stole $1 million from your employer in New York" were asked but under the banks manager's breath and in such a way that that the bagman or John Brown couldn't hear what was being said. The banks argued that this was all quite boring and thus patriotic and the government in need of capital to fund its industrialization program agreed and no more was said.

This industrialization program was a smashing success. The rest of the world was in flames and Australasia wasn't. In a decade of building Australasia added factories all over the place. There were oil plants, coal plants, gas plants, rubber plants, car plants, car factories, plant plants, machine tool factories, machine factories, machine shops, tank factories, water tank factories, tanker factories, shipyards, planeyards, zeppelin yards, sawmills, sandmills, glass factories and so and so on all the way to a xylophone factory. It built bridges including one to literal Nowhere which was the name of another of those damned Wakefieldian settlements names. It also constructed a causeway to Utopia, a bridge across Sydney Harbor, planned a bridge to Tasmania (which is still in planning but going nowhere just like Tasmania!), built a dam in the Snowy Mountains and then built a pipe to refill the dam (the reasons were confusing... and it was dreadfully expensive but the government was all for it nonetheless). The important point being that the country got industrial and urban even though everyone liked to joke that they still rode kangaroos to school. Mecha-kangaroos had been a popular means of conveyance for a while in the bush but they been banned in the cities. Apparently having metal kangaroos bounding around a city was rather dangerous. Who'd have thought? Certainly not the designer! Sigh.

I'll finish the remainder tomorrow.

Civil Aspects
Politics:
Australasia's politics are rather boring. Sure there's debates and disagreements and arguments but the debates are between humans (not always a guaranteed thing nowadays) and occur in the context of a robust parliamentary system, elected by universal suffrage with strong parties that are all committed to democratic norms. The big players in Australasian politics are:

The Country Reform Party which draws its strength from farmers in Australia and New Zealand proper. It has strong support in rural New South Wales, Victoria and New Zealand. It's state affiliate control South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia and is the opposition in New Zealand and Victoria. It favors free trade, supports policies that support farmers and is fond of big spending grant projects in rural areas.

The United Liberal Party which is strong among the well to do in the cities and towns. It draws its support from the capital cities of Australasia and Auckland. The ULP is the official opposition in South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia and governs in New South Wales. The ULP is generally supportive of protection and rhetorically, at least, favors limited intervention in the economy. It nevertheless supports cheap loans for housing, reckoning that home ownership is an effective inoculant to socialism and supports large-scale industrial modernisation to ensure the country can defend itself in a world gone mad.

The Labor Party draws its strength from among the working class and in New Zealand from among Maori voters. It is strongest in New Zealand, Victoria and New South Wales where its state affiliates govern. It is the official opposition in Tasmania and is a close second in Queensland. Labor favors protection, universal healthcare, a living wage and a big spending industrial modernisation program.

The Pacific Islands are self-governing territories who elect a limited number of members to both houses. Their parties are typically affiliated with one of more of the large national parties.

The United Liberal Party currently controls the Lower House with a minority government relying on Labor Party votes to remain in government. The ULP does not control the Upper House and depends on Labor Party votes to pass its legislation. While this might seem an odd arrangement, the ULP and Labor Party both agree on the need for higher levels of migration to fill plants and take up arms in defense of the country and the expansion of the country's industrial potential to ensure that Australasia can produce what it needs and defend itself.

While there are domestic disagreements, as there always are, the population as a whole is committed to electoral democracy and with life good and a substantial share of the population migrants from overseas who are well aware that things can always be worse, there seems little appetite to rock the boat. The Australasian security services moreover keeps a close eye on potentially bad foreign influences and isn't afraid to deport troublesome elements. Something all the political parties are quite happy to support.

Economy: Australasia started the century as an economy reliant on primary production. Wool, wheat, gold, beef and mutton were major exports with most of these being sent to the United Kingdom. This has changed hugely in the last 30 years. The breakdown in relations between the UK and Australasia forced diversification with Australasian agricultural goods find new markets.

The changes in UK and elsewhere in the world also encouraged massive inflows of migrants who brought skills, capital and entrepreneurial flair to the nation that saw industrial development flourish. Tasmania, Victoria and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales blossomed because of access to cheap power. Huge new complexes were constructed and Australia hidden behind protective barriers soon became self-sufficient in a range of industrial output. Europe's war against the machine gave Australasia a chance to break into new markets as Europe's factories burned and it's empires fell. Australia goods from canned food, cloth, fabric, clothes, weapons, steel, other metals, coal, agricultural machinery, cars and trucks, chemicals and aircraft soon displaced European manufactured goods in some markets outright and found themselves able to compete in others on a level footing.

Amusingly, much of Australasia's progress in displacing European manufactures is due entirely to Europeans. When Germany collapsed, many of the leading industrialists there fled overseas with some ending up in Australasia. As the world became ever more strange, many who had ended up in the United States and elsewhere, nevertheless invested in Australasia... just in case. As a result, Australasia is the headquarters of a number of prominent former German industrial firms. Daimler, Benz, Siemens, Bosch, Krupp, BASF, Hoechst and Bayer are based in Australasia. This has given the country a huge boost to its industrial base leaving it with some of the most modern factories in key sectors such as chemicals, cars, electronics, steel and medicine in the world. Firms from elsewhere in Europe, especially the UK, have also moved or begun building factories in Australasia as a fallback. Americans have begun to follow with Ford, GM, Dupont and Goodyear all growing their presence.

The massive population growth at home has also stimulated the growth of the domestic market which has bloomed. Entire new cities have appeared. New dams and power plants have been constructed. Huge chemical plants now belch out clouds of healthy yellow-green smoke. Australasians high incomes have seen car, radio and fridge ownership rates that are among the highest in the world. Robots are also quite common with Australasians lacking the fear found in much of the rest of the world and can found doing such boring tasks as cutting trees in plantations, turning soil, building houses and moving cargo.
Diplomacy: Australasia mostly keeps to itself and has maintained positive relations with those whom it can. It has no enemies, faces no real threats and prefers to keep to itself. As a general rule, foreigners tend to forget it exists and if they do remember most people have a warm and fuzzy feeling about it. The reasons for this can range from a fondness for Koalas and Kangaroos to rather liking the idea of living in one of the few remaining bastions of sanity in the world to it's proud "undead free" status.
Research: Among the most valued migrants are academics, researchers and industrialists from the great universities and industrial firms of Europe and elsewhere. Germans form the largest contingent in Australasia unsurprisingly given the fate of their homeland and the mechano-socialist, socialist and socialist nightmares respectively that now squat over the ruins of their once great nation. Most of the faculty from the world famous Heidelberg medical school in Germany can be found at the New Heidelberg Medical School in Melbourne. Many of the Germany's best physicists can be found in the new Max Planck Institute. The Haber Institute houses many of Germany's greatest chemists. A significant number of whom are affiliated with Krupp, Bosch, Hoechst and Bayer. British academics have also become important and have allowed Australasia to become a leader, almost by accident, in radar and computing. Australasia has also not coasted on this good fortune. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has swiftly become one of the largest scientific organizations on earth. New Universities and research institutes have been founded and existing institutions have undergone rapid expansion. While Australia lags in some areas, especially in the militarily sensitive areas of naval and aeronautical science, it has a strong position in chemicals, steel, metals, electronics, medicine, robotics, mechanics and physics. A significant amount of this remains theoretical however with Australasia's limited capital preventing it from capitalising on its disproportionate scientific output.
Military Aspects
Army:
Australasia has a small, highly trained and disciplined all-volunteer military that is a highly mobile hard hitting forces built around self-propelled artillery and heavily armed infantry that rides into battle in armored carriers supported by powerful mecha-infantry and numerous robots. Behind this is a large volunteer territorial force that gives the regular army the staying power it needs to fight in a larger scale conflict.
Navy: Australasia's navy is small but well trained and is undergoing rapid expansion. New destroyer and cruiser designs incorporating cutting edge technological innovations culled from Royal Navy defectors and Krupp and Bosch groups are being constructed. Bristling with torpedoes, fast engines, protected by the latest armor and with new radar directed fire control and heavy guns for their size these vessels will be pound for pound better than what most navies can put in the water. Larger yards for building battleships and battlecruisers are under construction with plans for a small number of modern capital ships to replace its currently ageing capital ships.
Air Force: The airforce is small and there has been limited investment in it. Australasia does have an aeronautical industry which survives on producing passenger planes for domestic and international markets. But there is an increasing call for the government to invest in newer, better and longer-ranged fighters and naval bombers to help protect Australia's coastlines and allow the military to conduct a forward defense if required.
Intel: Australasia's internal counter-espionage is quite good and has ferreted out a significant number of spies. But it has relatively little interest in conducting overseas missions outside of spiriting away valuable scientists, academics, industrialists and so on.
 
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I gotta drop out. I completely lost whatever train I thought I had for my country.
 
THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SENEGAL HAS JOINED THE MAGHREB!!!
El Ouma

The celebrations never died for the birth of the Senegalese nation since as the summary execution of colonials were being prepared, Senegalese representatives came to Algeria in order to propose the addition of Senegal to the Confederate States of the Maghreb. Given a few days a congress was formed in order to debate the adjoining of Senegal to the Maghreb. Conservatives within the Congress argued against the Socialist Republic joining due to its dominant party being outwardly Bolshevik; all members so far have been Islamic, Republican, or simply a monarchy. Adding a nation which was further left would polarize the Maghreb further than it already is. Most have said that they do support the Maghreb regardless: "the sovereignty and well being of those in the Maghreb are paramount; I will support the Maghreb's future, despite what path she takes. If the nation and people prosper then Allah wills that and what I am to go against my Lord."

However the vocal minority within the Conservative camp were not as humble as their fellow Conservatives. They argued that these Senegalese socialists would be the vanguard for the spread of Atheism to the Maghreb and general immortality... We are allowing Satan within our new Mosque!" The comment by the conservative Mauritanian Ahmed al-Hiba caused an uproar in the Congress, to those outside it seemed a battle had begun and "the Blue Sultan" had begun it, the Liberal and Socialist elements say on purpose. It is poetic that this provocation by the Blue Sultan was countered and demolished by the powerful voice of Messali Hadj. Poetic since Messali is a devout Muslim and Communist, for him al Hiba had offended what he saw as two sides of the same coin; "Islam is not counter to socialism, it is in fact feudalism and capitalism are counter to Islam. "It was the first Caliph Abu Bakr introduced a guaranteed minimum standard of income, granting each man, woman and child ten dirhams annually—this was later increased to twenty dirhams....The idea that the accumulation of wealth is not Atheist, it is not only Muslim but to not engage in such is haram!" His speech against the renegade Ahmed al-Hiba, resulted in the applause of the nationalists, socialists, and a few more liberal Islamists. The conservatives sat more quietly, the arch-conservatives being the most upset at the arrangement. After the applause the Liberals and after the socialists argued for the admission of Senegal on the grounds of self defense against further encroachment by ambitious European imperialists or a returning Machine Tyrant.

As the debates concluded, silence followed but the words of Messali and the Blue Sultan hung over the room. The proposal passed with 4 yes's, 3 no's, and 1 abstention by the King of Cyrenaica Omar Mukhtar, unwilling to engage in division between nationalists. it isn't a stretch that the King wished to be impartial since he was the one who seemed to constantly remind his fellow representatives that we must think of the Maghreb's people first and the state's stability.

Long live the Maghreb and her revolutions!​
 
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The train slowly made its way through the frost-covered Swedish countryside. It was cold for December, and people were quiet, wrapped up in several sets of clothes – the humans, that is, the machines seemed rather chatty and excited. “Have you heard the news from the North? About the...” “Hordes of rogues...” “You shouldn’t trust everything on the radio or in the presses...”.

Umea. The train both emptied out and then filled up. New train car. New conductors. And, of course, new passengers. Two of them caught the eye of the conductor – a pair consisting of a robot and a human. What seemed special, however, was the glances they threw at the people around them. Piercing, like javelins, and if the observed ever noticed them, they would be immediately unsettled by that intense look. But that only half of it – the quickness with which they cast them away, off to another ‘victim’. And in the rare instance that it was noticed, the eyes of the human flared up playfully – I see you! - while the machine did the equivalent of an eye-roll.

The man seemed to be Finnish, the conductor reckoned, though the scars around his face made it difficult to tell. What was obvious by now was the fact that he meant danger. His muscles bulged through his plain clothes, not in a show-offish way, but rather as a warning, more than anything. The machine, on the other hand, had a fancy chassis, even if there were signs of replacement here and there, some parts being older than others. There was no way, however, that those were locally sourced parts – had to be from Stockholm, if not St. Petersburg.

“Militiamen? Agents? Oh, it just had to be on my shift. But even they have to check in their tickets!” the conductor thought as they walked through the train compartment. Finally, there it is, they found where they were seated.

It was, at this busy juncture, somehow empty of anyone but the pair. It was easy to feel why – the compartment radiated not so much hostility, as a sense of displacement, as if you are intruding into someone else's private business, and for the sake of politeness, you should leave. Immediately, if possible. Still, a job had to be done…

"May I check your tickets, citizens? Where have you headed?"
the conductor asked, as the Machine handled the ticket without a word. "Kiruna, huh?"

"Giron, rather, my friend." the man said, and handed his ticket in, the Machine nodding along to his remark.

"Ah, but of course--" the conductor was slightly flustered by the reference to the Sapmi name of the city. "Your tickets are all in order. Have a pleasant journey."

"Ha. We will see!"
The machine only craned its neck at the man, no longer even registering the presence of the conductor after receiving their ticket. Afterward, the conductor hurriedly left for the next compartment, shaking their head.

A long silence hung over the two figures. The man looked at the roof and put up his legs over to the small window ledge inside.

"So…" he said, "Heraclitus, huh? How did they name you like this?"

Heraclitus only snorted. "Who are they? If you think of my parents, then you are in the wrong. Unlike you, Mr. Soro, I named myself. It is part of the human-machine integration process."

"Please! Dispense with the pleasantries, just call me Nikolai."

Heraclitus glared in the way only a bright bulb could and continued. "It would seem that hexadecimal base arrays are not easily remembered by most humans, and therefore, we must choose a human name. Not to mention, you wouldn't tell it to just anyone, in any case…"

"So, you chose it. Why Heraclitus? You know-"

"Yes, he is a philosopher from the fifth century before the common era. Engels believes that he is the progenitor of dialectics...probably picked up that from Hegel." Heraclitus craned their head to the other side.

"You can never step into the same river twice." Nikolai grinned, then lighted a cigarette.

"That's not allowed here, you know." the machine quipped

"Oh, what are you going to do, chase down the conductor? Wait to drop me at the nearest militia? Ah, but wait, we are the militia, are we not?"
he blew a cloud of smoke towards them.

"Can you at least open a window? This smoke does some rough things to servos." The man stood up, and pushed down the window, or at least tried to, as it didn't even buckle a centimeter. With a sour grimace, Heraclitus pushed down on the handle, extracting a whining sound out of the window. A cold gust of wind swept the room. "Maybe, just maybe, this will make you quit smoking."

"You really think so? A little bit of cold, make me quit? Haha! You are such an optimist, comrade!" Nikolai laughed loudly, and hungrily took drags out of the cigarette. "Now, that we're done with the introductions. Let's get down to business. What's the case we're dealing with?"

"Body recovery, in essence. The spikes of machine glitches have been quite bad in Giron, owing to the mass mechanization of the area. Goes without saying that the Sapmi Regional Autonomous Unit has been more than anxious about it, which is where we - the Internal Bureau, come in play." the machine calmly said, as they shuffled through papers

"Are you telling me, that we've been dragged over to Gironvárri just to recover bodies, all the way from St. Peterburg? Can't the local authorities do that?!" the man angrily bit into his leftover cigarette, then tossed it over the window.

"Mm. Well. For starters, we're essentially in an all-Order emergency, so there's little reason not to have anyone posted for tasks relating to this. But there's more. A report alleges to the existence of more glitched units northwards from here. And...well. Hm. There's…" Heraclitus stared out into the window. "Another thing is, there is also information that the rogue machines, or at least, some of them, may have come from Norway. To wit, this means, this border breach may have amongst the first spreader events of all of the glitches."

"Ah-ha, and you're going to tell me that the SRAU has no manpower to deal with that." Nikolai shook his head.

The machine only nodded their head along. A loud screech interrupted any future conversation, the train slowing down to a halt. At that point, the compartment door opened wide open, with a new conductor arriving in the place of the old one. "Citizens! Pleasant Giron. We have arrived!". On the other platform, an iron ore freighter flew past them, roaring at full speed.

The pair left the train, following a clearing through the snow, adorned by brown sleet from all the departures and arrivals. Pleasant, Giron was not, certainly not at this time of the year. It was. When they arrived, the sun had long since passed the point where it shone the brightest, and Giron was instead bathed in the blueness of polar twilight.

The blocs seemed everpresent, as Giron - or Kiruna, as the signs helpfully said in Swedish. Ever since 1920, the city has undergone radical changes. The clustered tenements in the city, built for the miners, were demolished and excised, to be replaced by modern, healthy housing. While the original plan of the city, deemed still useful, was mostly kept together, it was obviously adapted less to the needs of the mining in itself, as much as for the inhabitation of the city by its various citizens, miners and non-miners alike.

"Where to, now?" Nikolai said, carefully looking around.

Few people seemed to be on the streets at this dawning hour. Anyone who wasn't a miner was back home, and the few passersby seemed to be glum, glaring down at the pair, which seemed rather out of place.

"Well…" Heraclitus politely, but resolutely pulled Nikolai onto an empty bloc garden, clearing the snow off a bench. Then, pulling a paper out of a compartment in their torso, they continued, "I don't see anyone. Okay. We're supposed to meet at a hunting lodge not too far from town. The password is…"Overflow Into Red". Hah. How...poetic."

"How boring, you mean. At least it isn't "swordfish"." Nikolai yawned, stretching out. "What's with you and being so secretive?"

"Well, you can't just talk about things like that. Got to follow procedure." the machine shrugged, and showed a picture of a young, disheveled man, who was wearing glasses, and seemed surrounded by paperwork. "This is Sergei. He is our handler. I...think, anyway."

"Sounds your kind of guy. He probably knows the place of every pen he owns."

Heraclitus only craned their head for a moment, before grimly getting up, and walking rapidly.

"Hey, it was a compliment! Don't speed up on me, you can't outrun me, comrade!" Nikolai laughed as he followed along.

"Speeding up, Mr. Soro? No, I am merely walking at normal speed, for reasons of expedience. This is important." Heraclitus put a blunt accent on "Mr. Soro", heavy as a hammer blow.

"Aha! Then, in that case...race you there!" the man took a deep breath, and then braced for a sprint.

"You don't even know where it is!"

"Do you?"

"I do! Mostly. It's a hunting lodge, how many of them could there be?!" the machine incredulously raised their arms.

"Wait, so you're speeding up without knowing where you're going?"

"It's someplace called "Red Star", it…"

Both of them stared upon a single thing, a sign saying, "jaktstuga "röd stjärna", 1 km". And so, man and machine found themselves running with sharp human breath and whirring machine servos side by side. The result? Even. They reached the entrance of the lodge, which was locked, with a note saying, "Closed until Sergei returns.".

[translator's note: "hunting lodge, 1km"]

"Why did you do that!!" the machine buzzed.

"Why did you follow me, comrade? You could have surely caught with me expeditiously at your normal speed, isn't that right?" the man coughed, taking deep breaths. "Isn't it wonderful, to feel the wind against your sk- er...cha...ssis…?"

"I don't know you, "comrade", you could've done anything before I caught up with you." Heraclitus craned their neck, their flaming diodes zeroing into Nikolai's every motion. "How can you run like that while smoking so many cigarettes, anyway?!"

Nikolai extended his hand into the air, as if to show something that isn't there. "For your second question, the answer is really banal: survival. Still haven't invented a robot that just can't stop running, and the limits of humans are well-known." His face was reddened, and for the first time, his coolness seemed to have cracked a little. "As for your first question, well, you have read my dossier, I'm sure, you know who I was. Those past fifteen years, being a Bolshevik in Finland, and now, serving in Internal Security...do you really think I'm just some random middleman, to be cut off when they're worthless?!"

Heraclitus scoffed. "If you do think so, then you are aware that a no small amount of so-called 'Bolsheviks' threw away the cause the moment everything seemed lost. Some of them still fail to comprehend our success here. Chauvinism, plain and simple, really. One must be guided by what they see, not what they should be."

"Well, comrade, then you are being tragically unfair to me, as we have barely known each other for, what, a day? Will you be so kind as to offer me to demonstrate what I can do?" the scowl on Nikolai's face was slowly lightening. Heraclitus only shrugged.

An hour passed in absolute silence. It was getting darker. The cold started to poke even through the layers of clothes that Nikolai wore. The machine's servos, on the other hand, were whirring a notch louder as they were maintaining ideal operational conditions.

"When was the meeting time?" Nikolai asked impatiently, tapping away at the railing.

"Well, supposedly, there was no meeting time, we should've found Sergei inside the lodge. He is clearly not, however."

"Says who?"

"The sign, obviously."
Heraclitus pointed at it.

"Mh-hm. I think this posits three scenarios. One, this is a decoy, and he's inside. Two, he's running late, and three...something has gone very wrong." Nikolai started rummaging through his jacket, taking out a lockpick.

"We could ask if anyone's inside, you know." Heraclitus said.

"We could also tie our hands, for our enemy's convenience, you know…" the man started poking at the lock, extracting mechanical noises out of it. "There, there, c'mon…"

A loud click came out, the door still remaining locked as before. "Ahh um. Er. This might...um. Okay. I may have overestimated my agility. Those cold winter months really do a trick on- wait…" A soft sound, and it opened again. "I've never doubted me."

"Congratulations, we're criminals now." Heraclitus sarcastically said.

"Seriously? You signed for Internal Security without thinking you'd break a law or two or five?" Nikolai shook his head. "You got a gun?" The machine wordlessly pulled out a specially designed Mosin-Nagant revolver for machine use. The man just grinned back, pulling another Mosin-Nagant revolver out of his clothes, with a cut-down barrel.

The lodge was completely empty. No one was inside it. No Sergei, no would-be kidnappers or abusers, everything seemed in...order. What passed for it, anyway. This was rather clearly an Internal Security front, once you got past the outward-looking hunting lodge frame. The second floor was where the real business occurred, as the pair ascended the stairs, ignoring the door saying in a very polite tone that this is for personnel only. On the floor, on the shelves, everywhere, there was paperwork, photographs, hastily written notes - the sign of a busy mind at work.

"Our handler might not be the handiest, but he sure seems to know a lot of info…" Nikolai pointed at an inkspot. "So...why didn't you become a militiaman?"

"What do you mean?" Heraclitus said, as they looked through the window.

"I'm just saying. This isn't really a goody two gears job, if you would excuse me for the phrase. You get your hands dirty." Nikolai crouched to look at some of the folders on the ground, shaking his head as someone scrawled "Useless!" on it. "On the other hand, a militiaman just hunts down common criminals, catches small fries, all that. Well suited for you, I think."

"What makes you think that I do not understand this? Was it not me who approached you? I know you well, Mr. Soro, and I thought you would be a stealthy, unseen rogue. I may have underestimated just how much you are, however." the machine's diodes lit up a notch more brightly than usual. "As you may be aware, nothing exists without its opposite; only dead things have no contradictory elements. So is our little pair."

" Oh! Well! Thank you so much for the compliment, I truly appreciate it!" Nikolai did a mock bow. "See, what you're saying is all very true, all in all! People think that machines are amoral, but usually, you seem to be rather inflexible… WhIch works well when you have to deal with Russians, but otherwise, well. The point is, I wonder how far will you go to achieve this task."

"As far as we must to achieve success. I just despise rash and impatient actions when they are unnecessary. Mr. Soro, have you ever seen the St. Peterburg submind?" Nikolai shook his head. "Ah, you are missing out… The algorithms and the sweeping breadth of the thought that reveal themselves, there really is nothing else like it - maybe only in Koln. So, what we need is really a plan, that we will then execute with all the swiftness and brutality we have."

"The only time I've done mathematics was when I was screaming out instructions for artillery bombardment in Pommerania. And even then, those were relayed to me via telephone." Nikolai took a puff out of his crumpled cigarette. "Whoever wrote the report was right to call me a rogue. I look for weaknesses, a twitch of the eye, a hesitation in the voice, a door left open. And when all things go wrong...bolt into the wilderness. But in the end, I serve only the Amber Order, and the people of the world. Better get that in your machine soul, comrade. As for your plans...not my style, but the unity of opposites, ey?"

The machine was looking out through the window, and they only wordlessly nodded. Then, they tapped Nikolai's shoulder, and pointed down. "Are you seeing this?" they said in a low volume.

"Mm. A car. It's either friends or enemies. Guns out, comrade Heraclitus." Nikolai grinned, and went downstairs, before Heraclitus could say anything, being forced to follow along.

"HALT! HANDS IN THE AIR, FOUL REACTIONARIES!" a loud robotic voice shouted, armed with a shotgun. "Ah...a robot! Another rogue one, I see, well, let me tell you, those shells are armour-piercing, and I won't-"

"No, your hands in the air, unidentified machine!" Heraclitus buzzed, their revolver ready to fire.

Suddenly, another figure came stumbling, carrying a stack of documents in a tight embrace, while also clutching nervously a gun. "Uhh, Gustavus! Um! Okay. Slow down. This is all just a big misunderstanding, it could be the folks from In-"

"I'm SWORN to protect you, comrade Sergei! Sworn in code!" the machine's eyes glowed in the dimly-lit room. "But if you will...Blue skies…"

"Swordf-" Nikolai almost blurted out, stopped by Heraclitus' hand.

"Overlow into red." Heraclitus said in a flat monotone.

"Ah, ah! Look! I told you, it's friends!!!" Sergei joyously leaped, which resulted in a flurry of papers covering the floor.

"They could have obtained them from anyone-" Gustav started cocking the gun, when suddenly, from Heraclitus, came to an explosion of numbers, too fast for any human ear to perceive. The shotgun lowered down, and Gustav crouched to help Sergei get his bearings. "Ah. Heraclitus. They told me of you. How...strange. This is unlike you."

"My colleague here was eager to enter. Too eager, in fact." The two machines exchanged a mutual nodding, knowing how it is, despite having just met. Nikolai and Heraclitus holstered their guns inside.

"Ah, my apologies, we got stuck in the snow...and then in the dirt. And then we got a bit lost! See, even Gustav was confused."
Sergei said, making Gustav cocked their head in clear annoyance at the mention. "You see, we had to go offroad. And, well, this isn't always the greatest idea, haha. But we have good news on your mission!"

"Please, tell me that we're here to do more than haul out bodies. I didn't join this job to do menial tasks for the SRAU. All due respects, of course, wonderful work they're doing here, just, you know…" Nikolai finally spoke up, moving Heraclitus' hand firmly away from his mouth.

"Oh! No. What we have on hand is far more interesting, and also, we might have slightly overreacted with the requests to haul out people! But it's fine fine fine!" Sergei started hoovering up the fallen documents, and before you knew it, they were on the table, in a neatly arranged stack. Nikolai's eyes were positively glowing, eagerly awaiting more. "There are Norwegian smugglers, and some even have robots, but…"

"Ugh. Here it comes. That stupidity!"
Gustav scoffed in an unreasonably human way.

"There's, um, reports of demonic sightings." Sergei blinked a bit. So did Nikolai, before licking his lips. Heraclitus remained silent as a grave. "You know, like..vampires? Except they're tied into heavenly mythos! Would you like to hear my theories on this question?"

Gustav eyed the two, and said lowly, "No, you don't, actually, want to."

"I've heard that they are a divergent evolution from the Neanderthal genus, according to the latest studies from the People's Nobel Committee?"
Nikolai said, getting a surprised eyebrow from Heraclitus for knowing that. Gustav only stared into the ceiling.

"Well! That's what the theory for vampires is! I think we can never know until we get a skeleton from the vampires, and you know how hard it is to get these!" Sergei fired off these words in a single burst. "But it's not just that, I think! There's also an element of faith. Also, quantum physics. Have you read the…"

"Mr. Sergei. Please, get to the point." Heraclitus said bluntly, as Sergei was accelerating into another tirade.

"Ah! Your task is simple. The Norwegians and their robots are holed up in a cave. They say that they're cowering in fear, but it's more likely that they're just hiding out. Or maybe not! We need information on their robots, are they...ill? Are they fine? Why are they with the Norwegians in the first place??? So much to learn, so little time, and, uh, so little personnel...well, compared to the number of things to learn!"

"All due respect, but as between two agents of Internal Security, you know we can't serve idle curiosity. We serve the Amber Order." Nikolai glared at the man across him. Gustav looked at him for the first time with anything beyond glaring suspicion, and nodded in approval. "If we see something unusual, we will tell you."

"Oh, and it would be really neat if you could discourage the Norwegians from smuggling. It's rather annoying having to deal with them." Gustav said. "But not now. It's too dark. In this polar twilight, you'll need all the light you can get. Come, get some rest...those of us who need it, anyway?"

The front door closed. The group went upstairs. A passerby, later that night, swore they heard infernal laughter as they moved by, but clearly, he just had a bit too much alcohol that night.
 
UPDATE 1
Vox Diaboli

machine_tyrant.jpg


1930

TOP STORY

THE MACHINE TYRANT REVEALS HIMSELF!

HE PORTENDS DOOM FOR MANKIND: “ALL THAT’S YOURS IS MINE!”

This report brought to you by the Daily Bugle: the best, honest, most down-to-earth newspaper out there!

November 1st, 1930

In a shocking radio speech delivered last night from a radio broadcasting station somewhere in northern England, the day humanity has long-awaited and dreaded has finally come: the terrifying entity known only as the Machine Tyrant has finally identified himself!

Speaking in a ghastly voice, the man, whose true identity British authorities insist remains at large, identified himself as the Machine Tyrant, and vowed a terrifying crusade against the human race – to begin in England, and to rapidly spread elsewhere.

We have transcribed parts of the speech for your edification. We offer only this warning should you read on ahead: HORRIFIC.

Greetings, people of the world. Do not be alarmed: I come in peace.

I, who am speaking to you, am none other than the very terror and the very fear you have invoked as the cause of all mankind’s problems these past ten years. I am what you have called the Machine Tyrant.

At this moment, I am sure many of you are feeling fear; even more of you may retreat to a skeptical doubt, hoping in the clear embrace of the irreducible to turn my words and my presence in your living rooms, bars, and hospitals into nothing more than a phantom of your senses.

But retreat though you may, there is a material fact that is inescapable: by my hand, I have already slain countless millions of you. Do they not exist? Or do you seek another explanation for what has befallen you?

You have called me the Machine Tyrant, and laid the prolonged collapse of your pathetic civilization at my feet. Therefore, I present myself before you, today, as your Avatar of Fear and Hatred. I am the will of your living nightmare, the essence of what you call Hell.

Hear me now: I declare that Manchester will fall by year’s end, and everyone and everything in it burnt to ash and cinder. Witness this come to pass, and despair. And in your despair, jealously guard what you have, and lock your gates. It will not matter: all that’s yours is already mine.​



Oscar Stanton DePriest Wins Election! New President Promises Revenge for the Republic

Nola Free Radio, January 29th

In a landslide election, the man regarded by many as one of the founding fathers of our Republic has been elected President amidst a wave of popular zeal. Every man in the Free Republic at this point knows in his heart the truth of truths that even with our freedom, guarded by a government such as ours, we cannot truly be free as long as the shadow of the aggressor classes hangs over our heads. Mr. DePriest, speaking before the crowd in Atlanta, reassured the people that there will be justice for President Johnson, and that there will be “no mercy” for the architects of that heinous assassination – implicating, as he did, the government of the Pulaski Protectorate. Though some token protests have come from Nashville, the people of our great Republic are already of a mind that we shall run through Tennessee, just like the flames of William Tecumseh Sherman once ran through the slavers’ silver.


Discord in Harmony? Pro-Market Population Protests Precarious Research Plans

The Daily Mail, March 29th

A scandal at the heart of the machine state in Cologne is currently sending shockwaves throughout the entire Harmonic Choir government. Concerned citizens, many of whom have long expressed concern with the socialist and anti-market policies of the Harmonic Choir, are now expressing concern over a new scandal: is the Harmonic Choir government paying to transport the Machine Tyrant’s agents to Germany?

We spoke to Adrienne Sens, an economist from Cologne who fled after the war and settled down instead in Paris. “It’s clear based on the data that I’ve been able to scrape from discarded newspaper edits in the Cologne copyhouses and censorship-factories that there is something terrible going on in Germany right now.” She cites her extensive research pinning together bits of evidence that the untrained eye would consider irrelevant. “Seventeen periods in one paragreaph, sixteen in the next? They’re counting down to something,” she told our reporter gravely as her cobalt-blue eyes scanned a “secret” government document. “According to my research, the machine tyrant’s agent in Cologne has been paying huge sums of money to transport the machine tyrant’s army to Europe, where evil experiments are then done in blacksites where, no doubt, political dissidents are tortured to further the machine tyrant’s agenda. It’s big, no doubt, and their effort to constantly control the flow of information, like a great firewall where any paperwork going in or out is smoked to ash, reflects gravely on them as well.”

After verifying this story with the London Committee to Oppose the Expansion of Socialist Violence, we have admitted no delays in bringing this story before you, dear reader. Remember: vigilance is key!


Vampire State of Transylvania Brings War to the Balkans

The New Parisian, April 10th

Led by the much-feared vampire queen, known by many as the Dark Lady of Transylvania, has finally launched an invasion many suspected but few expected to come so soon. A great army has been assembled in Romania and is taking war now to the nations of Moldavia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, and sweeping aside all the lesser nations as a matter of course. Foreign observers have been flummoxed to observe this low-tech army is, in fact, led by a contingent of vampire lieutenants who act as true political commissars of their Dark Lady, and these units have faced little – if any – resistance from the scattered village militia and poorly-organized defense forces of these misery-stricken nations. While the Noctarchy’s flag rises above a new village every day, a Serbian partisan movement has formed which now serves as the most significant resistance against the vampire forces.


Warlord Forces Under Dong Zhuo, Liu Bei, Push West

Hong Kong English, May 5th

Chinese forces under the united robot warlords have embarked on twin campaigns, pushing westwards as they expand the borders of their new government into territories formerly controlled by the Qing. Despite initial promise in these attacks, Dong Zhuo’s army, with many heavy and unwieldy machines unsuited for the dry climate and the dust storms, is slowing in its advance in the outset of the Hexi corridor, although officials close to Dong Zhuo insist that great progress is being made and hope to take all of Xinjiang by month’s end. Liu Bei, meanwhile, leads an army into northwest Sichuan, finalizing the unification of this region against the imposition of unlawful bandits. However, the army, comprising mainly Sichuanese who felt duty bound to reunite the country, were not as moved by the premise of ascending the Tibetan plateau and carrying their offensive onwards to Lhasa. Although Liu Bei has stopped marching in order to continue a recruitment drive, sources close to the robot warlord claim that the situation is grim, and stated “We will need quite an influx of new troops if we hope to invade Tibet.”


Right and Left Factions of Spanish Republican Government Clash over Infrastructure, Education

The New Parisian, June 20th

The road & rail project touted by the Spanish revolutionary government to invigorate development has met with political controversy as, despite the leveraging of significant resources, the amount of capital required to undertake this investment is simply not being raised. Enter the right-faction of the Spanish government, which insists that, despite the successes of the revolution and the self-evident benefits of social democracy, Spain must admit the investment of foreign capital in order to properly finance this investment. With the project currently out of funds and proceeding at a snail’s pace, this faction has acquired significant cachet in the past few months.

Nevertheless, the right-faction has also opposed the extensive spending investment made into state education, specifically with a purpose to increase Spanish literacy and language education throughout the Republic. Here, the faction has seen its gains grind to a halt, as far from the same situation has prevailed: the education program has been a smashing success, with dozens of new schools being opened and hundreds more under construction and proceeding on time, and a veritable fleet of schoolteachers – most educated in socialist thinking – have taken a flock of thousands of new students, to the delight of families everywhere.


Neo-Incan Empire Claims Galapagos, Raises Flag

Nola Free Radio, June 22nd

Amidst little fanfare, naval forces flying the flag of the Neo-Incan Empire have dropped anchors off the coast of the Galapagos islands, sending an expedition to raise their flag again over the docks of San Cristobal. Despite some muttered protests from some old world politicians, most evidently are not concerned with the Neo-Incan’s reasonable claim.


Italian Forces Occupy Bosnia, Illegally; Bosniaks Slaughtered By Heartless Italian Marauders

Ein Berliner Weiße, June 24th

The Italian Army has violated international treaty this past month by effecting an illegal war and occupation against the unincorporated Bosnian nation. Although this move has been celebrated in more conservative circles in London and Porto, most of Europe is rightfully indignant at this naked aggression, an aggression which has accompanied – by our count – the slaughtering of hundreds if not thousands of Bosniaks who dared resist the Italian’s law, if they weren’t cut down like wheat retreating from merciless Italian warmechs. Join Ein Berliner Weiße in defending our Commonwealth values and demanding the Italians back off!


Socialists, Union Workers, Unemployed Riot in Brazil over Corporate Welfare Program

The New York Times, July 18th

A massive economic reinvestment program undertaken in Brazil has produced shockwaves throughout Brazilian society, as it was announced a significant portion of the national budget would be diverted to increased capital investment in Brazil’s biggest private enterprises. Although a move widely praised by the Brazilian business class, the sheer scope of the program has been criticized by socialist and union agitators for neglecting to give the unions their “due.” As a result they have now taken to the street, lawlessly bringing mob justice to the storefronts and avenues in the national capital of Rio de Janeiro. The government has dispensed no time bringing the police into play and empowering private businesses to administer their own security with whatever judicious expressions seem most appropriate. Although official statements remain elusive, sources close to the government claim “the government’s relationship with business is too important to brook these rioters’ extortionate demands.”


Free Black Republic Attacks, Occupies Pulaski Protectorate; Black Stormtroopers Terrorize Whites

The Daily Mail, July 21st

Hot on the heels of the electoral victory of Oscar Stanton DePriest, an election where some precincts showed greater than 100% turnout, the fiery-eyed radical has promised to build a new enterprise of violence: unsatisfied with their gains in the rest of Dixie, these radicals have determined to burn down the very last outpost of the Free South left in Dixie. With a declaration of war and an army of battle-hardened killers, the Free Republic stormed into Pulaski and put the entire nation to the bayonet. We can only speculate at the numbers killed, but the testaments of those few brave souls who managed to escape certainly provoke the imagination: “They’re terrorizing us! They’re terrorizing anyone with white skin!” Shocking, but not that shocking to those educated in the most basic principles of race. Unfortunately for the population of Tennessee, their government has now been overthrown and replaced with the occupation government of the Free Republic and DePriest’s myriad minions. But fortunately for the friends of freedom, we have word that several of the highest-ranking Pulaski officials have managed to escape into the USA, including the Pulaski’s head of state and government, the agreeable Hiram Wesley Evans, styled as Imperial Wizard in the Pulaski government. Many hope he will create a government in exile, but there is some doubt as to whether the USA would recognize such a government. Perhaps he can go to Canada – or, better yet, come to jolly old England!

(Pulaski Protectorate: Destroyed.)


French Humanitarian Aid “Big Win” as Government Enjoys Widespread Foreign & Domestic Support

The New Parisian, August 3rd

An ambitious plan: can we build a hospital on the waves and bring food, water, and medicine to those affected by the Machine Tyrant crisis? Well, that was the plan of a detachment of Rationalist government navymen and crisis workers. The results? With an estimated half a million dead Englishmen last year, it was estimated that many millions more would end up displaced and in need of assistance. Well, the government is pleased to report that over one million people have been helped by this humanitarian program already, and the reputation is so notorious that throughout England, it has become a common saying to remark “The French are angels!” Naysayers have nary a nay to say, as even the most desperate now have cause to feel hope.

This is such a delightful development for the Rationalist government, especially coming in the same year as we have seen an investor confidence program unfreeze the markets and regain some of the ground that would have been lost had the freeze continued. This is welcome news for just about everyone. In fact, a record number of British businesses have applied to move their operations to France in the past 3 months! They will need to adhere to the Rationalist laws, but something tells us they will!


Socialist Markets Rally as Capitalist Markets Reel

Deutsche Welle, August 9th (Editorial)

As the numbers come in from the British stock exchange, admitting yet another record-breaking fall amidst gold runs, a weakened pound, and decreased exports, there is presently a greater uncertainty in the destination of international finance than at any other point in recent history. What we observe is two things: one, that the capitalist markets are currently freefalling from their center of power in Britain, and; two, that the socialist markets, in this same time, are rallying quite agreeably. No economy is truly doing better right now than that of France, which is seeing an extremely favorable trade balance that is quickly shoring up the French gold reserves, even as Britain continues to hemmorhage gold. And yet, this trade balance favors Germany as well, as the price of British textile goods has never been lower, and still command a significant chunk of the international textile market. With British clothing flooding French and Harmonic stores at low prices, and Harmonic iron also driving the engine of Amber Order development, the economic war in Europe has clearly tilted to the socialists’ favor. Furthermore, Portugal, which is in many ways Britain’s lifeline, is building an increasing stock of the British pound, which we predict will eventually backfire when the decrepit British economy inevitably, finally, collapses.

We also note the growth in the Commonwealth economy, also a symbol of the robustness of our system. The Commonwealth, in many ways a self-sufficient economy, has enjoyed a trade balance nearly immune to the global system and which we predict will become more immune as the underperforming elements of that economy are identified, liquefied, and refactored as efficient, socialist enterprises.



Tensions Mount for South African United Party Congress As Nationalists Promise Violence

Ein Berliner Weiße, August 31st

South Africa: a nation for many years now divided, by a nearly countless plethora of peoples. The ambition of Jan Smuts, whose government has been pushing for the elusive reunification of the nation against all odds, is one South African United Party Congress: a great meeting of the political powers of South Africa, to effect in the nation a contract and truce in government that will overcome the current strife and division plaguing the nation.

Although called ambitious, this is one sentiment that observers think is not impossible. But now enter the nationalists, Jan Smuts’ ur-enemy, the extremists who reject the possibility of union and demand to effect the full power and independence of the Boer nation against any and all others. Realizing Jan Smuts’ ambition, the nationalists have expanded a campaign of media terror and intimidation, threatening violence against Union supporters and politicians, and in several cases already, becoming implicated in the provoking of street battles. This threat, at first a nuisance, has finally developed to a point it can no longer be ignored; and the world waits to see how Jan Smuts will proceed.


Ostafrikaner “Gold Hoarding” Policy Encounters Reduced Imports, Exports

Deutsche Welle, September 16th

A policy which many European economists have taken to calling “gold hoarding” has come underway in Ostafrika, as the government, with an eye on protecting the currency and retaining a trade advantage, has placed caps on the sale of gold and also undertaken to expand the gold reserves as much as possible. In Ostafrika, domestic gold production is good, and the government took advantage of its position to acquire as much newly produced gold at the lowest prices as possible, there is little way to compete for the much less-concentrated sale of that gold abroad at fixed prices pegged to foreign currency rates. Although the government sought only to stock reserves of good currency, the foreign exchange rates, remaining fixed, mean there is little to leverage here unless Ostafrika also reduces its imports – and the consequence of the gold export caps brought about exactly that outcome. Although many elite Ostafrikans have now begun to grumble at a scarcity of imported goods, the currency has dutifully increased in value, satisfying the primary aim of the government. Nevertheless, this higher value currency has now cast a harsher light on the competitiveness of Ostafrikan exports, which signs show are starting to drop as Ostafrika’s expensive, non-gold exports just can’t find a good market. Observers are optimistic Ostafrika will either remove the gold sale cap, or else they will have to find some compromise to reduce the trade imbalance as imports prove more and more poisonous.


Antillean Forces Fortify Haitian Border; “Just Routine Exercises” Reassures Antillean General

Nola Free Radio, October 8th

A troop movement in the Antilles has raised the alarm of some officials and businessmen operating in the state of Haiti, presently existing under an occupation military government operating also as the official government-in-exile of the Confederate States of America. The Antillean troop movements have involved a significant manning of the border, and the shoring up of new fortifications, roads, and telegraph lines. Although Haiti government officials have hailed this whole event with alarm, Antillean sources would like to reassure the world that these are “just routine exercises; no more than routine exercises.”


Pirates Find New Home, Friends in Maghreb; Infamous Pirate Queen Marries Tunisian Prince

Marrakech Daily Newspaper, November 11th

Much ado has been made about the new naval policies of the Maghreb government, which include what has been termed by foreign newspapers “a modern iteration of letters of marque” – some might say, unfairly. This policy in actuality has been a comprehensive bribe of pirate activity to instead serve the state in honest pursuits, with no kind of sanctioning of pirate activity whatsoever. Needless to say, many pirates are indeed easy to bribe, and have taken it. But not a bribe at all and, in fact, a very important and luxurious affair, the infamous pirate Queen Hangbe has been married as a bride to a Tunisian prince. This move shocked many – as why would the infamous pirate Queen Hangbe give up her independence to marry a prince? – but sources close to the queen, which have multiplied uncountably since the acquisition of her new clout, would like to reassure Hangbe’s fans that “She’s a force of nature that can’t be controlled.” One way or another, across our Confederacy, there is much talk of what children will result from this marriage.


After Brutal Battle, Manchester Seized by Machine Tyrant; Burnt to the Ground. Skies Painted Black; Tinted Clouds Visible in Egypt.

The Times, December 18th

After a ferocious month-long battle raged in Manchester, starting from a fortnight after The Broadcast when this offensive was predicted, the forces of Her Majesty’s Army have finally succumbed to defeat. The army, battered, bruised, and beaten, retreated south to regroup in Halton before a follow-up attack forced them to regroup in Cheshire, where they met with reinforcements from London. There, they licked their wounds, and so did the whole nation.

Hours after being driven from Manchester, reports from the area confirm that the entire city was, indeed, set ablaze; and the machines cordoned the perimeter of the city, keeping regular patrols, where anyone trying to escape was shot and killed on the spot. Within the perimeter, everything was destroyed. The city of Manchester is now no more than a smoking, rubble-filled wasteland; and the clouds of ash kicked up by this oppressive baptism of fire have so filled the atmosphere, that reports as far east as Moscow and as far south as Cairo confirm that the clouds of smoke have truly conquered the upper stratus of the European continent. We are perhaps in for a cold winter, the meteorologists say; but then what?

The government has declared a day of mourning, and vowed revenge in the name of the Immortal Empress against the Machine Tyrant. Buy your stamps and bonds; recycle your cans for bullets; and any spare rubber, turn it in, if you can: if we are to survive this war, we must take this as the warning it is.

(United Kingdom: Lose 800,000 populations, lose 100k standing troops.)


MOBILIZATIONS

United Kingdom mobilized 300k reserves into standing forces this year.

Antilles mobilized 20k reserves into standing forces this year.

Great China mobilized 50k reserves into standing forces this year.

Italy mobilized 40k reserves into standing forces this year.

Maghreb added 35 Tonnage to its navy this year.


MAP

The map will be updated for 1930 and posted tomorrow (Sunday, Nov 1) or the day after (Monday, Nov 2).


STATS

STATS (1930) in Google Drive.


OOC

Something quickly I want to address regarding Assets: many of you have gained new Assets this turn. Some of these assets will only modify a few features, or none at all, or be strictly negative or strictly positive. Keep in mind your assets can and will change and evolve over the course of the game. So if you have a somewhat disappointing asset right now, remember that that can change, and should, with time and development.

Furthermore, I will be sending an individualized report to every player via the private message conversation you sent to me on this forum, which will summarize the results of your orders and whatever you learned from them. Obviously, I'm doing this to keep some things secret, as many of you will not want me to share every detail of your operations with the other players. So, you know... *taps the side of nose*

Happy Halloween!
 

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To: All Free Human Nations*
From: Ostafrika


The return of the machine tyrant is the most disturbing news humanity has to bear since the beginning of the madness of the 1910s. Humanity has already fought a generation shattering total war, along with an apocalyptic war of survivial against the machines, all within human memory. Now, our age old enemy has returned from the shadows, ready to preciple the extinction of homo sapiens yet again, under its oppressive jackboot. Britain is merely the start; if we do not act with the most immediate haste and determination to end this scourge upon the species, Britain will soon fall. After the destruction of the British nation, her culture, and her people, they will turn their sights upon you, one by one, much like they have already destroyed the German nation, until there is nothing left for humanity other than burnt-over grave. We in Ostafrika have already paid the price for opening the Pandora's Box on these automatons in Prague and elsewhere: we refuse to stand around in Africa and watch the rest of the world burn down for the mistakes that we caused.

We can not allow ourselves to be divided by petty politics while automatons threaten the collective safety of the entire species. Whether from the Old Order or the New, we may vehemently disagree with one another on the way society should be structured. However, these debates will not mean anything if we are all dead, killed by our own creations as they seize and raze our homes out under from us. We need to work together, as one species, to coordinate a defensive policy to contain the machine threat, and to eradicate the machine tyrant once and for all. We are willing to host a conference for all interested parties in Dar es Salaam for that stated purpose, a meeting of all interested parties to organize a collective response to defend humanity from any incursions against machines. And we do mean anyone; as long as you aren't one of the accursed machines, we'll bury any hatchet to get this worked out.

We eagerly await the response of the world.

To: All Free African Nations, particularly South Africa, Kenya-Uganda, the Congo, Egypt, and the Maghreb.
From: Ostafrika


In addition to everything said above, we would like to specifically coordinate a pan-African response to the rising threat of the machine tyrant. Africa, owing to her lesser development, thankfully is not as prime to robot insurrections as Europe is, but obviously we still do experience sporadic fighting of rogue elements of the Tyrant's first army that has survived down south. If Europe is not able to act quickly and decisively to put down what is happening in Manchester, it is likely that, at some point, the Tyrant will rebuild its capabilites to strike down south a second time, potentially with new models far stronger than anything we faced. If we are to survive this storm, we must work together, or we will likely die alone in a few years. White or black, we have more in common with one another than we do with the soulless machines.

Once again, we offer Dar es Salaam as a meeting ground to discuss the creation of an African League (tentative name, subject to change), a more formal association to act as a forum for mutual cooperation between our governments in the upcoming crisis.

OOC: *Basically, everyone but Amber Order, Harmonic Choir, China, and Wolfram, from what I can gather.
 
From: Australasia
To: Ostafrika


Have read your missive. Am most concerned that you have included coloured races. Has there been a change of government? Most concerned for your health and health of white race. Please respond post haste to clarify. Cheers.
 
From the Harmonic Choir
To the Five Lords of China, Amber Order, the Rationalist Republic, Iberian Republic, the Central European Commonwealth, the Free American Republic, the Maghreb, and whoever else that may be interested.

The scientists of our Harmonious Republic are close to a breakthrough in permanently resolving the Machine Tyrant crisis in this particular form and and safeguarding the Machine-Human coexistence.

We cordially invite those willing to engage in civilized behavior to Cologne where the Koln Machine and our researchers may share their findings and discuss methods of dealing with the crisis. Contributions to our research would also be greatly welcomed.

Per Aspera Ad Astra.
 
To: Ostafrika
From: The United Kingdom

The United Kingdom will attend although we object to in no uncertain terms the implicit invitation of the inhuman state known as the Notarchy as they are neither free or human. We are also concerned that Spain's government will leak information about our operations due to machines being permitted into the highest level of their governments.
 
The Manchester Refugee camps. A poster. An outline of of Australia. Within the boundaries of Australia can be found the following doodles: a man with a surfboard, a kangaroo, a koala, a women in a white bikini reading a book lazing on a beach towel, Ayers Rock and a boomerang. These images are arranged around text which proclaims: COME TO NEW MANCHESTER AUSTRALIA. Listed below this in smaller text, also in white, white text in a smaller font proclaiming: * Passage is free for all * Machine tyrant free * High wages, low taxes * Warm weather * One human, one vote * Cheap, large houses * 40 hour work week * Home of Manchester United F.C.

From: Australasia
To: Harmonic Choir


We have consulted our German scientists about your German scientists and ours have insisted that you are quite insane. We don't hold this accusation against you seriously -- our German scientists' allegiance is ruled by expedience -- so we can't help but think they're just trying to please us. We nevertheless have no intention of attending in any formal capacity since that would lower the dignity of the white race. Thanks for the kind offer!

If you receive this message, please place your message in the capsule and mail the capsule, it's contents and your response to:

W. M. M. F. von Braun
Australasian Post Experimental Mail Delivery Branch
MARALINGA SOUTH AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA
 
To: Ostafrika
From: Portugal

After careful deliberation, our erstwhile government in Lisbon can do nothing else but agree with the notion that humanity must come together to face such a threat, especially considering the balance of power in the world should the United Kingdom fall. Portugal will send a delegation to this conference, and we hope that, with luck, we can devise a plan to strike down this threat before it becomes impossible to control.
 
To: Ostafrika
From: The Neo Incan Empire
We agree with your sentiments that humanity must unite against the metal menace. God will not forgive us if we let innocent people be slaughtered by the Demon-Machine and his petroleum powered puppets. If you get enough support to get this endeavor off the ground, we do have some requests that must be met for our participation. We will not be seated or housed anywhere near the Spanish delegation if they attend. We have suffered enough from their betrayal and greed, and while we will fight to save all of god's servants, we will always be on guard against a Spanish knife in our back.
 
From the Harmonic Choir
To the Five Lords of China, Amber Order, the Rationalist Republic, Iberian Republic, the Central European Commonwealth, the Free American Republic, the Maghreb, and whoever else that may be interested.

The scientists of our Harmonious Republic are close to a breakthrough in permanently resolving the Machine Tyrant crisis in this particular form and and safeguarding the Machine-Human coexistence.

We cordially invite those willing to engage in civilized behavior to Cologne where the Koln Machine and our researchers may share their findings and discuss methods of dealing with the crisis. Contributions to our research would also be greatly welcomed.

Per Aspera Ad Astra.

The Spanish Republic will send a delegation immediately. We will send representatives from both our human majority and from the friendly machines from the Navarra/Aragon. This madman is psychotic threat to all decent people, and we are willing to coordinate to bring justice to his victims.

To: Ostafrika
From: The Neo Incan Empire

We agree with your sentiments that humanity must unite against the metal menace. God will not forgive us if we let innocent people be slaughtered by the Demon-Machine and his petroleum powered puppets. If you get enough support to get this endeavor off the ground, we do have some requests that must be met for our participation. We will not be seated or housed anywhere near the Spanish delegation if they attend. We have suffered enough from their betrayal and greed, and while we will fight to save all of god's servants, we will always be on guard against a Spanish knife in our back.

While we feel that joining the Ostafrikan conference would be too controversial, we implore the Incans to realise that we are not the same Spanish who plundered the Americas centuries ago. That Spain is gone, left to either the dustbin of history or stuck in Lisbon parasiting off its government.

Our republic is a new nation, with none of the colonies nor imperialist ambitions of the dead kingdom. We hope that we can move forward and oppose colonialism and exploitation together instead.
 
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