The Great Wave (Semi-Open/Esportiva Only)

[Uitbregen]

URS Konnejin, 240 miles off the west coast of Ingla Terra

"Setting a course for 270 degrees south-west, over"
"Roger that, setting course"

The late afternoon sun poured through the portholes in the research station of the ship as the work for the day was wrapping up. As part of the Uitbregeni navy's Research and Analysis branch, the Konnejin was stationed off the coast of Ingla Terra, operating out of a rented dockyard in Barbury, in Apox. The ship groaned quietly as the giant engines shifted the boat around to it's desired course, tracking 41 nautical miles south-west to a patch of ocean where recent seismometers had been picking up trace signals of movements deep within the crust. The last two scientists left in the research station were Andries Albring, a 27-year old University PhD student from Denvargen, and Lindsay van Aalst, originally from Wray, but now married and working for the navy in Uitbregen.

The Konnejin itself was a converted navy cargo vessel, so the research station was a cramped space, with papers and technical equipment scattered over various metal desks and cabinets. Andries was busy at work entering data into an ageing desktop computer, whilst Lindsay was shutting down the device which monitored the levels of carbon dioxide being released from within the earth. Andries scanned the spreadsheet one last time before turning off the computer, trawling through the wall of data with his trained academic eye. He hesitated for a second. Surely that wasn't right....

"Hey, Lindsay, come over here"
"Yeah, what is it?" The young scientist walked over.
"Look at this line - doesn't that look like, well, a major discrepancy"

He pointed to a particular set of numbers on the screen, giving readings way too high for the normal level in the area they were travelling to.

"Considering that there hasn't been a major tectonic event here for close to 200 hundred years, I'm going to say it is a major discrepency. Who was on data entry this morning?"
"Err" Andries flicked through a log of paper "Jensen, till shift change, then it was Baart till end of shift."
"I dunno, they've both got pretty sound records. Catch up with them at dinner. It's almost certainly a mistake, if that were true, we'd be in for the tectonic event of the millennium..."

* * * *

A dull blue light roused Andries from his somewhat fretful sleep, and he rubbed the dust from his eyes as he say up in his metal-framed bunk. The door to his cabin was open, and the light was coming from down the hall, back in the research lab. He put on fleece over his t-shirt and gave a cursory glance to the top bunk - Lindsay wasn't in.

He moved down the hallway, occasionally steadying himself on the railing as the boat rolled in the surf. He stepped over the threshold and into the lab, where Lindsay was frantically typing away at a keyboard on a computer on the other side.

"Lindsay, what's going on, it's 2 in the morning..."

Lindsay stepped back from the screen, slumping back on the desk behind. Andries hurried over. Lindsay's face had turned a pale grey, and she pointed towards the computer screen.

"What is it, what's wrong?"

Lindsay stuttered "It...it's..the tectonic event of the millennium..."

(OOC: Have at it y'all, I'll do a news post in a few hours about the initial impact. Those countries also affected can begin describing the impact on their shores etc.)

[Apox]

00:14, Day of the Tsunami - In a small seismology station, based on top of the cliff at Mona, Dr. Jim Price-Lee settled in for another boring night-shift. He'd been landed with this job since the infamous "false-alarm" 7.3 earthquake he'd thought he'd spotted, which has turned out to be a malfunction combined with him falling asleep and waking up with a start to the sound of an alarm.

He'd just made himself a coffee, and plonked himself down in front of the main computer in the small station to go over the last hours seismic reports. As he was shifting through a number of readings from the various sensors, none of them saying much, it wasn't a very active region, when he came across a very curious reading indeed. Sensor OA21, roughly halfway between The Licentian Isles and Ingla Terra, was picking up the clear signs of the beginnings of some seismic activities. This he was sure of; the pattern was unmistakeable.

He quickly flicked to the nearest sensor, OA20, which was around 120 miles further away. The same pattern, only much lower amounts of activity. He checked another sensor, also close by. The same again. In all, 5 sensors were picking this up. Dumbfounded and also a little terrified, he reached for the phone. He'd never seen anything this big.

Two tones and it connected:

"What?" came the disgruntled voice of his boss, Professor Jane Cawbridge, on the other end. He'd clearly woken her.

"Well, I've been checking over the data and there appears to be something quite significant occurring in..." He was cut of by the Professor,

"Are you sure? This had better not be another false alarm"

"Positive. This pattern is being picked up by 5 sensors in The Licentian Channel. It looks like it could be something big."

"Right, stay where you are. I'll be there in 10 minutes." The phone went dead, and Jim went back over to the screens. The pattern was still there, and it was growing. Shit.

00:45 - The normally quiet research facility was now a hubbub of activity. After Jim had called in the Professor, and she'd seen that there was something brewing in The Licentian Channel, she'd immediately gotten onto her superiors at the Ministry of the Environment. Now there were loads of people, some trying to work out what the hell was happening, other trying to see how much of the station could be transferred inland.

If this was a large earthquake brewing, then there would likely be a tsunami of some sort to come, and the station would be washed away, being right on the coast here. There were plans for this and the old station, situated twenty miles inland was being rebooted and prepped as things were going on.

They'd also been in contact with colleagues in The Licentian Isles, who were picking up similar readings, and were even more worried. A tsunami would literally wipe out The Licentian Isles, consisting mainly of low lying islands, as it did.

01:23 - Jane sat at a computer as it made a number of statistical models and predictions on what this could mean. Truth be told, she was somewhat out of her depth, this sort of thing didn't often happen in this part of Esportiva, and it was worrying. The main build-up point looked to be out at sea, which therefore meant that, when this earthquake did occur, it would likely create the added complication of a tsunami, adding to the havoc an earthquake would cause to an unprepared Apox and The Licentian Isles.

A shady Ministry of Defense agent had arrived as well to oversee the operations, which confused her a little as this was a Ministry of the Environment matter until anything actually occurred. She heard Dr. Price-Lee scuttle over.

"It's still building, I'm not sure when it's going to happen, but it'll be soon. How's the transfer of information to the Skibbereen station going?" Jane looked at him and sighed.

"They've got outdated equipment, so we'll have to bring this stuff here with us, or get the newer stuff over there. All the newer equipment is in Dwile anyway, so that'll take time. We have to stay here until it happens, and then make a run for it."

01:44 - An arc of light fell upon the sleeping figure of Annabel Harwood as the door was opened abruptly, and a man strode in. He was quickly shaking her awake.

"Mrs Harwood. I've got the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Defense on the phone. Apparently there's something developing in The Licentian Channel." She slowly opened her eyes and sit up, abruptly.

"What? What's happening?"

"I'm not all that sure to be honest, they just told me to get you. Very high priority though." Anna stood up, still quite confused, but trying to be purposeful.

"Thank you Mr. Smith. Go and tell them I'm just coming. What is it?" Mr Smith was at the door, quickly looked at his watch, before back at her.

"Quarter to 2 in the morning"

"Christ, thank you." She pulled on a loose top and slipped on the first trousers she could fit in her wardrobe. Hurrying along the corridor to her study, still tying her hair up, she picked up the phone handed to her, with the Minister of Defense, Jax Bentherie on the line.

02:02 - Back in the research station at Mona, Professor Jane Cawbridge had just concluded that this was indeed going to be a large seismic event when the entire room shocking, a pulsing blast which knocked over those people standing up. Jane was thrown back in her chair, the chair itself sliding across the floor, until it was hit by a number of files falling off a cabinet, knocking her out of the chair entirely.

It was a short but violent quake, lasting only a couple of seconds. Dr Price-Lee was over at the main computer in a minute, as everyone else in the room struggled slowly back to their feet, helping others up as well.

"Shit!" he said, as Jane came running. She looked at the screen, and her mouth fell open.

"8.3! That's fucking big. It was a 6.1 all the over here," she glanced at Jim, "What do we do now?" Before he could reply, the Ministry of Defense agent stepped forward and spoke quickly.

"We need to get out of here. I've already got a helicopter on the way. Pack up what you need and then we'll move to safer ground." Jane opened her mouth to argue, but it made sense really. Jim clearly didn't like taking orders from this unknown man, who had just breezed his way into the station, and retorted;

"Why should we take orders from you? We need to monitor it! Who are you anyway?" The agent calmly looked at him.

"It is of no consequence what my actual name is, but you can call me Agent X. Why should you listen to me? I'm trained to deal with these situations, I know what needs to happen. We stay here and we could be in great danger. Having you die is not going to help anyone." Jim opened his mouth, and then shut it again. Jane was already pulling out wires and frantically sorting through the general detritus in the room.

"Help me switch to the auxiliary computer! Then we can continue to track it while we take out the main computer!" Jim ran over to help immediately.

02:10 - The wave formed by the earthquake travelled fast. By 02:10 it had hit the eastern coast of the Licentian Isles, a large wave which went deep inland, destroying the coastal areas of the islands. Swarming through narrow channels between the islands only funnelled the water, causing even more damage.

In Dwile, Annabel Harwood was being updated by a mass of panicked reports coming in from various sources. Jax Bentherie was already in her office in Government House and Tim Jerzual, the Minister of the Environment had been woken up and he was on his way as well.

02:13 - There was a loud throbbing noise as the helicopter touched down on the grass outside the station in Mona. Agent X was out the door in an instant and then back again.

"We need to leave now!" he said. Jane were still furiously trying to disconnect the main computer in a frantic attempt to take it with her, while Jim was standing by the auxiliary computer as the data of the last 5 hours was being transferred onto a hard-drive, whilst he furiously searched through a large heap of jumbled papers. The agent from the Ministry of the Environment was already getting into the helicopter.

"NOW!" bellowed Agent X, for the first time losing his cool. With a loud "fuck it!" Jim grabbed the entire wad of papers and grabbed the hard drive just as it pinged to say it had finished transferring. Jane pulled out the final wire in the main computer, and with the help of Agent X, carried it out to the waiting helicopter, Jim rushing behind to grab the wires left on the desk with his spare hand.

02:14 - It was gloriously quiet on the Ile de Chambre, 20 miles out from the North-eastern coast of Apox. Jack Alastair lay asleep in bed, next to his wife. His two young children were in their rooms down the corridor.

There was a faint rushing sound in the distance, enough to make Jack stir, but not wake up. He rolled over, getting himself into a more comfortable position.

The rushing grew louder and louder, until it was almost deafening. Jack woke up with a start, in time to see the wall of his house collapsing and the water pouring in through the now shattered window. It would be the last thing he'd ever see.

02:16 - The first wave reached the coast of Apox, at a height of 9 metres even this far from the earthquake source, decimating the small villages on the very north-eastern corner of the nation, flowing quickly inland, the quiet night turning to chaos instantly, a swirling mass of confusion, terror, crashing, explosions and immense noise.

It flowed quickly over the harbour wall at Mona, and through the harbour and into the surrounding houses. The research station crashed into the sea as a large wave caused a large collapse of the 20 metre high cliffs.

[Uitbregen]

URS Konnejin
Day of the Tsunami
02:22, 20 minutes after first strike

"Fuck" Andries cursed whilst wiping his brow. The ominous red light of the ship's internal alarm system shone dimly behind him, as he'd instructed Lindsay to sound it following the revelations of the recent tectonic activity beneath the waves. The ship's crew of 37 had been woken from their beds by the high-pitched humming of the alarm, and had congregated in the meeting room. The captain of the vessel, an elderly ex-Navy commander, burst into the research , demanding to know as to why he had been woken up from his sleep.

"What's the emergency?" the ageing captain said, wiping the sleep away from his eyes.
"Well, sir, take a look at this"

Andries ripped a piece of paper from the clipboard by the computer and handed it to the captain. After scrutinising the piece of paper for several seconds, he looked back at the two scientists.

"I'm no seismologist, care to elaborate?"
"There's no time to properly explain, but an earthquake has just struck about 70 miles off our position, creating a potentially massive tsunami..."
"Which is coming our way"
"Precisely"
"How long have we got?"

Andries grabbed the piece of paper and turned it over, before retrieving a pen from the desk and beginning to scribble anxiously.

"About 4 minutes. Give or take a minute"

The captain's face turned pale.

"What can we do?"
"Well...not a lot. If our predictions are correct, the wave won't be big enough to tip the boat, but it'll knock out our systems. The best we can do now is batten down, shut down the electrics and hope for the best."
"Right."

Without another word, the captain turned and was out of the room, talking frantically into walkie-talkie. After several seconds, the main electrical systems shut down, leaving the room bathed in the orange glow of the backup generator. The slam of shutters bolting down rung out through the ship, and Lindsay shot Andries a nervous glance. Never had the pair been in a situation so serious.

Standard emergency protocol demanded that all personnel place themselves inside an inner room, batten down the windows and bolt the doors and wait out the wave. Andries duly followed the instructions, bolting himself and Lindsay inside their two-man bunk, with nothing but a single orange light and Lindsay's head-torch illuminating the room. She was visibly nervous, and Andries squeezed her hand to calm her.

"It'll be OK, this boat is designed to ride waves like this"

Tense minutes passed as the boat fell silent, except for the endless creaking of metal as the boat rocked in the increasing swell. Andries' four-minute countdown came to an end, and after a few empty seconds, the unmistakable rushing noise filled the cabin. The noise crescendoed into a furious roar, and the boat began to rise upwards. Suddenly, a low metallic groan emanated from somewhere within the ship, followed by a grinding, then a sharp snap. Andries leapt to his feet. The rush of water was now very close. Very close indeed. The light in the room illuminated enough to show a pool of water had formed around the door.

"Shit" He murmured "Come on, Lindsay, we've got to get out of here"
"Are you crazy?" She spat. "We'll get crushed!"
"It's either die trying to get to the life pod or drown in our cabin here. Your choice."

Water was now steadily flowing into the room. Lindsay hesitated for a second, before scurrying off the bunk and joining Andries by the door. Andries undid both the bolts, and because of the significant incline, the door flew open, slamming against the metal wall of the cabin. Andries almost lost his footing as an ankle-high wave of water rushed in, but he pushed himself through and into the metal corridor. The walk up the corridor was made significantly more difficult by the stream of water pouring in from the top of the corridor. The two hopped out over the threshold and out onto the deck. The sight ahead of them almost knocked the wind out of Lindsay and Andries. A wall of water, over 40ft high, towered over the boat.

"Fuck me" Lindsay gasped.
"Keep going, we have to reach the life pods!" Andries replied over the roar of the wave. Lindsay's attention was drawn to further up the deck, where two other staff had tried to make their way to a life pod. Lindsay watched in horror as one of them lost their footing and tumbled over the gunwale, toppling over into the tumultuous sea. Lindsay was going to cry out, but she felt a tug on her arm from Andries. They had to keep moving. They scaled their way up the deck as the incline increased. The life pod was situated on the side of the vessel, easily accessible via a port in the top, and disconnectable from inside the craft. The wave crested, and suddenly freezing cold sea water rained down on the pair.

"Just a few more yards, COME ON!" Andries yelled, leaping over a bulkhead and onto the top of the pod. He reached out a hand for Lindsay, but he slipped, thrown backwards when the boat reached the top of the wave. He scrambled for a hold, and managed to secure himself on a metal rope which was strung around the vessel. Lindsay crawled onto the pod, and reached down a hand to haul him up, at the same time opening the hatch with her spare hand. Andries was significantly heavier than Lindsay, and it took an almighty pull to heave him back up and into the pod. The port slammed shut just as the front of the boat slapped into the back of the wave, engulfing it in the torrent.

* * * *

Andries woke with the worse headache he'd ever had. He put his hand instinctively to his forehead, and his hand came back covered in dried blood. He could feel a large gash along the top of his head, he must have cut it during the initial carnage. The pod itself, he discovered, was floating rather serenely in the grey waters of the ocean. The sun was just rising above the horizon, which was blanketed in heavy clouds, and he used the light to find the cargo compartment of the pod, where emergency rations were stored. He took a bottle of water from the metal box in the compartment and took a swig. It was stale and warm, but it was delicious in the circumstances. He looked across the cramped space of pod to where Lindsay was lying in a very uncomfortable position.

After sitting around nursing his headache for 20 minutes, he decided to take in their surroundings. The latch was someway off the bottom of the pod, but having regained his strength, he easily hoisted himself up, opened up the hatch and clambered up onto the roof. There was something eerily calm about the endless expanse of grey ocean. But quickly his thoughts turned to that of the ship. Had it survived the wave? And had the wave struck land? Judging by how much time had passed, the wave would have hit land. He prayed that it had been less damaging than first predicted. He reached for his mobile phone, but was unsurprised when there was no signal. He turned when he heard the hatch opening behind him. It was Lindsay.

"You look like shit" He offered, breaking the somewhat dour atmosphere
"Feel like it, too. How long you been awake?"
"About 40 minutes. I've been watching the sunrise. Where do you reckon we are?"
"No idea. If I know the currents well, we'll be hitting the Licentian Isles in a week or two."
"Shit"
"Yeah, I know"

Andries offered her some water, and she happily accepted it, drinking deeply.

"How long will our rations last?" Lindsay asked, broaching the grim subject.
"About a week, longer if we're careful. But these are busy shipping lanes, we'll get picked up sooner or later."

* * * *

Press Association of Uitbregen, Denvargen

2am. The graveyard shift. But hey, Elena thought You gotta put in the hard yards to get to the top. The offices of the PAD were deserted at this time of night, with only one other journalist and a security guard for company. Elena scrolled idly through her social media pages, not expecting to find anything of interest, just trying to use up the time until 6am, when her shift ended. She was just about to go and make herself another coffee when her phone buzzed.

It was the PAD correspondent in Montfort, with just a single, horrifying line of text.

massive tsunami just struck in Licentian Isles. 100s assumed ded.

[Felix]

(OOC: Actually can't believe Uit and I had a similar idea lol.)

Off the coast of Hessington Island

Submarine FNS Santa Maria was on the surface of the sea, taking a break from their mission of spying on Apoxian and Licenian communications. The captain of the sub, Captain Carlos Huerta, told his men they can relax on the sub and enjoy the fresh, warm air and the nice breeze that came with it. Although it was night it was quite nice outside and wasn't at all cold. Some 10 men were outside smoking a cigar or just simply enjoying the outdoors. The confines of the sub must've been stressful for some of the crew, hence the smoking. Everything seemed to be normal when suddenly a rumble was heard and felt the captain wasn't sure what it was but to be on the safe side he ordered his 10 men to get inside the sub. They were preparing to go underwater.

Everything was going fine for the Felixians as the last few crewmembers entered the sub when disaster struck. A wave caused by the earthquake (although the crew of the FNS Santa Maria did not know this) crashed onto the sub and caused the last two men to be swept off the sub where they would eventually drown. Meanwhile back in the sub water started to flood into the sub causing massive panic in the crew. They tried to reach the latch but couldn't as quickly as they wanted to, but eventually they made it and closed it. They thought this was all over but they were dead wrong, another, much stronger wave crashed onto the sub sending it reeling and throwing the entire crew around inside the sub. The submarine's structure wasn't damaged per se but it was now uncontrollable despite the crew's best efforts.

After what seemed like hours of turning and turning a loud thud was heard inside the sub and the chaos stopped. Dozens of injured Felixians headed for the hatch and managed to open it, one of the first men to get out of the sub noticed that they weren't in the middle of the sea, instead it seemed they were in what remained of a Apoxian village, "Shit." was all the crewmember of the FNS Santa Maria said. He was the first one to get off and other crewmembers eventually joined him in the slushy, muddy mess they were in. Captain Huerta for the most part was not injured and also managed to get off the sub. The captain then asked, "How many dead?" one of the medics on the ground shrugged, "I have no idea sir, it seems like we are missing two crewmembers though." the captain scratched his head, "Hmm..."

A few hours later the Carlos Huerta was informed that 5 crewmembers died in that rogue wave incident, three of them were crushed by certain objects others broke their necks. These men were stored in a miniature morgue kept in the sub. When it was turned on it would refrigerate the dead bodies and preventing them from rotting. Another 2 Felixians were missing out in sea as they were swept off the ship. The only good news? Is that they still had months worth of food left and the main generators had plenty of fuel left. Meaning they could just wait here till help arrived. With that in mind Carlos decided to message the Felixian Naval HQ in Altomare, "Requesting emergency pick up in Apox. Not sure where exactly we are but we are probably in the northern coast of Apox as we were swept away from a series of brutal rouge waves."

He hoped he would receive a response as soon as possible and he did, although the news he got wasn't exactly welcoming for his ears, "Hello Capt. Huerta, while we would love to assist you we can't right now as the Battle of Cognac is currently commencing and the entire Southern Fleet, or 2nd Fleet as you may call it, is busy assisting the land invasion. When we can we will send assistance to you and your stranded crewmembers." Carlos angrily hit the wooden desk inside the sub, "Dammit." As if things couldn't get any worse one of the crewmembers said, "Sir! It appears that we weren't hit by a rogue wave instead it might've been a tsunami cause by a major earthquake!" At this point Huerta was totally irate and very much confused, "What the hell is going on!?" he yelled.

[Apox]

03:14 - The scene in Mona was one of utter mayhem. Large swathes of the town had been washed away in the madness. There was no telling the scale of the damage, as bits of buildings lay smashed around the place, the boats which had sat peacefully in the harbour now laying strewn in the filthy wreckage. A lone lifeboat searched through the wreckage, it's flashlight combing combing the waters in the half-light, the faintest glint of life now showing in the sky.

Leon Curtis was pulled back into consciousness after passing out again, dried blood on his head where he'd hit something as the wave hit, arms wrapped around a lamp post outside his house, or at least where his house once was, the water slowly pouring out into the river where his street once was. Dazed by a throbbing pain deep within his skull, Leon looked around, trying to make out what had happened in the darkness.

It was incredibly confused, attempting to gauge his bearings whilst at the same time dizzy from the pain, soaked through with cold water and trying to make things out in very low light. Eventually, he saw the Council Building in the distance a couple of streets away. The civic building was the tallest building in Mona, it's squat, 5 storey build meant that it was one of the few buildings which had survived the tsunami. In that moment, Leon realised that to have a chance of survival, he would need to get out of the water.

He braced himself, counted to five and gently let go of the lamp post. Instantly he was flung about like a rag-doll in the raging river, disappearing underwater several times, only to re-emerge spluttering. There was no way he'd be able to grab onto something now, he was too dis-orientated. Eventually, he slammed into a car which had become wedged on the remains of a building in a fork in the road.

He found enough strength to hold on to the car, and after a number of seconds spent catching his breath, he was able to pull himself along it and grab hold of the building. It was mighty hard work, but he eventually made the several yards required to get himself out of the main torrent. By chance more than anything else, Leon had been washed down to the street which the civil building was on. It was only a couple of hundred metres down the street, and thankfully, the current was weaker here.

Once again he let go, and what felt like thirty seconds later, although in truth he had no idea, being tossed around as he was, it was hard to make sense of time, he grabbed hold of the civic building, holding onto an open second storey building. Attempting to pull himself inside, he slipped a little and almost let go altogether, however, he held on. A few seconds mentally steadying himself, and he hauled himself into the building, gaining strength the further out of the water he got. Once inside he collapsed on the floor, soaking wet, dazed and confused, incredibly tired, but safe... for now.

03:26 - "What the fuck do we do?" asked a panicking Tim Jerzual, Apox's Minister of the Environment, as he sat in Government House. The wave had passed through Dwile about 40 minutes, causing less damage, only a little bit of flooding, but all the same, the Members of the Government were in the second storey of Government Hosue all the same. Faced with a national crisis and a wavering cabinet, Anna Harwood realised that, ultimately, the buck stopped with her.

"We need teams on the ground to assess what damage there is, and see who we can save." she said, trying to sound as authoritative as possible, before turning to Jax Bentherie, Minister of Defense, "I need you to get boots on the ground in affected areas," she stopped, "and we need to work out, where exactly all the affected areas are." Jax merely nodded his head, before running into his office to get on the line to his various chiefs of staff. Anna turned next to Tim Jerzual,

"Tim, I need you to get onto those guys now in the Skibbereen research base. We need to get the facts straight on this, on what exactly happened. Go!" she finished, knowing Tim would likely flap at any instructions given to him right now. Finally she turned to her personal aide, Mr Smith,

"Mr. Smith, make the call to Jack Greybold. I need him in this case," Mr. Smith, surprised she could tell merely nodded and began to walk away. Before he could though, Kashmir Aston pipped up from on the other side of the room;

"Greybold? Why are you bringing him back into this? What's he got to do with anything?" Anna turned and gave him a withering look,

"He used to be the leader of this country, and he's dealt with crises before. More than that he's a calm head and a loyal man. I need him now."

"But," Kashmir spluttered, "He doesn't know the current protocols! He's also something of a loose cannon! You don't have the political capital for this!"

"Oh shut up Kashmir, you're just angry that I've calling in the man you ruthlessly deposed. Man up and get on with whatever you're doing over there." He opened his mouth to argue, but couldn't find any words and stormed out of the room angrily.

[Uitbregen]

Residence of Foreign Affairs Minister Laurense Aakaster
2:45am

Vzzzzzt

Vzzzzzt

Vzzzzzt

Laurens' eyes creaked open and he rolled over to the table which sat by his bed. His work phone was vibrating violently on the hardwood desk, and it took several attempts of blind searching before Laurens picked up the device and pulled it to his ear. He threw away the bed sheets before answering.

"This is Aakaster. This better be bloody important"
"It is sir" The voice on the other end, that of his personal assisstant Robert Viktors, was grave even through the phone "Incredibly important. A car is outside sir, an aide is inside ready to brief you."

Next to him, Aakasters wife grumbled, semi-asleep. Laurens looked around for the time. 2:45, this has got to be bad.. He decided against a suit and simply threw on a pair of jeans and a jumper over his bed t-shirt, before trotting downstairs and out of the door, into the early morning rain. As the phone call had said, one of the ubiquitous Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst (the Domestic Security Service) blue SUVs sat with the engine running. The driver stepped out, a man wearing just a plain white shirt and dark trousers - a white wire ran from an earpiece down into his shirt, this man too was BVD.

Aakaster pulled himself up into the SUV, and was greeted by a stern-faced aid holding a large folder of papers and a steaming cup of coffee. Aakaster accepted it gleefully, drinking deeply before returning to the aid.

"What is it?"
"There's been a tsunami, in the Licentian Channel"
"How bad?"
"Bad. We lost contact with a UNS vessel in the area about 25 minutes ago. A number of open-broadcast services in the Licentian Isles also went off minutes later. A PAU journalist in Montfort reported it first to us."
"Any figures"
"Nothing more than 'hundreds assumed dead'. We've been trying to get in touch with the Apoxian & Licentian government but systems are fried across the continent. The epicentre was near where we've got telecoms cables, and they were presumably severed."
"Right, bugger. Keep trying, use the emergency telegram system if you have to"
"But that hasn't been operated since the 80s"
"We've never officially shut it down, just let it lie, so it could still work."
"Yes sir."

The SUV barrelled along quickly through the wide boulevards of Uitbregen's capital, Denvargen, driving through the traffic-less streets towards the Parliament building, where the rest of the cabinet were assembling.

Prime Minister Willem van Asch hadn't even gone to bed. A late night meeting with Business representatives in the east end of the city had not ended until after midnight, and road-works had held up the car. He recieved the news about the tsunami just as he had changed into his pyjamas - he hadn't even bothered to get changed, sitting in his chair at the head of the desk in the cabinet office. A number of TV screens showed preliminary pictures, mainly hauled off of Social Media websites and local news channels.

van Asch rose from his seat and greeted Aakaster. His face was solemn, and his dark eyes were bleak behind the rim of his glasses.

"How bad is it?" Laurens asked, expecting the worse
"It's bad. Geological Research units in the areas have been taking readings off the charts - never before seen. As you know, we lost a vessel, no survivors found. Shipping has been screwed up as well, say goodbye to bananas for a few days."
"Death toll estimates?"
"Hundreds. But come daylight, it'll get worse. It always does. We've scrambled two recon jets from..."

van Asch's words trailed off as his attention was drawn elsewhere. Aakaster turned, following his gaze. A large, military man with a heavy set jaw and neatly shaven hair. He was wearing the tell-tale camouflage fatigues of a soldier, and his breast and shoulder was adorned with medals and ribbons. His name was Benjamin Klerken, Major-General Benjamin Klerken. 24 years of service, smashed the Communist forces at Denvargen International two years ago, and a staunch anti-Licentian. He was flanked by two armed soldiers, sharing the same hard look as their commander. Van Asch strode over to Major General - it was noted that the two were not the best of friends. Klerken had often rallied for a harsher, more aggressive stance towards the Licentian Isles, but van Asch had promoted peace.

"van Asch" Klerken said gruffly. He did not use the Prime Minister's title to address him.
"Klerken" the Prime Minister returned the favour "You know armed personnel are not allowed in the Cabinet office."

Klerken stared at van Asch for a few seconds, before nodding to his men to leave the room.

"How did you know about this? I thought it was on a need-to-know basis" van Asch asked
"I have my ways of finding out. I came over as soon as I could. What plan of action are you advising your government take?"
"Well, we have very few facts at the moment. But we'll be co-ordinating with Apoxian and Licentian authorities shortly and trying to take stock, before launching aid operations."

Klerken was silent for a second. "You always were weak. Now is the perfect time to strike against the Licentians. They are at their weakest, we could simply walk in, and no-one would have the audacity to challenge us."

van Asch shook his head in disbelief.

"Come now, Klerken, it is not the time for talk like this. For all we know, thousands of people are dead, and it is up to us to protect their human rights. Even if we are not the best of friends, we are region-mates, and have an obligation to help them."

The Major-General chose not to respond, rather he nodded and walked further into the room, taking a seat next to the Minister of Regional Affairs Justus van Harten, another notable anti-Licentian. van Asch grimaced. It would be tough enough to co-ordinate the region's efforts, let alone co-ordinating his own government.

"Mr Prime Minister" a voice called from across the room "We're setting up a video link with the Apoxian government. Should be a couple of minutes."
"Right, yes. Ladies and Gentlemen, please, take your seats. Apoxians on the line."

The 24 ministers and aides in the room slowly made their way to the seats on the set of long tables in the Cabinet office, and the main TV at the head of the table flicked on.

"Mrs. Harwood, greetings..."

(OOC: Apox, feel free to RP the responses of my government. Just argue about anything and everything. We won't actually decide on anything, so just talk about the situation. My people will ask lots of questions.)

[Apox]

Anna Harwood was slumped at the table in the situation room of Government House, watching images of the waves crashing against buildings in the north of Apox, whilst trying to work out what was happening in the Licentian Isles from a series of garbled feeds. It looked like the Isles were a complete wreck, with serious rebuilding work being required.

Suddenly, an aide shouted out to her;

"Mrs. Harwood! Uitbregeni government on the line for you. Shall I put them through?" Anna looked up, dazed and half asleep. She sighed,

"Yes, connect me through. Put them on the screen." A couple of moments later and an image of the Uitbregeni cabinet office was displayed on the main screen, showing the entirety of the Uitbregeni cabinet sitting round the table, all looking similarly tired and drained as she felt herself. Prime Minister Willem van Asch was the first to speak, addressing her directly;

"Mrs Harwood, greetings, how's things looking from your end?"

"We're not really sure, but the north of the country and eastern coastline have been hit pretty bad by the wave, it's wiped a lot of our systems out truth be told. We're beginning to coordinate relief and rescue efforts as we speak. What are your plans?"

"We're not entirely sure, but I would imagine that Uitbregeni relief will need to be sent to certainly the Licentian's and perhaps yourselves, depending on how the situation develops. We're not entirely sure though." Harwood shot a quick glance at her Minister for Health, Carl Newman, one of the few ministers left in the room with her. van Asch was a good man, that much was sure, but there was definitely anti-Licentian sentiment amongst their ranks - the situation would be needed to be handled carefully to avoid any diplomatic incident.

"I think, perhaps, the best course of action might be to let the fact become clear before we commit to anything as of yet, don't you Prime Minister?" The Uitbregeni Prime Minister would not get a chance to reply, with Major-General Benjamin Klerken piping up before he could get a word in;

"Caution! We need to act now! We need Uitbregeni boots on the ground in order to deliver aid and help get the Licentian government on it's feet."

"Well, that is quite hasty talk..." Anna began before being cut off again,

"We cannot afford a situation similar to what previously occurred! That fascism nearly dragged the whole region..."

"Enough!" shouted van Asch, a vein bulging in his neck, clearly angry and embarassed at the clear discordance displayed from within his ranks, "I believe the best course of action should be not rushing into a decision, like Mrs. Harwood has suggested. Thank you, Mrs. Harwood, we'll be in touch again soon." And with that the screen quickly went black, with that meeting achieving nothing but perhaps the added problem of a threat of Uitbregen seeing this as a chance for more land and power. Anna Harwood turned to her phone, dialling up Jax Bentherie, who was presumably still in his office organising the military aid efforts;

"Jax? I need you to do something for me."

"What? What's happened?"

"I've just had a video call with the Uitbregeni government. They're fractured, and that means a potential landgrab while the Licentian Isles' guard is down."

"Oh Christ.."

"Yes indeed. Do we have any navy presence near the Isles?"

"Erm... let me check... yes, the A.S Bertram is nearby. They're currently on high alert, we've decided to classify them as an back-up aid ship. Full complement on board."

"Right, have them head to Montfort. We need to make sure we have a presence there as well as Uitbregen."

[Uitbregen]

The large screen flicked off leaving the room empty and silent. van Asch was visibly fuming, one hand over his eyes and the other hand drumming aggressively on the table. Klerken was pleased with himself, a lopsided smile lay across his hardened face. Van Asch stood up, flanked by Aakaster; he shot daggers at the Major-General, before leaving the room.

He rubbed his eyes deeply as he walked through the dimly lit halls of the Parliament building. Not only did he have an international crisis on his hands, but he was having to fight off unrest from within his own country, and party. He'd seen numerous prominent members of his cabinet and extended party deep in discussion with Klerken. Aakaster was flicking through his phone, whilst an aide appeared out of one of the millions of the doors in the parliament and came to van Asch's side. He handed him some photos in a large folder.

"These photos came through a few minutes ago. Taken from a satellite that's now over Montfort, or rather, coastal settlements near Montfort."
"How bad are they?"
"They speak for themselves."

He flicked open the folder and scanned each picture. They were grainy to say the least, weather conditions didn't exactly favour clear imagery, but he could clearly make out scenes of chaos and destruction. Amongst others, he saw a multi-story car park which had fractured right down the middle, cars spilling out onto the waterlogged road. Another showed a residential area, at least, he assumed the rectangular white blobs amongst the sea of fuzzy grey were houses. The thought was clear in his mind: something had to be done. And quick.

But things were happening, faster than van Asch could imagine...

Gelsen Military Compound, 40 miles outside Gelk, Eastern Uitbregen, 3 hours earlier

The sun wasn't even up, but still the military base was alive and humming with activity. A convoy of supplies which had set out from the capital had rolled in after midnight and the unloading operation had begun. But a more sinister operation was lurking behind the scenes. At the small helicopter pad down the hill from the base, a military-grade helicopter with civilian decal, painted with the logo of a local trawling company was slowly starting up. It's crew of six had been called from their barracks recently and they had prepared in silence, grabbing their packs and making a visit to the armoury.

The rotor blades of the helicopter thrummed slowly into life, lifting the vehicle into the grey morning sky. The helicopter skipped over fields and farmland and then burst out into the open ocean, racing across the waves at a low altitude.

The sun was now sitting midway through the morning sky as the helicopter crossed over onto dry land again, this time flying barely metres above the forested shore line. The helicopter banked on a sharp right and came to a cleared area, about 20 metres wide and 70 metres long; a small stream ran at one corner. An aircraft was waiting. The helicopter set itself down at one end of the clearing and five men got out, the sixth, the pilot, instantly took the helicopter back up in the air and out over the trees.

The five men were Special Forces. Or more precisely, SDN (Speciale Defensie Netwerk), a group of highly trained deep-cover units which was maintained by the Uitbregeni government, not only in Uitbregen, but across the region. According to the most recent reports, there were 42 units in 17 countries, although official numbers were always unknown. This unit, Codenamed I2Z, was the largest of its kind, but with only 5 members - that highlighted how these units operated. I2Z was linking up with O4D, a one-man team based in Crystal Springs in Wray, near where they were now, then heading onto the Licentian Isles where they would meet up with Y7G, and the operation would commence from there. Their mission was clear, secure a landing sight for airborne units which would be inbound shortly afterwards. They were to take no risks in the security of the site, and that meant using live ammunition if need be.

The commander of I2Z, Captain Johan Steer, a veteran of 16 years of military service, led the team to the cargo plane. The tail-fin of the plane carried the insignia of an Apoxian aid charity. The rear door of the plane was open, and the single member of the O4D stood with one hand on the railing and the other on the grip of his assault rifle, which was connected to his pack on his chest. Steer and O4D smiled and exchanged nods, before Steer and the rest of I2Z boarded the craft. O4D radioed through to the pilot and the door rose up.

The twin engines of the carrier plane span up to full speed and the plane used the makeshift runway to continue the journey of the SDN units. A carefully laid out flight path ensured that the carrier plane avoided the radar sweeps of any nations. The afternoon was well under way when the carrier plane entered Licentian airspace, except instead of the normal flood of radio traffic, there was nothing but ghostly static on the wavelegnths. Steer looked from the window of the plane down onto the Licentian countryside. This side was relatively unscathed, but the roads were empty and the towns were quiet. As they travelled from west to east across Licentia's main island, the devasation became more stark: buildings were damaged and roads were ruptured and flooded. An upturned truck blocked an arterial road, with filthy flood waters mixing with licks of flame emanating from the truck's engine. Initial aid supplies were far inferior compared to nature's furious power, Steer saw a hastily erected tarpaulin acting as a shelter for 10 or 20 people destroyed by oncoming waters - Steer looked away before seeing what happened to the people hiding beneath. He had taught himself not to care, especially for these people.

A voice crackled through the intercom system "We're five minutes away from the drop site, ready up."
"Alright men, we all know what to do. The location we've scouted out is about 4 miles from our location, we get there, we secure the area, and then we wait. Clear?"
"Yes sir" was the general murmuring from the rest of the crew.

Steer took a bag from the side of the cabin and passed it round. It contained various Velcro patches which would identify the men as members of the Licentian police force, thus arousing less suspicion by walking around with guns. They removed their Uitbregeni tags and replaced them with the various Licentian ones. More minutes passed and the plane dipped low, coming to its lowest possible speed. They were now barely 60ft off the ground. The rear door of the plane opened and a great rushing wind roared in. The men worked their way towards the open door, watching the countryside now pass as a blur. Time always seemed to slow in the seconds between the light being red and turning green, allowing the men to jump.

2 minutes later, they were walking along a narrow country road, on route to their destination. The sky ahead was an ominous colour, the light orange of the early sunset mixed with the pillars of wispy black smoke rising from the city of Montfort in the distance. They were walking in single file down one side of the road when Steer stopped and made a clenched fist in his gloved hand. Stop. The men obliged and crouched by the roadside, practically in the hedge. A small car came down the road, with one man at the wheel and the rest of the car was packed with what they presumed were his personal belongings. The car slowed and Steer tensed. The man spoke.

"Excuse me officers, do you know where the nearest Emergency Station is?"
Steer had to think quick. "Down the road two miles, left, then right. It's by the farmhouse."
"Thank you very much."

The car drove off, but of course the directions Steer had given were completely false. He just hoped he could get the man away and out of their hair. Their tracker indicated that the drop site was near, on the other side of a small folly of trees. Steer told the other five men to spread out, walking in a long, straight line, covering the whole area. Half way through Steer had a clear sight through to the drop zone, an empty grass field about 20m wide and 40m long.

"Right, Berger, Artz, build a foxhole here" Steer indicated with his boot a wide semi-circle. "Make sure you have clear line of sight onto the field. One keep watch on the field, the other on the road behind you. Stay there till you get my orders."
"Yes sir." The two soldiers agreed and started to retrieve shovels from their packs and started digging. The four other continued onto the field and set up positions, one man at each corner. And now they waited.

(Forgive me for the horrendous delay, and for the rather quick motion of my men, but they are just a corps of 6 men designed to hold down a landing site.)