An Unfortunate Misunderstanding [/Closed/]

[Rusikstan]

The RNV Johannes passed quietly over the water. A ship belonging to the Rusich Auxiliary Navy, it had seen its better days, but remained a viable threat to those who opposed it. It was a moderate sized ship, one given up by the Rusich navy for use by the Auxiliary Navy to detain and deter other vessels, with the possibility to destroy them if necessary. The Johannes was out on routine patrol in the Avatist Sea, deployed out of Rusich Ladinia, looking, yet hoping not to find, ships belonging to the group known as the Azhukali Confederation of Nations, who were believed to be violating Azhukalian and Rusich Peace laws.

Rusikstan had declared the confederation defunct and had ordered its disbandment, but to no avail, the group continued to exist. Rusikstan continued to watch and pressure the group at any turn by offering competitive trade agreements and harassing confederation aligned trade vessels at any chance. Ships had been deployed across the Southern Seas in order to hinder confederation operations. No encounters so far had turned into anything more than what the Auxiliary Navy considered “routine”.

It was a calm day, but surprisingly unlike any other. The sea was soft, unusual for this area, and the waves rolled gently along the sides of the ship. Crewmen, dressed in blue pants and horizontally stripped black and white shirts, meticulously saw to their on-deck duties. Several men standing side by side swabbed the deck and sang an old Rusich sailing song which echoed through the open doors to the corridors of the ship,

It’s not far down to paradise
At least it’s not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away
And find tranquility
The canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see
Believe me

It’s not far to never never land
No reason to pretend
And if the wind is right you can find the joy
Of innocence again
The canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see
Believe me

The sun shone bright reflecting off the radar array atop the vessel. A negligible whirling emitted from the array was in the air, an almost whimsical whirling. The day, all in all, was splendid. This was just the calm before the storm, few could comprehend the events that were to unfold and turn this into a day of infamy.

As the day was calm the captain had dismissed most men from their duties. Many saw this as a time to slink below deck and catch up on some deserved free time. A few men took to quarters and began reading the few books on board such as The Opthian Conquest, Penelope's Rage, and for more sensitive readers Nithia's Garden. Some began to play card games waging everything from rations to a soft-core porn magazines, quite anything a young sailor could find a use for. Still others took the time to sleep, being rocked as a baby in the cradle so were they rocked by the sea.

“Captain, vessel off the port bow radar, identification unknown.” Shouted the ensign operator. The captain, stern and collected, standing in his sharp crisp white uniform outlined in gold, maintained focus out the center ship window. The captain was well aware of the young operator’s excitability. The operator could have spotted anything like he had done before, calling out markers as far 340 km far beyond accurate visual range. “Captain I advise action to be taken, vessel is 50km off port.”

“50 kilometers,” the captain repeated in his head, “Well that isn’t far at all, we can catch up to the vessel determine its ownership and return to position, without delay.” The captain turned to the young ensign and asked “Why did you only tell me of this vessel now? Surly we saw it quite away off.”

The ensign gulped, the lump visibly sliding down his throat, his Adam’s apple pushed out, “Sorry sir, I did not want to trouble the captain with far off and possibly false alarm, sir.” The ensign stood dead still and awaited a cold response from the captain. The first day he does as asked and gets reprimanded for doing it too well.

“ You dunce, adjust for intercept course. Let us see who they are, shall we? Sound the men to general quarters, to man their battle stations.”

The alarms sounded . The boys that had taken charge of the ship on that day returned to men. Running to and fro destined for their stations awaiting what lay before them. And with that, the tide of the day had turned.

[Bussund]

Bussund was an island nation. One with a tropical climate and a thick jungle overtaking any patch of ground left unattended for too long. Because of this, and the strict environmental laws, large-scale farming was almost impossible. This forced the Republic to import most of its food. The regular shipments of wheat, grain, corn, and packaged foodstuffs were the only things keeping the people from starvation.

Captain Luis Marvech knew this well. Why else was he and his crew payed so well? His ship, the MV Mercantile, had been coming from a large port city on the other side of the Avatist Sea. Its containers were stuffed to the brim with refrigerated goods such as eggs, milk, and some luxury's like ice cream and Popsicles. It didn't matter to captain Pepe Natalio what his ship carried. He treated every trip as if he was all that stood between his people and utter oblivion, and stressed to the crew how important their duties were.

Unfortunately, most of the time they spent was laughing at his name behind his back. They weren't slackers, far from it. But Pepe was such a ridiculous name...

Pepe was in his private quarters, joining his First Mate and Chief Engineer in a game of informal poker. Pepe knew absolutely nothing about poker, but beginners luck seemed to be on his side this time. Chuckling as he slid over some pop bottle caps used as poker chips.

"Never bet against the skipper, gentlemen," Pepe gleefully counted the caps, "besides if you had one you'd be scrubbing the deck for the rest of the trip."

The First Mate Rodriguez was about to respond, but just then the door burst open and an exasperated sailor had to take a second to catch his breath.

"Captain," he inhaled deeply, "we just spotted a Rusich ship, and it's bearing on us hard!"

Pepe bolted out of his chair, knocking it backwards onto the floor.

"Get me to a radio, right now."

"Attention Rusich vessel. You are hereby ordered to keep a minimum distance of 10km from this ship. Any attempted seizure of this vessel or cargo will be considered a violation of international law and a breach of Bussundian sovreignity. Please respond."

OoC: Sorry if this seems forced, I'm not very good with anything navy. Wikipedia is responsible for this being decent.

[Rusikstan]

Continuously closing the distance between their ship and the other vessel the captain went over in his head each possible scenario from an encounter with a Prut trade vessel to a defesian warship, the latter of which he hoped it was not. Pacing, trance-like back and forth along the center of the bridge he overheard an incoming radio communication,

"Attention Rusich vessel. You are hereby ordered to keep a minimum distance of 10km from this ship. Any attempted seizure of this vessel or cargo will be considered a violation of international law and a breach of Bussundian sovreignity. Please respond."

Now it was clear to him, a confederation vessel, a bussundian vessel. The foe who they had been searching for had reached right out and given a fine hoody do to them.” Excellent, Now that we know who our opponent is we must now set the board so that we are favored.” The captain thought to himself as he vigorously paced the grounds.

Viktor, the ensign who was manning the radio, looked over toward the pacing captain. Unsure of whether the captain had heard the message or not made his way toward the captain and began to speak, “Sir, a bussundian cargo…”

Captain Pelenkov cut off Viktor before he could finish the thought, “I heard the message ensign.”

“Of course sir, then what shall be our response to the bussundians?” asked Viktor

“Now that is the million reir question now isn’t it?” Captain Pelenkov replied as he began to twirl his whitened moustache around his finger. “On the one hand to not respond would be quite rude, would it not? On the other hand it would be rude to let them know that we can’t agree to any other that non-sense they plead about international law and bussundian sovereignty. Of course we also have no friendly ports in the area currently so any action we take will need to be handled with…care.”

“Well then sir shall we maintain silence until we are within detainment range?” queried Viktor.

“While that would be ideal, our mandate states that we must inform the ship of our intent as soon as we enter within 20km unless we have been addressed before that rang. Considering we have just now passed both of those thresholds we must, therefore, respond forthwith. Hand me the comm, I shall relay our intent now.”

Viktor and the Captain approached the relay communications stations where Viktor presented the radio to the captain, who proceeded to reply to the bussundian vessel;

“Attention Bussundian Vessel, by being in service with an illegal Confederation you are currently in violation of Azhukali peace trusts and are guilty of blatantly ignoring Rusich demands for your organization to disband. Through your nation’s continued illicit activity your vessel has forfeited its sovereign rights. Therefore, you are hereby ordered to surrender your ship to inspection by our men less we be forced to sink your vessel with extreme prejudice. You have half an hour to comply. If you have not responded in that time then you have resigned yourself to your faith. Good day.”