Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha
South Atlantic Ocean
22nd January 2060
South Atlantic Ocean
22nd January 2060
Small, volcanic and isolated - the island chain of Tristan Da Cunha was in the middle of nowhere: in the truest sense of the word. Honestly, nothing much happened there: which is why the arrival of a small fleet caused much surprise - after all, why them? It wasn’t like Tristan Da Cunha has much to offer - or so the residents thought. To them, they’re just a cluster of volcanic islands between Africa and South America - where it could take days to get a flight in or out, and there wasn’t much money to be made. When the first wave of the 450 or so, marines landed across the archipelago, it was a curiosity to many of the islanders - but not much more. Surely, these were the British finally coming back for them? No - as the accents of the newly arrived forces soon made clear. Opposed to the Azores, things were more professional, with lightly armed but uniformly equipped forces making quick work of the islands: firing not a shot in anger, as they peacefully claimed the islands and their inhabitants.
St Helena was full of surprises too - they had an airport: a single runway on a volcanic, barren strip of terrain. Fortunately though, the presence of some old 737s and Airbuses proved that it could handle a significant amount of the Coastal Military’s air-transport capacity. Still, it wasn’t until 120 engineers - a full GSDF company’s worth - had arrived, that they were able to assess that only minor repairs were needed. Thankfully, as the engineers gleefully expressed later - they had lots of ‘willing’ help in unloading the supplies from the marines who had arrived at the same time. Rumours had it though, that the NSDF-M military police arrived later deliberately - so they could avoid doing much of the heavy lifting! By nightfall, the islands were swarming with more activity than what they had seen in a long time - and there was further good news to come…
…A military broadcast confirmed that Ascension Island, and it’s airbase - Wideawake - an old joint British-US locale, had been captured: again without any shots fired in anger. The capture of that airfield had been the priority - still, it was nice to find out that there was more than one on the island chain after all. Still, it had not been without casualties at Ascension - a specialist had broken his leg after falling over at the airbase. A casualty of Ascension’s unique wildlife - found nowhere else on the planet, thanks to a certain Charles Darwin maybe?
Buffalo
New York State
Collective of Coastal Free States
A Week Earlier
New York State
Collective of Coastal Free States
A Week Earlier
A gaggle of civil servants and administrators poured over the contents of Nordic reply: a trade deal was possible - but renewable energies and their development, a supposed Nordic state secret - was off the table at any cost. Still, they were willing to commit to a trade deal in other areas - however there would be an inevitable cost. Space exploration. Joint space exploration. Now, the ideal of Coastal-Nordic astronauts exploring the outer reaches of space - and continuing the work of their predecessors at NASA and the European Space Agency was certainly a tantalising thought. However, there was one big conundrum to be settled if they pushed forward with it.
Where?
Cape Canaveral in Florida was Southern territory - even if they’d been exceptionally quiet in recent times, all but precluding a response from them: even so, privately the staffers collectively agreed that such a request - even with a responsive Southern government, would go nowhere. It wasn’t like they could just break in either - the Southern military’s cells and guerrilla tactics were exceptional: turning the old adage of a “rifle behind every blade of grass” into nothing less than reality. So where else? Tanegashima? No. The Japanese would surely refuse - even so, ferrying a space craft and astronauts across the world would probably look decidedly amateurish to the Norden in any case. No having their own site might make the CCFS look like their interest in space was only superficial. In the end, a radical idea was put forward.
How about the Azores? Or Ascension? Sure, the latter was yet to be taken - (and that specialist’s leg yet to be broken by an errant dip on the runway at Wideawake) but either of the two places would certainly prove interesting. Still, would Europe approve of a launch site between themselves and North America? After all - there had been rumblings of discontent allegedly in some European capitals over the island-hopping campaign recently - and the CCFS didn’t want to risk a confrontation yet. They just didn’t feel ready.
Eventually, they came to a decision - Ascension, having no indigenous population living there, and a suitable airfield for transporting in materials and men, would be the site for the spaceport. Still, they’d need to take it first - and repair the island’s infrastructure before that could even be considered.
A staffer looked out at the grey overcast sky once everything was settled - the relief in the room a sharp contrast to the storm outside: already even, rain was starting to fall - pelting the asphalt outside - the drops splashing almost as they thudded into the ground below them. Nevertheless, they soon informed the Secretary of State, Jay Solomon-Weisz of their thoughts - and he approved, dictating the official response to the Nordic Commonwealth after a brief chat with the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet. That response read:
To the relevant department of the Nordic Commonwealth
January 15th 2060 - 10 AM EST
After careful discussion, the Collective of Coastal Free States is willing to commit strongly to the Nordic Commonwealth’s query about space exploration: of course, it would also be of great interest if the Nordic Commonwealth could examine the potential for a trade agreement and an agreement on various areas of research - excluding renewables, as made clear by the Nordic Commonwealth during the last correspondence between our respective State Departments.
-The State Department of the Collective of Coastal Free States
Later that day, a second communique was drafted to an altogether different nation:
To the relevant department of the East African Federation
January 15th 2060 - 1PM EST
The 1990s had the Celtic Tiger, and the Asian Tiger economies, now it’s time for the East African Tiger to take its place in the world. The Collective of Coastal Free States would like to begin a trade agreement with the East African Federation: negotiations to start promptly, after all - you can’t get anything done if you put it off day after day. It would be of great interest to us if we could look into free trade and research agreements - with a strong emphasis on the exporting of high value goods being a particular interest to the Collective of Coastal Free States.
We hope to receive a prompt - and approving reply soon, detailing terms and when negotiations shall begin.
-The State Department of the Collective of Coastal Free States
