The Addictive Taste of Blood (Earth II|MT|CLOSED)

[Minnysota]

Town Center
Assab, Eritrea
September 28, 2012

The normally peaceful coastal city of Assab, Eritrea was alive and livid even at the depth of night. Where darkness usually conquered, the light of inflamed cans and flashlights prevailed. The dust that compiled on the poorly kept walkways and roads burst into the air with every step as mobs of people dashed throughout the city. Sirens whined in the distance and echoed throughout the outskirts of the barren city. All traffic was dead and, for the most part, not even a word was whispered in any spot outside of the center of the city. Security forces erected barricades around the center of the town, where over three hundred protesters had amassed. Trash and rocks seemingly fell from the sky as the mob periodically bombarded the barricades with debris. The protest, mostly non-violent, was just now entering its prime for the night. Police forces had arrived and forced a containment of the group, but neither realized an armored force was en route to the site.

Reverend Yolkel Smith climbed onto the top of a smashed car, its model coming from the early eighties. Holding a crucifix in one hand and the Quran in the other, he shouted out religious jargon in both local dialect and fluent English. Being a Baptist minister himself, he was the victim of rampant persecution. Along with the Shiite Muslim minority, Methodism and various Protestant groups were forced into seclusion and secrecy. The crowd focused its attention on Smith as he began to shout a clear, consistent message.

“Our brothers have been killed! Our blood has been spilled! It is time for the government to give us the freedoms we deserve and grant equality throughout the land! Eritrea does not stand for one group; rather, it stands for them all!” As he concluded his speech, the sea of ecstatic Eritreans erupted into an even louder roar, which rang to the distance for miles. They held up the bodies of six dead bodies, all riddled with bullets and one of them the corpse of an adolescent. In unison, various protesters pointed to a recognizable group of police officers. A day prior, these men had massacred four Shiite Muslims and two Protestant Christians for wearing religious icons openly. With this atrocity committed, the oppressed minority was crying for blood.

The northeast section of the barricade opened, and the street was clear. Standing in silence, the crowd listened as the mechanical whine of gears and wheels inched closer. At the end of the street turned a BTR-60 armored fighting vehicle. Within moments, the BTR’s cannon began unleashing barrages of fire upon the crowd. The 14.5mm bullets slashed through skin, decimated bones, and cut through the crowd like a knife through butter. As the crowd fled in various directions, BTRs from the other sections of the barricade approached and fired. With the police forces joining in, the entirety of the mob lay dead in the center of the town.

---

Presidential Mansion
Belmont, Paix
September 29, 2012

President Jareez Al-Shari sat in the center of the apple orchard. Resting just beyond the daunting shadow of the Presidential Mansion, the orchard provided the President with peace and relaxation as he enjoyed the sunlight and beauty of his surroundings. This orchard had become a proven way of escaping the stress of office, as the previous president often did the same thing. Al-Shari, in addition to his predecessor, was setting a trend for future presidents with this nationally renowned orchard. The peace was broken for the first time that afternoon, much to the disdain of Jareez. A large man walked forward, blocking the sun and bringing a bit of darkness over the president.

“You’re blocking my sun.” The President darted a quick but sharp glance to the man, who was no other than the Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

“Sir, there is an urgent issue in Eritrea.”

The President’s lace lighted up despite the shadow casted upon it. He looked intently to the Secretary, hinting at him to continue. Eritrea had been an area of interest to Paix as of late, as it seemed to be the perfect place to launch a Paixan campaign of influence into Africa.

“A group of roughly three hundred protesters, almost entirely composed of Methodists and Shiite Muslims, amassed in the southern coastal city of Assab. Needless to say, the government decimated the protest. A reporter covering the protest was nearly killed when the government forces hunted the city and essentially killed every person out of their home. Said reporter claims the entirety of the protesters were killed, and even more were killed during what she claims was ‘the hunt’.”

“So that’s the end of it?”

“No, the minorities have had enough of it. The Southern Red Sea Region has erupted into an uprising, and already four soldiers have been killed. Militants from Ethiopia are spilling over the border and attacking both sides. We have a chance to move in here and secure an area of influence, should we support the uprising faction here.”

“You’re right, and that’s probably the desired move here. The campaign in Persia is sure to become a success. We can divert the Second Carrier Battle Group to the area to establish some form of control, but I will want to land some forces in the north eventually. Send word to Congress that we declare war on Eritrea, and that I give the order to establish a no-fly zone over Eritrea for the time being.”

[Amigard]

October 01, 2012

The brutal suppression of the protest by government forces in and around Assab in the country of Eritrea was not an isolated incident by any means. While its Ethiopian neighbor suffered through a chaotic civil war that bathed the nation in blood and created a state of near anarchy, the people of Eritrea suffered under a brutal dictatorship that had subjected its citizens to an iron police state that showed no signs of weakening. A series of rebellions within the past few years had been savagely put down and the government had tightened its grip even further. The most recent uprising would likely result in another series of brutal responses by the government, and with militants from Ethiopia joining the fray the small country was in a position to quickly descend into a bloodbath.

People’s movements were closely monitored in Eritrea, and there was no concept of personal property or privacy. Local police forces routinely conducted random searches of citizen’s homes making arrests on minor offenses and enacting severe punishments for what they deemed to be crimes against the government. This could include a wide variety of acts ranging from possession of books, movies, music, or other forms of media that had been banned, to making negative statements about the government or its leaders. Participation in any religious activity including possession of religious materials that were not specifically authorized by the government could result in immediate imprisonment if not outright and immediate execution.

The Theocracy of Amigard had been keeping an eye on Eritrea, indeed the Amigard government had been keeping an eye on a large portion of Africa on account of significant areas of the continent suffering under brutal regimes with extremely poor records when it came to human rights, and Eritrea easily fell within this category. Amigard was in no position to be the continents savior or policeman at this point though. The situation in Persia was taking up the majority of the Theocracy’s focus at the moment.

Shortly after the Articles of Just Intervention had been formed Cardinal Steele had commissioned a task force to essentially catalogue the nations of the world in an attempt to identify what areas of the globe were most in need of intervention. Dubbed Project ASLAN, the task force consisted of teams of researchers, sociologists, economists, clergy, political analysts, and members of the intelligence community. The project was placed under the direction of the Ministry of Intelligence and had quickly gone about putting together files on nearly every country in every region of the world. While the Ministry of Intelligence maintained a sort of ‘world factbook’ that presented known facts about almost every country in the world and which was constantly updated; Project ASLAN took this analysis further and applied the concepts found in the Articles of Intervention and the Just War Doctrine to determine whether intervention was necessary, warranted, or desirable based on the current state of a given nation.

The state of affairs in Eritrea placed the country near the top of the list, though not quite as high as Ethiopia or Iran. Still, the Theocracy simply couldn’t afford to stretch itself too much thinner. It was true that the economy was holding strong, and in fact was generally improving, but the Theocracy had been embroiled in some form of conflict or another over the past year or so and the intervention in Iran had only recently begun. Cardinal Steele was well aware that places like Eritrea were suffering under brutal conditions but he simply could not commit the resources necessary to conduct a proper intervention without taking away from operations in Iran. Amigard diplomats in Eritrea were consistently being turned away and no amount of economic sanctions had any impact given the fact that Eritrea and Amigard rarely engaged in trade with each other.

The violent suppression of the protest in Assab was only one in a history of such reactions from the Eritrean government and things were growing worse. Though the Theocracy was not in a position to intervene directly, sources within the Republic of Paix indicated that the Theocracy’s ally may be preparing to do just that. Diplomats at Amigard’s embassy in Paix were contacted and told to keep their eyes and ears open. If the Republic was going to intervene the Theocracy may be in a position to assist.

[Layarteb]

September 29, 2012 - 08:00 hrs [UTC-5]
Governors Island, Layarteb City
Fortress of Comhghall
(40° 41' 26.58" N, 74° 0' 59.25" W)

The world awoke to the dreadful news out of Eritrea. The oppressive government holding power in Asmara had finally crossed over the line by massacring a sizeable number of Shiite and Protestant protestors, both of whom were suffering under tremendous oppression from the largely Sunni-controlled government. Over the course of the next few hours, the entirety of the Southern Red Sea region exploded into chaotic and vengeful fury and in its wake, soldiers had been killed. The cycle of violence only strengthened and as it were, the full-blown revolt against the government in the Southern Red Sea region was just beginning and its infancy needed a lot of nursing if it hoped to survive.

In the Empire, the news was received with the almost predictable sense of deference. Simply put, the general populace of the Empire wasn't too concerned with the happenings in Eritrea. Neighboring on the satanic cesspool known as Ethiopia it was no surprise that Eritrea was far from a stable bastion of human rights; and human rights were an African policy point. The Empire had campaigned for human rights but only in the far past, when the Emperor sought to build upon the Earth the Empire which was now stretching from the North to the South Pole, from the Atlantic all the way to the Indian Ocean and back. In recent times, the Empire did campaign for it in Sinaean China but that was an unusual circumstance marked more with an asterisk than it was the norm.

The Emperor met early with the Minister of Intelligence just prior to the daily Cabinet brief to discuss the situation but the Minister found him largely unconcerned with the situation. "It is a wonder it took this long," the Emperor commented in passing. When the Minister of Intelligence looked at him with a desire for an explanation, the Emperor continued what seemed like but wasn't, a rehearsed speech. "That the chaos we've fostered in Ethiopia took this long to spill over into the neighboring nations. Granted, the African cleanup of Somalia certainly put a kink in our plans, this is perhaps a welcomed breath of fresh air."

"Sir in regards to that policy, it is. But will the Africans become bogged down in Eritrea?"

"You're the Intelligence Minister, you tell me?" The two men shared a brief chuckle before the Emperor continued, "I doubt it."

"Sir we believe that they will become involved but not militarily. It seems, based on proximity, that the Amigardians will be the ones to take action."

"It makes sense, they being a Christian theocracy and all; well do we have any assets threatened by this?"

"Nothing of significance sir but any prolonged conflict will definitely cause a disruption in shipping through the Red Sea and affect trade to the Far East from the Mediterranean."

"I have no doubt we'll be affected."

"We would sir."

"All right this morning we will discuss the further situation then." The meeting ended and within the next twenty minutes, Cabinet members shuffled in for the 08:30 meeting. At its conclusion, the Emperor and the Cabinet agreed that the Empire would not become involved on the ground in any fashion, not even in a black operations capacity, which the Emperor always found teeming with possibility whenever the subject was Africa. Instead, the Empire would send a few warships, nothing major, merely escorts, from its bases in the Med into the Red Sea to ensure that Layartebian-flagged shipping moving to and from the Suez Canal did not come under attack from any of the warring parties in Eritrea.

[United States of Brink]

“We already have the September Fleet off the coast of Somalia, HORCOM docked in Aden, and various land based squadrons well within striking range.”

Briddick hesitated, but only for a moment, “you have my permission, I’ll address Congress this afternoon.”

Republican forces were already engaged in Ethiopia in a full scale military operation. Supporting forces were already mobilized and on alert. Eritrea’s government had picked the worst time to commit such heinous and publicized crimes against their population. Briddick had just given permission to launch tactical strikes against key government installations and military personal. It would be a matter of minutes before Special Forces units were on the ground in Eritrea to link up with local rebel leaders. While Briddick didn’t intend to get into a full blown operation in Eritrea, he was certainly going to secure its borders and prevent any escalation; be it foreign or native.

What was more alarming was the influence that Ethiopia was having on its neighbors. Yemen and Djibouti were still incredibly weak nations and despite their efforts to reform and grow under Republican tutelage, the atmosphere was still ripe for revolt. Briddick was going to have to tread delicately if he was going balance efforts in Ethiopia, revolt in Eritrea, and reconstruction in both Yemen and Djibouti. Meanwhile he had to deal with growing animosity in Windhoek regarding the recent explosion in violence in this new found theater. It was a tumultuous time for the Republic, a new set of growing pains for the still young nation.