Used Assets (Attn: Finorskia, Closed)

[Korrodos]

Empire of Korrodos
Kingdom of Karluth
Isle of Kor
Imperial Korrodosian Naval Headquarters
Operations Bunker

Things were heating up. Figuratively of course as they were currently ten stories into a mountainside of pure granite. The men huddled around computers looked at one another with apprehensive looks. They were watching the world situations in their air conditioned bunker and tasking ships to operations. Of course there was an admiral as the duty officer overseeing things, but these men were doing the nitty gritty orders.

The fact of the matter was, despite the explosive increase in naval assets the Korrodosians were finding themselves overstretched and pretty thin in some areas. With the situation growing grave in some theaters a Red Paper to the Admiral of the Fleet was drafted. Little did the logistics staff know that some steps were already rolling to increase the naval potency of the Empire.

Outside Finorskian Waters
Korrodisan Imperial Naval Taskgroup 47
Flagship, IKV Sea of Tranquility

The pair of F-40 fighters returned from their combat air patrol and landed on the Nimitz class carrier. Like most naval task groups she sat in the center of her combat group, with the cruisers and destroyers forming an escorting perimeter. What made her special is that she was the largest carrier in the group, six other light carriers were in formation, along with the Hood Class IKV Admiral Regor en Karluth, Four Moagami Cruisers for air defense. Lastly, trailing the inner formation was the IKV Rulchulrach a Longsword class supercapital ship. Outside of this a formation of destroyers provided AAW and ASW escort.
The admiral of the ship paced the bridge, looking over the ships spread out in formation for him. He liked the view so much better than the electronic views the CiC provided him.

“Approaching Finorskian Waters sir.” The navigator said.

“Signal our intentions Ensign.” The Admiral said with a nod.

The satcom fired up, the following message was sent to the Finorskian Government:

To: Finorskian Government
From: Korrodosian Taskforce 47
Greetings!
Pursuant to our agreement through Lyran Arms, we have sent a taskforce to reactivate the vessels, crew them with our personnel and escort them to a Korrodosian Naval Base. In preparation for this we would like to send 5 Tenders, 5 Troopships and 2 Air Defense Destroyers to your naval facilities.
Thank you.
Admiral Regor en Karluth

[Finorskia]

Folkenstad Finorskia, Capitol Building, Defense Wing

Councilmen of Defense Victor Baskov sat at his metal desk in a comfy leather office chair. In his hand was a letter addressed to the government of Finorskia. The letter had reached the capitol and instantly been routed to the councilmen who it pertained to most, in this case it was Baskov. The man keyed his intercom connecting him to his secretary in the room adjacent to his.
"Mr. Mendelssohn please send a message to the fleet as follows...."

To: Korrodsian Taskforce 47
From: Finorskian Department of Defense
Good Day,
Your request to send five tenders to retrieve the six Longsword-class warships, paid for at a total cost of 7,200 billion standard dollars, has been approved. The request to send five troop transports and two AA Defense Destroyers has not. The tenders will be escorted by a pair of general purpose Hatchet-class. You must understand that we are a neutral country and the presence of foreign military troops and combat equipment, not belonging to well established allies of the United Nations, within our territory is not permitted. While you may send a small amount of crew to each Longsword to inspect the vessels it should be noted that Finorskian personnel will remain on bored and will pilot the vessels into international waters. Once out of Finorskian territory a cutter belonging to the Finorskian Coast Guard will retrieve the crew, and the ships will rightfully be yours. As this may take some time we will send several troop transports to take groups of your crews ashore for unarmed shore leave. I also humbly invite Mr. Regor en Karluth to our capitol city to discuss the finale points of the transaction and transfer of the six Longsword-class vessels.
Sincerely,
-Councilmen of Defense Victor Baskov.

[Korrodos]

Reply:

To: Councilmen of Defense Victor Bakov
From: Admiral Regor en Karluth

We respect your nations sovereign right to neutrality, though we do not understand how this pertains to our business dealings. Korrodos is not currently engaged in any conflict in your region, and the only operations currently being conducted by the Empire are peace keeping and national stability related in our own. The only international conflict the Empire has been engaged in recently has been against slavers, but this was a few years ago. The troop ships carry the crews for the new vessels. To properly protect the 1.2 trillion dollar investment each ship is, a crew in the /tens of thousands/ is required to operate it. Although perfectly capable to conduct the evolution of transferring this many men from our troop ships to the Longswords while at sea, the evolution could be more safely conducted in harbor. We can limit the time to load the crews and get the vessels under way to 72 hours, once the teams from the tenders clear the ships into operating condition. No movement of our vessels will be made until we meet face to face. If you would be so kind as to provide coordinates, my helicopter will transport me there. Thank you.
Respectfully,

Admiral Regor en Karluth

[Finorskia]

To: Admiral Regor en Karluth
From: Councilmen of Defense Victor Baskov

Our nations foreign policies may seem strict and based of off Paranoia, but you must understand one thing. The Finorskian military is considerably small in numbers and we have a ban on nuclear weapons. As such we do not easily give our trust to nations we do not know. Perhaps however, after meeting you in person we can come to an agreement, maybe even one that will involve future business. Enclosed with this transmission are coordinates to our meeting place. If you so wish you may send a pair of escort fighters, but in turn they will need to be escorted by a pair of Finorskian fighters.
Looking forward to greeting you, Oh and I suggest you where a coat.

Councilmen of Defense Victor Baskov

---

Baskov stood in front of a black Finorskian built SUV designed specifically to deal with Finorskias harsh winter weather. Weather that had recently blanketed the capitol in almost six, maybe more, feet of snow. He was dressed in a black overcoat, a pair of black gloves and a red scarf which had been a gift from his mother. The air was brisk dry, and cold enough to see your breath, but the sky was clear and with the sun shining brightly it served to warm one up. All and all it was an average day in Finorskia and Vicktor Baskov didn't mind the temperature one bit. He had arrived about an hour ago and was waiting for the arrival of the Admirals helicopter at Folkenstad International Airport.

[Korrodos]

Folkenstad International Airport

The NH-90VIP helicopter swooped in gracefully into landing pattern. It was painted in a digital naval/snow camouflage with different shades of gray, white and blue. The Korrodosians elected not to send a fighter escort, what it came down too is that they knew the Finorskians had more to live for then annihilation for something foolish. Two men walked out of the helicopter after it had powered down. They were wearing dress uniform coats, and carried longswords as well as a handgun. Leading the way was the older of the two, much more to his dress jacket. He was tall, with gray hair and a fierce complexion, especially the intense gaze of his brown eyes. He approached Councilmen Victor and offered his hand. “I am Admiral Regor en Karluth, and this is my aide Commander Varth Onassi.” The other man gave Victor a polite nod, he was much younger, a guess would be mid twenties and had a much less intense air to him. The aide watched everything that was going on like a hawk. The weather was not fazing the Korrodosians at all. It was much like the weather on their homeland, especially in the mountains.

[Finorskia]

Folkenstad International Airport

The NH-90VIP helicopter swooped in gracefully into landing pattern. It was painted in a digital naval/snow camouflage with different shades of gray, white and blue. The Korrodosians elected not to send a fighter escort, what it came down too is that they knew the Finorskians had more to live for then annihilation for something foolish. Two men walked out of the helicopter after it had powered down. They were wearing dress uniform coats, and carried longswords as well as a handgun. Leading the way was the older of the two, much more to his dress jacket. He was tall, with gray hair and a fierce complexion, especially the intense gaze of his brown eyes. He approached Councilmen Victor and offered his hand. “I am Admiral Regor en Karluth, and this is my aide Commander Varth Onassi.” The other man gave Victor a polite nod, he was much younger, a guess would be mid twenties and had a much less intense air to him. The aide watched everything that was going on like a hawk. The weather was not fazing the Korrodosians at all. It was much like the weather on their homeland, especially in the mountains.

A man in a black suit took a step forward, hand on his pistol, when he noticed the two mans weapons. Baskov raised his hand and the man backed down. He stepped forward to greet the two men. When the Admiral offered his hand Baskov took it and replied with a firm hand shake.
"Councilmen of Defense Victor Baskov, pleasure to meet you. Now if you don't mind I'd like to get underway." He turned and led the way to the SUV, which resembled a covered bed pickup truck. Upon reaching the vehicle he stopped, opened the trunk and turned to the two men and his bodyguard.
"Gentlemen I hope you will understand but I'm and one of Finorskia's ten executives, so if you wouldn't mind surrendering your weapons. Please just place them in the trunk." He eyed the guard. The man pointed at himself a questioning look on his face.
"Me too sir?" He asked.
"Yes. These men are high ranking officials in their nations military. I see no reason why if they have no weapons we should." Baskov replied with a grin.
"But sir."
"No." Baskov cut the guard off. "The key principle in neutrality is knowing how and when to appease power so that you may remain unharmed." He looked at the three men and gestured towards the trunk. "Now if you don't mind."

[Korrodos]

"Normally, we would protest. In Korrodos it is a matter of honor to be allowed to carry weapons in public, and, in the company of friends and allies, the removal or not wearing of weapons is a sign that you would not rise to defend them, a slap in the face." The Admiral said quietly. He thought things over for a moment.

"But, you're requiring your bodyguard to remove his weapons as well is classy. And we appreciate classy." The admiral removed his side arm, his sword, a ceremonial dagger, and a boot knife. His aide removed his sword, his pistol, a concealed sub machine gun he had under his coat, a ceremonial dagger, a back up handgun on a leg holster as well as a boot knife plus plenty of ammo.

"Wonderful weather you have here." The admiral smiled as everyone finished removing their weapons.

[Finorskia]

"Thank you for your cooperation." Baskov replied as his eyes watched the two men place their weapons in the trunk. The bodyguard followed their lead and placed his pair of pistols in the trunk as well. The bodyguard then walked around to the side of the slightly stretched SUV and opened one of the rear doors, a small pair of spaced steps lowered to make climbing into the vehicle slightly more easy.

At the comment on the weather Baskov looked towards the sky.
"Yes it is pretty lovely. We've actually been having a nice spot of weather for the past few weeks now, though I imagine a storm is just around the corner." He glanced over at the SUV. "We should probably get going." turned his back to the men and climbed into the SUV. The inside of the vehicle was similar to a standard presidential limo, but was drastically different at the same time. The vehicle was as black inside as it was out, with leather covering anything it needed too. The seats unlike many fancy cars were not lined with leather and were instead soft and more like a cushion so as to provide a more comfortable ride. Because of its size there were only two rows of seats, one facing towards the driver like normal, the other with riders back facing the driver so that he could speak face to face with whomever was in the other seat. This was the seat Baskov placed himself on. After the Admiral and Commander took their seats the body guard climbed in, shut the door and took his seat next to the Councilmen.

"So gentlemen are either of you hungry?"