Gray Wing, Boundary Zone
5:48 PM
The UYP's Ministers had been afforded considerable leeway with regards to their construction plans for the Governmental Complex. Their personal office spaces, in particular, had essentially been left up to the individual - and so it was that Annabelle von Liebowitz, Minister of Foreign Relations, had two. One mandated space in the bowels of the Black Wing, secure behind untold meters of blast-proof shielding and concrete, and... this. This airy, spire-esque tower, jutting out of the central reaches of the Gray Wing - the glassy penthouse-space at its apex was her preferred work environment. Less secure, certainly, but she had the authority and the responsibility to worry about her own security arrangements. And thus it really wasn't that much of a lapse. One could spot traces, here and there. Cameras sequestered away in decorative sculptures and potted plants. Faint glimmerings outside, circumnavigating the windows - tripwires? Or perhaps something a tad more directly hazardous. A faint, all-pervading chime, every so often - not exactly a typical security measure, that one. And not one that had seen the light of day all too often - and this in itself was a blessing. Regardless, Annabelle's office was still functionally a fortress, no matter its trappings - so it was that when she received the trifecta of digital notification, sealed envelope and gift-wrapped package, she could safely assume all three to have been screened with the utmost thoroughness. Assumptions remained just that, however - so it was that when the Minister sliced open the paper coating with a delicate polymer knife, she still did so with the utmost care. The beer was placed in a compact cooler beneath her desk, the dagger stowed away in a drawer. The letter and message were jointly examined, and gears began to turn. Thoughts turned to theater plans, to potential cost-benefits...
Annabelle was jerked out of her musings by a gentle cough - snapping her head towards the doorway, she bore witness to a rather imposing figure, and a calm, single-eyed gaze.
"Dammit, Eduard. How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?"
"What, walk? Come visit?"
He strode into the room proper. His shoes made no sound whatsoever on the lacquered floorboards.
"Glad to see you still have admirers. Benefactors, even."
"Do you hold some issue with my reception of a diplomatic gift?"
"Not at all. I'm mildly concerned that you'd try and destabilize an ongoing conflict zone for poorly-outlined diplomatic gain."
"Oh, please. I know I shouldn't be surprised at this point, but... what would you consider me capable of doing, exactly?"
She sighed.
"I've been offered the possibility of a deal that'll benefit the nation. I might take it. That's my job."
"And my job, believe it or not, is internal regulation. Falling under that is the obligation to make everyone accountable before everyone else."
"And I'm telling you that I'd have brought this up to the Council regardless. You don't need to drop in here every few minutes and babysit me."
"Perhaps I don't. But... I'm not necessarily here to hinder you. I said regulation, didn't I?"
"That you did. So what would you propose then, tovarisch regulator?"
"I'm assuming this to be centered around Herzpunkt, and some form of economic aid."
"So you didn't even- oh Void-dammit. Yes. A convoy, due to pass through Gibraltar. "Humanitarian aid" to the rebels - there's probably an arms shipment or two in there as well, but that's functionally a given. Mercer's gone and thrown his naval tantrum, and the reinforcements he's sending to their black sea fleet are liable to create problems if the shipment were to catch their eye. So they're asking for an escort."
"Which we can't reasonably provide, while remaining neutral."
"Oh come now. Aiding the suffering masses, allowing for safe transit of a wholly peaceful form of aid - great PR stunt, and they've offered the international trade equivalent of an IOU. Granted, it's not exactly the most concrete of exchanges, but it shouldn't be too difficult to divert a patrol or two to see them through to the Bosporus."
"Still a no on that, I'm afraid. We would be actively diverting fleet assets to aid the rebels, in however benevolent a manner. You of all people would be expected to realize that."
"Then what the hell were you-"
"There exists an alternative. We are already due to have an auxiliary fleet pass through Gibraltar, in order to enable operations in the Mediterranean as a support theater for the ongoing conflict."
"Ah. And I wasn't informed of this because...?"
"I'm assuming your brother pulled a few strings. Though nothing too obvious, strangely enough."
"Of course he did. Well then. That... changes things. In fact, I think I see where you're going with this. Passsive proteciton, leveraging engagement codes?"
"Essentially. We'd need not raise a finger, nor endanger our neutral standing."
She chuckled, rather harshly.
"I suppose I've been neglecting the homefront. I'll have to brush up on my internal machinations. Fine. We'll go with that. I'll get a reply to them as soon as I'm able."
"Excellent. I'll leave you to it, then. Oh, and enjoy the ball."
"Oh, you-"
But he was already gone. Another drawn-out sigh. Bastard.
Stretching a little, Annabelle turned to her desktop monitor, and set to typing.
THE FOLLOWING COMMUNIQUE FOLLOWS STANDARD ENCRYPTION PROCEDURES
On behalf of the UYP's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
With legislative backing provided by the Ministries of War, Finance and the Interior
The following is to be considered an official diplomatic statement, as per the Hirshivka Accords
To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Herzpunkt,
The Ministry Council of the Federal Bureaucracy of Yegla Islands hereby expresses its regret at the infeasibility of fulfillment of your initial request, with regards to the continued preservation of the Bureaucracy's neutrality in the Reinkalistani civil conflict. The Council would instead deign to offer an alternative means of preserving the transit-safety of the humanitarian aid shipment in question. Such a procedure would entail the following:
- The transmission of route plans regarding the movements of the Second Auxilliary Fleet of the United Yeglan Navy, currently in-transit to the Mediterranean Sea.
- The allowance for Herzpunktian merchant vessels to move into the vicinity of, and then through, the Strait of Gibraltar in close proximity (and/or directly alongside) vessels of the United Yeglan Navy, and further accompany Yeglan vessels in-transit through the Mediterranean Sea.
- The passive assurance that, should hostile action be undertaken against Herzpunktian merchant vessels while in close proximity to Yeglan combat vessels, said action will be treated in accordance to standard maritime engagement laws as a provocation with regards to the Yeglan naval contingent, and thus responded to with equivalent or excessive force.
- The potential relegation of de-facto escort duty to fleet elements currently present in the Black Sea under the guise of training maneuvers, with a similar engagement metric to the above.
While a functionally less formal and binding agreement, the protective measures provided in such a manner should be functionally equivalent to your previously-proposed set of parameters.
Yours faithfully,
Annabelle Von Liebowitz,
Minister of Foreign Relations
Atlantic Ocean
Strait of Gibraltar
6:11 PM
The YIV Semyon Velikiy trundled onwards. Its cargo was bulky, its cruise speed rather unimpressive - thus it moved along rather slowly, but in a wholly unimpeded fashion. Past the Atkemrian blockade it went, with not an eyebrow raised - after all, the vessel's purpose was plain for all to see from its very manner of construction. It bore no hold, nor really any place to stow away any significant quantity of anything much. And its exact mission was hardly a secret - the Russians had functionally made the partnership public from the get-go. And so it was that the lumbering behemoth of a ship floated on through the strait, and into the Mediterranean - it still had one further such crossing to go before it could reach its destination.
Local traffic was, in fact, at an all-time high. Freighters came and went up and down the strait - the Atkemrians didn't seem too bothered about them, so long as they weren't warships. It so happened that on this day, quite a few of said ships bore Yeglan markings - not enough to rouse any great measure of suspicion, but their numbers were above the norm nonetheless. And quite a few other vessels would, were someone to actually have the means to verify this, be revealed as operating under Yeglan employ. They sailed under flags of convenience for the most part, or were leased from minor foreign navies - not that any of this could actually be proven, or conceivably detected. And surprisingly enough, all of these vessels - both obvious and clandestine - carried nothing but wholly mundane, conventional cargo. No arms, no wartime supplies. A noted slant towards bulk polymers and metalloid shipments, but nothing much beyond that. Some also carried hitchhikers, of a sort.
Masked by the sonic signatures of the freighters just above them, the occasional Cetus-class arsenal ship would make its way past the blockade. Of course, the Yeglan navy didn't need to hide, in theory. It was a neutral power, and thus not liable to be tied to the Communists in any notable manner. The directive they were dispatched with, however, would be rather unlikely to appeal to the Atkemrian contingent. And so that problem was avoided simply by not informing the Atkemrians. They'd no care for freighters - and so freighters were all they'd be allowed to see. Nevermind the half-dozen or so passenger craft that used them as screening, slinking through the strait with nary an eyebrow raised. They, too, were bound for the Mediterranean... but their intent was quite apart from the mainline force that was to follow.
