SD.Net World(RAR!) MK II

[PeZook]

OOC: (Just to be clear, the post that Coyote posted happened before I went into the bathroom.)

[OOC: Well, DUH ]

[Lonestar]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Yellow Rose strike group departed for the Zablania coast today with plans on conducting operations in the Central Sea against the Kill-bot threat. In addition, two companies of Rangers have been deployed to help provide airbase security in Shinra, a country which is rapidly becoming croded with MESS-aircraft. A squadron of AH-1Z Vipers and support craft will also be deployed to the airbase in Shinra.

Said CNO Oscar Saldana "We cannot allow this threat to extend past Zablania's borders, and are considering options for a military intervention in Zablania is the Zablarg government cannot regain control of it's country."

When asked about the deployment at the Atlantis Chief-of-State meeting, el Presidente Lonestar muttered something about "The hand the bulldog had" and wandered off.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Constantinople Times

News Headlines

Cosmonauts greeted with great fanfare and accorded a Triumph

Justinian Arc of Triumph in Constantinople


The Cosmonauts, from left to right: Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev and Jean-Loup Chretien

The Cosmonauts Jean-Loup Chretien (Shepnukistan), Volkov (Red Technocracy) and Krikalev (UKB) were greeted with great fanfare and given a Roman Triumph as part of the New Year celebrations. The three rode through the city in a chariot past the great monuments of Constantinople and were cheered by thousands of people from around Constantinople and the neighbouring cities. They drove pass the Hagia Sophia before arriving in the Great Hippodrome where they were met by the Emperor Heraclius IV flanked by the Prime Minister and the Ecumenical Patriarch. The Emperor welcomed them to Constantinople and crowned them with golden leaf. The Emperor congratulated them for their achievements:

"Byzantium rejoices with these cosmonauts, who have done humanity a great service today. It is a great pleasure today to award them with Byzantium's highest honours and to accord them a Roman Triumph, as Byzantium has always done for its greatest heroes."

The day ended with fireworks.


Byzantium Government announces Budget allocations for R&D for current year

- 5 billion for Space research (4 for O.M.S.K and 1 for UAC)
- 1 billion for Quantum Information at Quantum Information Institute
- 2 billion for Fusion research at Fusion Institute
- 1 billion for Particle Physics research at High Energy Institute
- 4 billion for Basic Science research at various universities
- 2 billion for the various medicine research institutes
- 5 billion for military black projects
- 5 billion for Engineering
- 20 million for other humanities, education etc.
- 500 million for companies involved in various research
Total: 25.52 billion.

The remaining budget allocations to be dealt with later.

[Coyote]

"There's a huge, over-muscled fox-man thing in the restroom," Arik said, piecing together the murmering from the crowd.
"Ohh," his date said, suddenly frowning, "Fox. That reminds me, I left the body paint on the zeppelin."

Arik shrugged.
"No big deal," he said, "I'm sure there's choclate pudding around here somewhere."

[WesFox13]

Wes walked out of the bathroom, trying not to get noticed (as if that was easy for a now 7 foot tall, overly muscled anthro fox to do.). He then walked over to Arik and said, "Hey Arik, I think someone spiked my soda with something that made me change into this. Can you try and find out who might have done that?".

[PeZook]

There were no words which could explain the utter shock that Wes's entry caused amongst the gathered leaders.

Gaping mouths and wide open eyes dominated the scene. And, of course, stunning silence, which was broken by Paul the I after the giant fox-man thing started up a casual conversation with Arik.

"Holy...fuck. I had way too much vodka."

[WesFox13]

Wes looked around and said to everyone, "Ok I know I look strange. I think it's because someone spiked my drink with something that changed me into well, this. And I want to find out who did it. I mean I don't mind my new body. I think this is all right but I want to find out who did this and why.".

[Coyote]

"Dude," Arik said, stunned, and not realizing how much he'd just sounded like Hurley on Lost. "Wes?"

"Yeah, it's me, man, someone... spiked my Coke. I think."
Arik's mind wrestled with the temptation to find Wes's glass and take a sip to see what happened. He shook his head to clear the thought. Those days are behind me now, he affirmed. His date clutched his hand. She was equally speechless.

"Well, umm...," the Canissian leader said, "I, uhh.. well, I've always admired coyotes and stuff, but, uh, I never saw myself being one, really...I wouldn't know where to begin. But let's turn the question around. Instead of asking yourself how to get changed back, maybe ask if there's any reason why you wouldn't want to stay?"

"Well, if it's a werewolf type thing, I wouldn't want it to be an out of control event that happens once a month," Wes said.
"A laudable goal," Arik said, "And one that shows you care about the safety of others. But I say, if you were a were-type, you'd, um, being going nuts, and biting, eating, rending, gnashing teeth..."
"Good point," Wes said.

"This could be a manifestation of your subconscious, too," Arik continued. "Maybe, deep inside, you wanted something like this to happen, and the stuff in your glass only brought about change..."
"You could find a way to use your powers for good, uh, deeds," the girl hiding behind Arik said, hopefully. The Canissian leader nodded.
"There you go. The superhero angle."

"What good can a giant fox-dude do?" Wes asked.
"Well..." Arik said, "aahh...."
"Exactly."
"Sweetie," Arik turned to his date, "Could you please go get me a Blonde Russian?"
"Blonde...?" Wes asked.
"Vodka, Kahlua, and Baileys Irish Creme," Arik said, "When you need a good triple. Umm, anyhow, you may have to get used to being a fox. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course."

"Maybe he doesn't want to be a dog," said a PeZookian officer.
"Well, foxes aren't dog, they're Vulpes Vulpes," Wes said.
"And dogs are family-Canis. Totally different." The officer's wife, however, was looking at Wes in a completely different way.
"MMmm," she said, "Furs." Wes looked uncomfortable.

"Whoa, whoa, no skinning the dinner guests," Bean said, "Just had these carpets deep-steamed."

[DarthShady]

Shadow Empire New Year Celebration


The Great Emperor Shady addressed the nation today, congratulating the new year to the citizens of the empire and all those who live in the great SDnet world. He also apologized to his drunken comrades on Atlantis and said that he was unable to attend the party due to security reasons.

[Coyote]

Over Zablorgia:


The 58th Marine Air Wing flew low over the landscape, away from the ongoing attacks and blasts of the rest of the island. Their mission was to observe the robots and take not of where they may be coming from.

"Damn, another nice place gone to hell," one of the pilots said.
"Cut the chatter, Wang," their commander, Captain Vansen, ordered, "Just see what we can find out and head back to the barn."

Robots had been coming from underground hiding places, something which the Marines had trouble locating. They slowed the B-35Cs to the point of hovering at times to look over promising spots but found nothing.
"We need a MAD bird," West said.
"MAD bird?" Hawkes asked. "What's a MAD bird?"

"A type of shore-patrol bomber," Damphousse said, "MAD stands for Magnetic Anomoly Detector. You can use it to find large deposits of ferrous metals."
"What good's that do?" Hawkes wondered.

"They're used for finding submarines," Wang pointed out, "by detecting their magnetic signature against that of the planet's natural magnetic field."
"Oh," Hawkes said. He wasn't entirely sure what they were talking about, but felt that any further explanation would be unhelpful.
"Alright, let's head back," Vansen said, impatient, "We'll put in a request for a MAD flyby and try to spot their most likely points of emergence..."

[WesFox13]

Several hours later:

Wes had enjoyed his time over at the party, even though he did have a minor setback with the whole werefox thing. He then soon returned home. Although once he got to his house he looked at the door way and said, "Yeah that's a problem.". He then made sure noone was looking and he then closed his eyes and focused. Soon he felt his body returning back to normal. Soon he opened his eyes and said, "Huh, Looks like I do have control over it.". He then walked back inside his home and closed the door.

[Mr Bean]

"Whoa, whoa, no skinning the dinner guests," Bean said, "Just had these carpets deep-steamed."

"Dude we just had these carpets INSTALLED and steam-cleaned"
Tarps available on request please take that outside.

[Mr Bean]

[Encrypted Transmission to UKB Central Command]
This is Vice Admiral Gordon of the UKB's Southern Fleet aboard the HMS, Triumph . My battle group is in position and we have the first satellites and air-recon reporting in now. Stand by I'm sending you a live stream from the two Recon flights we dispatched.

R1 flight Report status
This is Rec-Flight 1 we currently orbiting the southern tip of the Island overflying what looks like a small city with rather large dockyard on the coast. Triumph Control do we have a map of Zablania?
Negative R-1, the Zalbanian's never publicly posted a map of their territory or released one.
Roger that Triumph, we are orbiting over the City 1, City one has several uncontrolled fires burning, we observe figures in the street's, we are maintaining altitude per orders at this point. But from what we can see here it looks like the city is heavily trashed. Multiple buildings are down and it looks like the harbor is blocked by a burning hulk.
Confirm R-1, can you...
Whoah! Holy shit!
Report R-1!
Sorry Triumph but it looks like the oil refinery next to the Harbor just went up, a good five hundred foot fireball just lit off. Camera's caught it, no idea what caused it
Roger that R-1, I.. hold on R-1
Roger that Triumph, standing by
R-1 Flight this is Vice admiral Gordon, I've been asked to gather information and quickly. You are hereby authorized to descend from 50,000 feet down to 10,000 feet and see if you can ID any possible human survivors.
Roger that Command, we are descending now, will report shortly

------

R2 flight Report status
R2 here, be advised nothing to report so far, most of the country seems to be focused in the cites along the coast here, nothing in the middle here. Be advised we've been getting the occasional radar hit. Nothing serious but it looks like fire-control.
Roger that R2, be advised your restriction has been lifted you may descend to 10,000 feet to gather information at your discretion
Roger Command, nothing as yet to report, heading to Capital per flight plan

-----
Triumph do you copy, This is R1
Where here R1, What's you situation?
Must have been ten, maybe fifteen seconds after we hit ten thousand feet that we got lit up. Must have been a SA-8 stashed somewhere because we got hit with some hard radar hits and had a crap ton of rockets launch after us
Define Crapton R-1
Uhh Sorry, We had I think two maybe three SA-8 rockets launched and what looked like little hand jobs, Sa7's maybe? Launch from roof-tops around the city.
Did you get a good look at the city before they launched on you?
Roger that Triumph, we got some good video, it looks like there are half a dozen of the metal jobs on roof-tops around the city and there are crates up there, I'm guessing packed with Sa-7's. Looks like the bot's are smart enough to exploit what was left behind by the Zalbania's. We also got a few possible human areas left. Looks like one possible zone still being fought over is the train-yard south of the city. The second is a set of residental blockhouses west of the train yard. And the third is what look's like a broadcasting station of some kind on top of the hill outside the city.
Any ETA on how long they will hold R1?
Nothing but a Wag Triumph
Lets here it R1
I'd say at most the trainyard is going to fall in the next few hours, the houses facing it are occupied and there are metal-job's in the parking lot outside, The Residential, no idea to much cover there and the broadcast center seems to be still being fortified but is not being attacked at this time.
Good work R-1 Flight, continue to orbit and give updates if you see anything new. Stay out of range of those SAM's.
Roger that Triumph we don't intend to push our luck out here

-----------
Triumph this is R2 Flight we have a report
Go Ahead R2
The Captial city is mostly intact Triumph, but there is no human movement of any kind. When we attempted to desend to a lower level we got hit with at least half a dozen radar system's and had to evade a few missles sent out way. Most of it looks like 70's Soviet crap but the Radar tracking system is a lot more modern
No Human movement, how about Human remains?
It looks like the robot's are piling them up in open areas, we saw some bringing bodies out of a subway, but no real clear reason, there is no, I repeat no on-going fighting anywhere in the city.
Are any of them leaving the city R2?
That's what we were trying to figure out when those launchs happened, the radar system is outside the city proper and the heavier launchs are ringing the city itself
Good work R-2 Flight, continue to orbit and give updates if you see anything new. Stay alive out there.
Roger that Triumph, Recon Flight 2 Out[/b]

[Encrypted Transmission from/to UKB Central Command]
Vice Admiral Gordon, I have CGS Carver on the line stand by
Adrmial Gordon? This is the Chief of the General Staff. I have just recieved word from the Crown, he has asked Parlamint for a former decleration of war in and around the territory of Zalbania, but in the meantime he has used his powers as CiC to free your hands. You are weapons free at this point Admrial
And my offical orders at this point Mr Baker?
You are to retain a 10% muntions load on the carrier, otherwise hit them with everything you have, your first priority is the rescue or at the very least support of any remaining human enclaves. After that you are to destroy anything that might let the machines escape the island as well as anything useful to them. His Highness said to "Base Delta Zero" the place if you had to. I don't catch the refrence
I'll fill you in when we have a spare moment. I copy my orders sir and understand, I shall begin launching operations within the hour.
Very good, keep us updated as the situation devolps
Yessir, Gordon Out

[Encrypted Transmission from UKB Central Command to OMSK members]
Offensive operations will commence against all active non-human military forces in Zalbania and shall continue until such time as there remains no island to strike or no enemy forces to hit. Basing rights in Pezookia have been guarrantied but we have limited space to land planes without shutting down the civilian air-transport of that country. Request additional forces in order to effectly blockage the island.

[Encrypted Transmission from UKB Central Command to FUGAL Axis member-nations]
Offensive operations will commence against all active non-human military forces in Zalbania. The assistance of FUGAL Axis Naval and Air forces would be highly adventagous.
UKB forces will be releasing targeting data of Robot stronghold's and human enclaves, if will to assist please reply to this message.

[TimothyC]

As the king of New Patria walks into the new empty room, he relizes that someone screwd up the date transcription, and he is a day late.

[Mr Bean]

[Encrypted Transmission from UKB Central Command to Nations to assist in Operation:Southern Cross]
The following to be considered Classified Top Secret as it represents current battlefield intelligence reports and the enemy threat we face.


Here is the enemy we face.

We've nicknamed them "Titans"
Here's the short list of information we have on them

The robots, with an estimated force of five million, have announced global war. They have also broad-casted copies of their blue-prints as means of intimidation, which suggest they have a bullet-proof (and to a slightly lesser extent, blast proof) exo-skeleton.

A far further dangerous feature is that they have the highest theoretically possible quality speakers that play the Titanic theme.

The "Titan's" as near as we can tell are an act of Q, they are a good hundred years beyond anything we can manufacture. They are highly mobile, seemingly tireless and are fueled by an unknown power sources. Were not sure if it's some sort of super battery, a micro-fission pile or what. Whatever it is when a "Titan" goes down it goes down hard and normally takes a nice two meter chunk of the area around it when it does.

The following information has been given to us by the one remaining active Zalbania National Guard unit, they have faced the Titan's in combat and passed along what information they could. They are currently holed up in some cliff's caves not far from the Capital. They broadcast the following information to us knowing it would betray their position

The Titan's are armed with assault rifles they fire a pretty big bullet, something in the range of a 8.5x42mm range. It's caseless and they carry extra ammunition in their own body.

As far as weaponry goes, nothing short of a heavy .50cal HMG will dent one, 5.56mm just pings right off, even their former commander's .50cal pistol rounds just make crack on impact. A few 13mm AT rifles and underslung grenade launchers are the only reason the unit is still alive, oh and Grenades do jack all to them, shrapnal is not going to take any of them down.

40mm grenades will put one down if you hit it in the right spot, joints, eyeslit or similar areas. The unit lacked any phosphorus grenades so no idea if that works well yet. One further note, if you immobilizes one, it will trigger it's self destruct. It's seem whatever is powering these things doubles as it's self destruct.

Tactics are unusual, they don't seem to be following any central command, rather if under attack a group will form up along classic squad lines, they use cover but not concealment as when combat beings they all start blaring that damn theme song. They sure as hell ambushed everyone on New Year's day but since then they've not attempted any ambushes just simple strait forward tactics, they identify a human out-post, surround it with enough Titans to prevent easy breakout, then start a search grid of the area, no idea how big, ID all other strong-point, invest them, then systematically wipe out strong points one at a time with overwhelming force.

Two final notes from our own air-recon
It seems the Titan's have "borrowed" most of the Zalbanian's former air-assets, a mix of Sa-7 hand AA, highly mobile SA-8 trucks. One truck which might have been part of an SA-10 battery near the capital was spotted but since it did not fire we have no idea.

It's currently unknown if the Titan's have used any Zalbanian IFV's or tank but considering how they represent the only real threat to them it's more likley they were destroyed in combat or destroyed in place rather than converted for Titan use.

One final note, it has been confirmed that the Zalbania airfroce such as it, was destroyed in place, no planes made it airborne from the Capital, no Civilian transports, no fighters, nothing. They were burning or burn't out on the airfield according to our satellite photo's.

More information as the situation develops.

[Mr Bean]

[Operation:Southern Cross]
Objectives
1. To achieve air-dominance over Zalbania airspace by neutralizing all functioning Titan AA weaponry.
2. To identify all remaining human strongholds
3. To support those strongholds with Close Air-Support and if possible airlift the civilians out.
4. To prevent the Titan's from bring their war to any other nation.

Plan
We will first use Fugal Axis and OMSK pact aircraft along with Mess air power to ID and destroy all launcher systems. Concurrent with this phase we will also use all member nations Recon assets to rapidly ID any area that may still contain a human resistant presence.

One the first two parts of the plan have succeeded we can move onto further phases such as actively helping human strongholds escape. Needless to say should a stronghold already be under-siege by "Titan" forces it is of course necessary to render instant assistance, however such assistance will be much easier to give one the first Objective has been met in full.

[Mr Bean]

[Operation:Southern Cross]

Target Areas

City 1:See Previous Recon reports for details

City 2: Middle Bay area of Island not yet reconned

Zalbania Countryside South:Beachs, small towns, has yet to be fully reconed

Zalbania Countryside North:Farming, Fishing, middle sized towns, not yet fully reconned

Zalbania Captial:Reconned, no human surviors in city, Zalbania Army unit holed up outside city in natural cliff cave formation.

Zalbania Volcano:Not yet reconned

[MKSheppard]

Transcript of a mission flown by a SAC bomber crew



"Coming up on Zablorg; I'm picking up all kinds of attack radar and crap on the airwaves. Looks like the toasters are out in force."

"Are we jamming?"

"Yes."

"Good, what do we got here?"


Declassified Radar Imagery from the mission

"Dial that in for the attack system as a reference landmark. We'll bomb from that landmark."

"Right."

"The weapons fuzed?"

"Yep."

Stores Management System
Forward Weapons Bay: 20 x WCMD-I (220 x 1.5 kg inciendary bomblets each)
Aft Weapons Bay 10 x WCMD-I (220 x 1.5 kg inciendary bomblets each)

"Right, hope the guys ahead of us remember to drop their lightcase bombs to rip the roofs off so our bomblets can do their job."

(Explosions seen on horizon, along with missile trails and tracer fire)

"Yep, I'd say they're doing their job."

"Coming up on our assigned sector."

"Bomb bay doors open."

[Whump Whump]

"Bombs away."

OMSK News Transcript -- Shepnukistani DoD Press Conference

REPORTER: "Mr Secretary, why are you burning down Zablorg? Aren't robots immune to fire?"

SECDEF SLADE: "I'll let my executive assistant Namaah answer that one."

[15 second pause]

EA NAMAAH: "That is a very good question. While their shiny metal robotic exteriors may be more resistant to fire than human flesh; they overheat and burn out just as fast as humans do. We calculated the temperatures of a typical firestorm caused by our bombers would reach temperatures high enough to cook the electronic brains of the robots."

[The Yosemite Bear]

Draft an order releasing the kirovs for action against the Machines who have conquered Zalbania.

Good News from the Bear Republic.

with the reconstruction work on Pirate's Bay, and Reaver's Valley continuing with much of the work being done by Refugees from Sydonia, a new community refered to as "Little Sydonia" has grown up illegally squatting in condemed buildings in Pirate's Bay and quietly bringing the buildings up to code, with stolen power and water. Emporer Colin issued an Amnesty, and suggested to the media that it was a good idea.

meanwhile, the senate refuses to fill out a budget, however most people believe that they will be spending the majority of their budget on repair and recovery.

[K. A. Pital]

The second An-225 serial production unit delivered to New Gottland!

We are happy to announce the fulfillment of contract obligations by the nation of New Gottland and deliver the state-of-the-art cargo plane, shall it be required by either New Gottland's military or economy.

Completed arms shipment to Shadow Empire: 50 An-26, 20 BTR-60 and 5 MiG-21 fighters.




[ Enjoy your weapons, guys! ]

[Beowulf]

Lowell test satellites reach orbit

The MESS Space Agency announced it had successfully launched 5 out of the 6 test satellites for the Lowell Satellite Navigation System. LT-4 veered off course during launch and was destroyed.

---

Second Bomb Wing enters combat

Tu-160s from the 2d Bomb Wing dropped their first munitions in anger today, in support of the joint effort to destroy the machine menace.

---

Lockmart successfully tests POLAR missile
Today at Black Sands Missile Range, Lockmart successfully launched a POLAR project test article, now designated by the Peace Department at XRGM-181. It impacted 100 miles away from the launch point, missing the aimpoint by only 50 feet. It is expected that accuracy will increase when the Lowell constellation is operational.

[TimothyC]

To help with recon, and to hopefully stimulate sales, the New Patrian Air Force is using the OMSK pact to forward deploy it's AD-3B/EP-3C recon combination. The AD-3s can orbit target areas at an altitude of over 50,000 feet, and relay data back to the EP-3s for transmission to allied fighters and bombers. The Forces deployed will consist of 12 AD-3Bs (armed with Anti-missile modified AMRAAMs), 4 EP-3C craft, 10 C-130Js for equipment transport, and 10 KC-10A tankers for further support and personnel transport (thanks Shep).

Also thanks to OMSK pact cooperation - the AD-3Bs can direct up-link to any advanced enough system (IE Shep's E-4s, B-1s, and F-22s).

And at a new low price of just 9 million per drone, and a control station for just another 5 million, it allows smaller nations to help defend themselves!

Edit: New Patria has just announced that they previously discovered Norhter Field Gas Field, is several times it's original size, and now starts to extend into Nukistani and Bear Republican territorial waters. Any gas in those areas is property of the respective territorial owners, but the rest is ours as we found it first!

[Zor]

In the Name of International Security His majesty has Dispatched to commit an international force for Zalbania, including a task force led by the Kirov Class HMZS-Victorium (CBM-2) already at the coast and commencing long range missile bombardment, while the RZAF offers full support in bombing campaigns against the Island. His Majesty also pledges military support, all armored forces have been put on alert and we have readied our Apache Helecopter fleet for air support.

Zor

[PeZook]

New Year State of the Republic adress

Today, the King has adressed the Parliament, outlining the plans of his cabinet for the following year.

"New Year's celebration has ended, and with 2009 come new challenges, but also new hopes. While the Zablanian Robot Crisis rages on, strange things happen all over the archipelagos and terrorism seems on the rise, we must not give up our hope: hope for a better world, for a safer world, where we can all live out lives in peace.

The Republic's government has done its best to prepare for this year. I shall now present the planned budget for FY2009.

Code: Select all

INCOME (bln USD)
Income tax	2,8
Sales tax	2,2
Tarrifs	0,5
Vice tax	0,3
Fine, other minor srcs	0,2
Sale of FCS ships	0,008
ISCA dividend	0,026
Deficit spending	0,28
Total	6,314

Code: Select all

EXPENSES (bln USD)
Social security	1,6
Medical services	1,2
Education	0,9
Military	0,86
Police, firefighting	0,5
Infrastructure	0,7
Investment in industry	0,214
(Construction of tank factory	0,1
Subsidies for electronics industry	0,114)
ISCA 	0,04
Establishment of a naval academy	0,1
Respresentative spending	0,1
Other	0,1
Total	6,314

As the honorable representatives can see, we have many great things planned for this year. While not approaching spectacular achievements of the OMSK pact in scope, they shall nevertheless be a great undertaking for a nation of our size.

First, industry. We shall invest a total of 214 million dollars in our domestic industry. Out of this, 114 million shall go towards supporting our domestic electronics industry. While small, our innovative ideas and researches have already contributed in a concrete way to the greatest endeavours of New Earth - our modest participation in the SPIRAL program is nevertheless a reason for pride, and should be an example to pursue.

Another 100 million dollars shall finance the construction of a vehicle factory that shall produce missile launchers for the Blackbeard program. These vehicles shall aid in the defence of the Central Sea, and the factory will provide employment for hundreds of workers, who shall also be form the basis of our domestic vehicle industry.

As the honorable Representatives no doubt are aware, a significant expansion of our domestic military force is planned. The Ministry Of Defence has been assigned funds for the following purchases:
- One JASD command vehicle
- One computerized JASD training center for officers and missile operators
- One fully functional JASD battery

In addition to this expansion of our defensive capabilities, the Ministry has been authorized to form the first fighter/training squadron of our airforce. For a sum of 115 million dollars, ten Yak-130 light aircraft shall be procured, and an airbase constructed on Paradiso Island. Our pilots are already underdoing training in Shroomania, and will return shortly, granting us the capability to police our own skies.

It is the government's hope that the Parliament shall approve these expenses, and help us build a new, stronger and more prosperous PeZookia."

ECONOMIC DATA RELEASED

The Ministry of Finance has released the complete economic data for FY2008:

Code: Select all

GDP by end of year: 65,3125 bln USD
Annual GDP growth: 4.7%
GDP per capita: 13 062
Inflation: 3.1%
Population below poverty rate: 16%

Total estimated population: 5 002 500
Total population growth: 0.05% (incl. immigration, emigration, live birth and deaths)
Life expectancy at birth: 59 male, 61 female
Total literacy rate: 94%

ISCA BEGINS FULL-SCALE PRODUCTION

After nearly four months of organization work and budgetary debates, the ISCA has placed the first work orders for new ships planned for FY2009. Shipyard all over ISCA nations have laid keels for a new generation of merchant ships.

"We are very optimistic", said the newly appointed ISCA director,"The ISCA will add nearly two megatonnes DWT to the world's shipping capacity. This will almost certainly result in vastly cheaper transport for all trading companies, thus bolstering trade amongst all nations."

When asked about the biggest ship purchase, the Director had this to say:

"Well, the Red Technocracy is the biggest purchaser from ISCA by far. They ordered 57 FCS ships this year, which translates to over half the total ISCA shipbuilding capacity."

Another question concerned the Nuclear Passenger Ship project announced earlier this year

"Yes, we are certainly going through with this - in fact, we've put off expanding our capacity because of this project. We really expect great things to come out of this: a testbed ship will be launched by the end of the year, and we'll be collecting data on its performance throughout FY2010. This is a revolutionary concept: passenger and cargo ships which can sail for years and years without refuelling, and generate enough power for very fast cruising speeds. They really have the potential to revolutionize merchant shipping, since such a ship would only be refuelled once or twice during its projected lifetime. Which is why the ISCA has comitted 450 million US dollars towards making this concept a reality, of course."

This is truly looking to be a revolutionary year for New Earth's merchant navies.

[K. A. Pital]

Red Technocracy Arms Trade Bonanza

Supreme Council authorizes the last arms shipment for this year, to the IInd Republic of Pezookia.