Río Muni, Bissauru
FILE PHOTO: President Hugo Shroomvez gives the thumbs-up to soldiers on parade in Bissauru's capital, early 2013
In the aftermath of the Pathogen War and the utter annihilation of Astaria in 2010, Colonel Hugo Shroomvez essentially found himself in the middle of southwestern Velaria with a legion of highly motivated freedom fighters, a whole lot of ex-CSR war materiel, and nothing better to do. After taking a bit of time to decide his next course of action, Colonel Shroomvez decided to set his sights on overthrowing the batshit insane President of Bissauru, Teodoro Macías; the ensuing coup d'etat was swift and bloody, with Colonel Shroomvez's own considerable forces utterly overwhelming the miniscule, poorly trained, poorly equipped, and generally unmotivated Bissauruan military and killing "President" Macías in a matter of days.
Now the
de facto top dog in Bissauru, President Shroomvez embarked on a quest to overhaul the entire country, starting with its government; to that end, he drafted a new constitution and reestablished the legislature and judiciary. With the help of various Tonkinese firms and some covert financial and corporate aid from his backers in the UCSR, he rebuilt large portions of Bissauru's infrastructure and public utilities and launched massive education and healthcare campaigns; money earned from tapping into Bissauru's massive petroleum deposits and from draining ex-President Macías' massive offshore accounts in the Caymans helped considerably in these regards.
Reforming the Bissauruan military, however, was another issue entirely. As mentioned previously, Bissauru's standing military at the time of Shroomvez's coup was small, poorly trained and equipped, and generally unmotivated; its navy was practically nonexistent, the only combat-capable aircraft in its air force were a few L-29s and L-39s converted to light attack and a tiny handful of Su-25s, and the heaviest armored vehicles in its army were a few T-55s and AMX-30s. By contrast, Shroomvez commanded a truly formidable arsenal at the outset of his Velarian expedition, including T-80 MBTs, 2S19 Msta self-propelled howitzers, Mi-24 helicopter gunships, S-300 and Buk-M2 SAMs, and even a few members of the Su-27 family of fighters. Integrating all that hardware into Bissauru's force structure was easy, but actually maintaining them and training the Bissauruans how to utilize them to their fullest potential was the hard part; while UCSR-made hardware was renowned for its ruggedness and ease of maintenance, actual parts and trained technicians were hard to come by (especially in a Third World shithole like Bissauru), and unlike the Katangwans or the Minoyans, Shroomvez could not rely on open patronage from his foreign backers. While there were some bits of under-the-table help from the UCSR and the Old Dominion, the majority of Bissauruan military aid came from arms dealers (most notably the notorious Yuri Orlov), mercenaries, and other private parties; again, oil money and the funds that Macías had embezzled in years past helped considerably in paying for it all.
By 2015, Bissauru had made signficant progress under Hugo Shroomvez's relatively benevolent rule; literacy, life expectancy, and general standard of living were all up, infant mortality was down, and the military was steadily becoming more and more professional. From his seat of power in Río Muni, Shroomvez administered the everyday affairs of the executive as he watched his new domain expand and prosper. He was somewhat surprised when several Bissauruan Army and Air Force officers came barging into his office with some...interesting news.
"Mr. President, we've found aircraft wreckage in the northern jungles," one of the Air Force officers reported matter-of-factly. "We've only started examining it in detail, but it seems to match the description of that San Doradoan space plane that crashed a while back."
Shroomvez was uncharacteristically silent, if only for a few moments. "Did you say San Doradoan?" he finally spoke up. "It's about damn time somebody found that damn piece of junk, and I'm damn glad it was us who found it! The San Doradoans themselves have been dragging their feet actually searching for their precious space plane and its passengers, and that Shroomanian idiot Lord Moonbeam's been violating our airspace with that ridiculous airship of his, tearing up the jungles looking for his drug-addled daughter!" Shroomvez cleared his throat, then resumed speaking in a slightly softer tone. "Speaking of which, have you found any trace of the crew?"
"We haven't found them yet, but we're already expanding our search as we speak," an Army officer said.
"Notify the San Doradoan and Shroomanian governments," Shroomvez ordered. "Tell them that we've found the wreck of their wayward space plane and that we're currently looking for its crew members. Other than that Moonbeam woman, who was on it again?"
Another Air Force officer looked at some old newspaper clippings in a folder. "Sam Ralson, Vincent Blues, and Clinton Westwood, sir," he replied after a few seconds of searching.
"Yeah, those people," Shroomvez said. "If the Shroomanians and San Doradoans want to get involved, tell them to contact us."
RESULTS:
Hugo Shroomvez is back, he's now President of Bissauru, and his guys have found the wreckage of the Bellerophon Silver Streak. However, no trace of either Miranda Moonbeam, Sam Ralson, Vincent Blues, or Clinton Westwood has been found...yet.
