StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Orena, Royal Palace

"What the hell is this?", King Paul asked his assistant upon seeing the order which landed on his desk, "What the bloody hell is this?!", he almost screamed.

Karol said nothing, but general Kulinsky explained calmly.

"Death sentences, your highness."

Paul took a moment to breathe, and decided to read the documents before getting more upset. It took him a few minutes.

"Is this really necessary?"

"Yes, sire. We can't allow soldiers to get away with looting during martial law."

Paul flipped through the papers for a few more minutes. They're not much younger than I am..., he thought, reading their names. Eventually, though, he couldn't stall any longer.

With a slightly shaking hand, he signed all six orders.

Army House, Shepistan

At this point, Sheppard was not even signing the execution orders, he was just stamping his signature on them, without even looking. There were far too many of them. Order was being restored slowly and steadily throughout Shepland, with ironically, the Old Dominion's help.

It could have been a lot worse, thought Sheppard. Course, the Astarians pulled off a real half ass attack; with weapons that would've barely passed muster in Biopreparat. Must have pulled them off a biodefense project in a hurry and mocked up some crude delivery system from existing weather balloons when it became apparent that a war with Shepistan had a high probabiltiy of occuring.

He had the report on his desk from Shroombekov -- while the Astarian diseases etc were resistant to Antibiotics and UV light, they were merely second or third generation crude natural selective harvesting of the disease strains. Nothing like Biopreparat's advanced genetic engineering and mixing of disease strains to achieve the precise requirements required for approval for combat munition standardization -- long storage life, airborne, high virulence; and varying incubation factors before symptoms began to show. The deadly cocktails dumped on Astaria had been programmed so that a whole catch-all of diseases would be unleashed onto the Astarian health system -- some would show symptoms immediately and kill the victim within hours, like the old Spanish Flu of 1918, while others were longer incubating, with no apparent symptoms, allowing for the infected to move around and infect others...

Putting down the completed execution orders, he looked at a paper which had just come in from one of the leading scientists in Shepistan, proposing a long term experiment to study the physical and orbital properties of small metallic objects...

Army House, Shepistan

The printer by the Generals' desk clattered out the text of the proposed Shepland Accord between the Old Dominion, Shepistan, Augustine, and Saint Kittridge.

Sheppard picked it up, signed it and held it in front of the VTC screen connecting him with Lord Fairfax, the Consul of Augustine, and the Regent of St Kittridge. They also held up their copies for confirmation.

"So it's agreed? If any of us gets into a war with the FUN, or any Slaver supporting nation, we shall not act against each other's interests."

"Does this non-interference pact extend to the MESS as well? What if we hypothetically get into a war with the FUN, or slavers?" asked Lord Fairfax, chomping on a Cigar.

"I suppose so," replied Sheppard. "Just don't make that part public. We'll hide it as some secret subclause. The population is still a bit miffed about the One Week War..."

Results
Due to Bioweapon attacks by Astaria on Shepland, the nations of Shepland have made the first baby steps towards a common alliance through their mutual hatred of Slavery. So far, it consists of nothing but a treaty saying "oh hey, we won't attack you if you're in a war with the Slavocrats or their supporters", but we have to start somewhere...

Shepistan also uses Dotmatrix printers, while everyone else has gone to lasers.

Command Bunker under the Royal Palace

"...The Carnage along the East Shepistani-Old Dominion Border is unbelievable. Tens of thousands are being killed every day by the ODAAF and ODA, with around the clock attacks on refugee columns..."

The reporter in the field,(in NBC gear, of course) took a deep breath.

"Of course, despite the situation on the border, reports are that the inside of East Shepistan is a nightmare beyond imagining. In a country of 110 million, 30 million more than the OD packed into a much smaller land territory the death toll is astronomical. We spoke to a ODA Colonel earlier today..."

"This is a disaster of the East Shepistani government's own making. They received the least amount of the spread, yet they made no effort for rapid containment. Indeed, until the ODAAF and AAF began shooting down passenger airlines, they were still letting people fly out of the country!"

Lonestar clicked mute. He set the remote down on the table.

"You have made a hard decision, my child, but the right one." Lonestar looked up. Gregory XIX, the Latin Patriarch of Shepland was standing at the doorway to the conference room. Lonestar started to get up but Gregory waved him down. "Sit, sit. These weary bones will be joining you." He was wearing simple chaplain fatigues rather than the colorful ceremonial vestments. "All command decisions are hard. Why, I remember when I was in the army..." Gregory shook his head. "When was the last time you got some sleep, Lord Fairfax?"

"Last night, your holiness."

"'Chaplain Hasselbring' will do in informal atmospheres, as you well know. Allow me to rephrase the question. When was the you got eight hours of consecutive sleep?"

"Uhm..."

"Too long, if you had to pause. I know your staff has been telling you to get some rest, and young Felix over there actually ended up coming over to get me."

Lonestar glared at the towering Dominion Knight, who was contriving to not look embarrassed. Gregory spoke again.

"How are things, otherwise?"

"Dr. Blitzschlag now thinks that we will be taking less than 500,000 fatalities. In addition, we've managed to secure the safety of several herds of livestock due to the CBR-resistant facilities at the major veterinary universities. Another thing Blitzschlag recommended that turned out to be right. Meat will be a bit scarce on the table for the next few years, people are going to be eating a lot of grain...We have some assets on the ground in East Shepistan, and our best guess is that there are already at least 25 million dead as a direct result of the attack. Not counting the ones we're killing trying to get out of the country."

"Hard decisions. Get some sleep. If you can't sleep, I will ask young Felix here to get a Corpsman to help you sleep."

Lonestar gave a wry smile. "Chaps, you don't look like you've slept too much yourself..."

"When you get to be my age, one finds it harder and harder to get up in the morning."

"Worried about the fellow in Constantinople?"

"I never worry about the twaddle of Schismatics."

Adams, Capital District


"The Shepistanis are claiming in their internal propaganda that their plagues are still running rampant through Astaria, but all indications on the ground are that the cures have stopped them cold. Even the versions that were starting to mutate seem to have been wiped out by the cocktail being distributed," SecState Purnell reported to President Garrett in the office.

"It's a miracle," was SecDef Dale's answer. "Our bio experts thought that the cures wouldn't be as effective on any mutated strains..."
"Apparently they didn't mutate enough," Stephen answered. He tried his best to look surprised but knew he couldn't. It had been a long, long time since he'd seen Marina, but he imagined she had gotten involved after realizing just what Shep was up to. "How many personnel did we have infected in Chesapeake from the Astarian retaliation?"
"About four thousand were still in Chesapeake when the anthrax cloud covered Shepistan and part of Old Dominion. BCR procedures were already being followed, of course, though we're not certain if the cloud reached far enough to effect Chesapeake. The personnel have been put into isolation anyway."

"So the question is.... what to do about Shepistan?"

Army House

"Have the Cascidians gone insane?" muttered Sheppard as he listened to the claims the Cascadians were making. "Release the reconnaisance overflight footage we've done of Astaria -- nothing's moving there. It's all dead, except for a few survivors holed up in buildings, fighting the Zombie menace."

Ministry of Health sending survey teams

The Ministry of Health today annonced that is sending volunteer teams on military flights toobserve both contagion quarantine procedures in the Old Dominion and to assess the current situation in Astaria after the Shepistani bio-attacks and subsequent Cascadian intevention with reported curative agents.


In a seperate release issued shortly thereafter the Ministry of Defense indicated that the crews accompanying the Ministry mission would be on extended duty and had volunteered for placement away from home. Questions in regards to the abnormally large number of names given as volunteers were not answered.

Misterian Central News Wire
Misterian national Senate elections over.

As the horrific Biowar in the south finally ends, so to does the Senatorial election cycle, after months of preparation by the Provisional Council. The last votes were officially counted last night at 2342, and the results published by the Office of Elections this morning.

The result is a slight lead for the Liberal party, with 327 seats out of 1000, 15 more than the Conservative Party, which garnered 312 seats - far more than election analysts expected. It is believed the war in Astaria brought many over to the more militaristic Conservatives.

The complete results are as follows:

SENATE 1000 TOTAL
Liberals - 327
--Moderate Liberals - 196
--Elite Liberals - 131
Conservatives - 312
--Moderate Conservatives - 187
--Arch Conservatives - 125
New Business - 263
--Moderate Business - 184
--Extremist Business - 79
Crown - 71
--Moderate Crown - 36
--Extremist Crown - 35
Independents - 23
--Moderate Independents - 4
--Extremist Independents - 19

The Senate is now expected to work with the Provisionate in revising the draft Constitution that the republic has been operating under for the past few months, as well as preparing for the executive elections.

Aleksandr Pushkov released this statement on the Biowar:

"The people of Misteria are saddened to have, in the first days of their knowledge of the outside world, seen such violence and horror as that wrought by these terrible weapons. We place no blame, but we hope that the world will soon move past such conflict."

Results:
Senate prepares to amend and ratify the draft constitution, as well as prepare for the executive elections.

The Ashford Times

PUNK ROCKERS ARRESTED FOR INCITING RIOT
Musicians involved in attempted attack on Shepistani Embassy


FILE PHOTO: Musicians Sergey Karić (left) and Kristian Biličić of Anti-Shep at a concert in the Old Dominion, late 2006


Langley National Police riot officers fire CS gas at Anti-Shep's audience after the attempted attack on the Shepistani Embassy

ASHFORD CITY - An anti-war rally in front of the Shepistani Embassy turned bloody when members of the punk rock band Anti-Shep incited a riot and attempted to attack the gates of the Embassy, only to be fired upon by Shepistani soldiers and Langley National Police riot officers.

Anti-Shep was originally formed in Farbanti, Shroomania in 1988 by guitarist and lead singer Sergey Karić and drummer Peter Tudyk; after going through numerous musicians, they moved to the Old Dominion in 1997, where they were joined by bassist Kristian Biličić and guitarist Christopher Havel. However, they would become famous not for their music, but for their subversive activities, most notably vandalism; to date, they have been banned from performing or selling their music in the Crimson Star Republic, the USSR, Byzantium, PeZookia, Japanistan, and (obviously) Shepistan. Despite this, they have managed to garner a decent cult following, most notably within Cascadia, the Shinra Republic, the Old Dominion, and the various Frequesquean states.

By sheer coincidence, Anti-Shep had just arrived in Ashford City, the next stop on their current world tour, right after the Shepistani bioweapons strike on Astaria; at the last moment, they decided to play a surprise gig in front of the Shepistani Embassy. After a few days getting the appropriate permissions from city officials, the show began in earnest. At first, the small crowd of Anti-Shep fans and general anti-war protestors, mostly foreigners, participated relatively peacefully. However, after Karić burned a Langley Armed Forces flag during a performance of his new song "Lelouch Lamperouge Is a War Criminal" and ended the song by lighting his guitar on fire and throwing it at the Shepistani Embassy gates, several fans interpreted it as a signal to attack the Embassy and attempted to rush the gates; the Shepistani soldiers guarding the facility responded in kind, firing into the crowd and killing several audience members in the process. Langley National Police riot officers shortly appeared afterwards and attempted to disperse the crowd with riot control agents; while these initial dispersion efforts largely succeeded, the band and a few stalwart protestors and audience members turned their attention from the Shepistani Embassy to the LNP riot officers. When Karić threw a lit Molotov cocktail at a group of riot policemen, the officers responded by firing their sidearms at the remnants of the crowd, killing and injuring several more of the remaining audience members. The arrival of several V-150 armored cars equipped with FN MAG machine guns forced Anti-Shep and the survivors to surrender.

In all, approximately nine people were killed and fourteen wounded by the Shepistani guards, with an additional four killed and eight wounded by the Langley National Police riot officers; two hundred were later arrested for participating in the attempted riot. While many of the rioters were sent to the hospital or detained in local jails, the members of Anti-Shep are currently being held under tight security at the Langley National Police headquarters.

At a press conference held earlier today, Duke Lelouch simply said, "If anyone's a war criminal, it's you, Sergey Karić. May God have mercy on you and your bandmates, because I won't."

News update:

The RoAAF has test fired a new weapon the AGM-48B Skybolt.

Range 2000+ Miles with a CEP of 200 feet.

CSR, Lubyanka. The Weaponization Committee



- So, your considerations, Mikhail?

- We should consider the nations of Astaria and Shepistan nonexistent for the current time being. Decontamination of their territories will be started in over several decades from now, considering the fact that anthrax-derived agents remain virulent for dozens of years.

- Any further action to take?

- Yeah. The Astarian attack has technically expended all of Shepistan's air defenses. The nation's government is in disarray even if it still exists. We could ensure that no one survives in Shepistan. The missiles will disperse agents over Shepistan. Each would carry only 130 kilograms of deadly agents. Anthraxites primarily, though pox agents will be added to the spray. And of course, a mix of anti-livestock plagues, highly virulent rinderpest and crop blight agents.

- Proceed.

2000 km off Shepistani coastline. CSR fleet of supersonic bombers

- Launch the Kh-101s!

- First wave, done!

In about an hour, the second wave was launched.

Result: the CSR's planes launch several dozen slow stealth cruise missiles in waves, which will spread biodeath over the course of many kilometers over Shepistan, flying at low altitudes, and impact Shepistani cities.

Somewhere in Shepistan

"THE ANSWER TO INFECTION IS HERE!" droned the megaphone, playing its pre-recorded message.

There was no answer to infection, the Shepistani outpost was but one of the few remaining vestiges of the local government. The message, one promising salvation, was a lie. The infected would come seeking a cure, and the Shepistani soldiers would then gather them all for summary combustion.

It was not pleasant, but for Shepistan to survive, the cancer had to be excised.

Then, the Crimsons - the cocksucking Crimsons - had joined in dispersing their plague weapons over Shepistan. As though the Astarians were not enough... the Shepistani defense forces hunkered down and prepared their worn NBC gear, awaiting another disease-dispersal.

The balloons came and went, and where their shadows fell, there was only death.

Shepistan was dying, but Al-Sheppards brave and loyal Republican Guard carried on their duties while hiding indoors. They would wait until it was safe to go outside again, and then they would go outside again to kill more of the infected... until there was no one left to kill.

But they were being watched.



Unbeknown to them, the shit-eating Shroomanians had made generous donations to the Crimson's bubonic balloons.

The Rage Virus.

FUCED
Fungal Union Civil Emergency Department



The Sovereignty continues its Civil Defense drills and has restored unused shelter facilities built by the Von Reagan administration during the Cold War with the CSR.

Protective gear including gas masks and NBC suits are now available at all major retailers and MacMillan MegaMalls.

Vaccines are being distributed to all healthcare facilities.

Orena, The Silver Cementery

It was a cold day - for the summer ,anyway - and everyone wore overcoats for the visit. The holiday was similar to the Polish Soul Day, when people went to visit graves of their relatives and friends.

Funny, that it's summer here, but it seems like autumn at home, Paul thought, as he stood solemnly at the grave of his fake father. He felt nothing for the man, but had to do it to keep up pretenses.

Millions dead...and here we are, mourning one man for the cameras...

He looked around, at the people lighting candles on the graves of their loved ones. They had the time to do that, to mourn them and remember their lives...the realization that neither Astarians nor Shepistanis would have the opportunity was just plain horrible.

The cameras clicked, the flashes flashed, as if the King's visit to a random grave was important to anybody at all. What price do we have to pay for the ability to do something like this in peace? Is it worth paying?, he thought. Murder, mass death, weaponized disease all came to his mind at once.

Life is an excercise in suffering, he remembered some quote he's heard somewhere, There is nothing I can do to stop it.

The King made the sign of the cross - again, for the cameras, took his wife's hand and walked towards the waiting limo. Even if there was nothing he could do, Paul resolved, he'd still have to try.

As they left the cementery, thousands of candles cast a hellish glow on the clouds above.



Result:

Uh...Paul emos over people's love for mass slaughter? Pretty much.

Comona Island Space City, Mission Control Site C

Common Carter Connoway walked briskly into the Mission Control Center. He was bristling with pride over his recent promotion from Chief Launch Controller at the JSC to a Director of Flight Operations. He now managed a team of more than forty people, and controlled spacecraft mission from the moment they cleared the launch tower to the landing itself.

"Report!", he shouted, like a general getting ready for battle. The night shift was handing over their control station to his men.

"Telemetry is okay, CCC", the telemetry station reported first.

"Comms okay"

"Systems okay"

"Life support...um, Doyle, can you check those readings?"

Connoway's head shot up. That wasn't a standard report...he decided to postpone the ritual of placing his Rock Ironbeef postcard on his console and walked up to the Life Support station.

"What's up?"

"Um, temperature is six degrees above nominal and rising.", the young technician sounded worried. There were two poor little kittens on the capsule!

"Confirm it's not an instrumentation problem", Carter commanded. After a brief flurry of activity and information-sharing, it was confirmed.

"Seven degrees. Uh, diagnostic seems to indicate we have a failure in both thermostates."

"Both at once?"

"Yes"

Connoway rubbed his chin, Goddammit, an of course it had to happen on my shift...

"Can we...uh, can we control the systems manually? To keep the temperature steady?"

The technicians began consulting their operations manuals to make sure. After a few minutes, the answer came.

"No, the operating system doesn't allow for that."

"Well...shit.", Connoway walked in circles for a minute. After a while, he came to a manly decision.

"Abort the mission. Deorbit the capsule immediately."

====================================================================

Low earth orbit

It was growing hotter and hotter inside the tight confines of the Mercury spacecraft, and the kittens were starting to feel it. They were locked securely in their special harnesses, but frightened meowing could be heard if anybody would listened.

The poor little fellas had no way to shed excess heat. Their gear made the situation worse. As the retro-rockets fired to deorbit their capsule, the kittens stopped meowing and began paning, not unlike dogs. Their hearbeat rose to three times normal, and body temperature began creeping up at the same time.

SSS "Murderous Von Schrom", Atlantic ocean

"There! We have an incoming!", shouted the radar technician. At the flying bridge, watch officers scoured the horizon with their binoculars. Eventually, the spotted the brilliant red-and-white parachute.

"Vector in a SAR bird...do it fast", the massive vessel's captain said. One of the watchmen managed to snap a picture of the capsule before splashdown.



A Shroomanian rescue and recovery helicopter veered off its station and raced towards the bobbing starship. Watched by thousands, its crew dropped a combat swimmer who attached a hoist cable to the top of the capsule. The helicopter pulled it out of the water and raced back towards the aircraft carrier.

"Clear the deck! All hands, clear the deck goddammit!", crew chiefs shouted, trying to control the unruly gaggle of journalists and sailors. Receiving crews grabbed the capsule and unhooked it off the cable in a stunning display of perfect coordination. The quickly opened the hatch and checked inside.

The kittens were dead.

Results:

Kittens die due to faulty equipment

10 Shrooming Street, Farbanti, Shroomania



The Prime Minister arrived with a paper sack containing several bottles of Sweet Meadows milk and a gallon of ice cream of the same brand, which he placed in the refrigeron. Shroom thanked whoever was up there for sparing those fine Astarian ladies, for allowing the FUN Freedom Fontanelle to relocate them to Shroomania before the biowar began, and for having them thank Shroomania by offering their produces to the Sovereign graciously.

Alison didn't know the truth behind the Sweet Meadows milk and ice cream, and Shroom knew that she must never find out. Thus, when it came to the milk, Shroom did his own groceries.

"Welcome back, Shroomie," Alison greeted with her usual smile as the Prime Minister entered his office. When he sat down, though, her smile disappeared... replaced with a sad look.

For a while, Shroom wondered if she had found out his filthy secret... "What's wrong?" he asked cautiously.

"The FASTA rocket didn't make it," she said with a frown.

"Don't tell me that the rocket exploded -"

"No, the launch was good... but the kittens died in transit."

"Oh... those poor kittens..." the Prime Minister said silently to himself. In deep introspection, he placed his hand in a nearby bowl and picked something wet out of it.



TURTLE!

The three FASTA turtles had been given to him by the space people as a gift, and this particular one had lost an eye in its brave quest in space - being among the first creatures to travel to the final frontier. The eyepatch it wore was a grim reminder of the sacrifices that had to be done in the name of space exploration...

"Those poor, poor kittens..." the Prime Minister said sadly.

The turtle he held barely fit in his hand, it had grown so huge over such a short time. Whether it was Alison feeding it well, or the cosmic radiation it had been exposed to in its space journey, no one knew...

CSR, Palace of the Soviets

- Comrade, we have been informed that the kittens you chose for the space mission... have died, - spoke Andropovsky very slowly.

- What? - Stanislav shook his head. - Oh... how sad.

CSR, Lubyanka. The Weaponization Commitee

- There are reports of an Astarian biological weapon-laden balloon to have fallen someone in the A.F.S.R.... apparently an epidemic could be starting in the nation, - slowly spoke the analytic.

- Add it to the list of nations with which communications are banned. Stop the air and sea arms supply runs to the PRSF... erm, I meant the AFSR.

State Business



Undisclosed location, somewhere in the Kirkwood Mountains

Just another day, just another crisis, thought President Hank. The atmosphere in the government bunker was one of resigned discomfort: San Dorado so far wasn’t on the firing line, but it didn’t pay to take inordinate risks – the CEOs ruling the city-state knew that all too well. “So, what’s our status?”

Sam Ralson paced through the war room like a caged tiger. The director of corporate defence didn’t like confined spaces. “From what our few satellite overflights have shown us, Astaria and Shepistan ought to be deader than hell by now. Shepistan was hit by the Astarian balloons, and then by a wave of cruise missiles.”

“Cruise missiles?” Director Iago Morgan frowned. Even though he’d been holed up in a military bunker for days, he still managed to look like a dandy. “I didn’t think Astaria had those.”

“That’s because they didn’t. Seems like somebody took offence to the Sheppo genocide, and made sure they wouldn’t be around for round two.”

“Good riddance”, murmured the President. “How’s the world coping?”

“We don’t know. Almost everyone’s in full-blown lockdown mode, just like us. We ought to prepare for viral outbreaks on the south and east of the continent though, just to be sure.”

“Coordinate with the FTO, tell them we're sending a task force to contain any potential outbreaks and ask them to do the same. And contact Shroomania, see if they know anything. How’s our economy holding up?”

“It isn’t” grumbled Morgan. “International commerce has ground to a halt for fear of spreading plague. We’ve got more than six dozen ships anchoring off La Palma and Port Regal, and even more on the high seas telling us they’re not allowed to dock in a variety of nations. International air traffic has been totally grounded, and probably will be for another month, if not longer.”

“So much for our roaring economy I guess”, the President massaged his temples. “Foodstuffs?”

“We’ve been in contact with the Raj. They’re keeping the Southern Express open. At least our people won’t be suffering starvation. Luckily there's no shortage of power and water, so we ought to do fine in those areas.”

“Alright, so we’ll survive for now. Right, so here’s what we’ll do: We quarantine Astaria, South Velaria and Shepistan. No-one enters those regions for the next two years, and those who do get shot and sunk when we find out. Shift our focus to trade with our direct neighbours and Western Frequesue for the next year or so. And finally… Daphne, Sam, I’m green lighting MAJOR TOM and KINGDOM COME.”

“We should’ve gone ahead with KINGDOM COME a year ago, like I told you”, accused Ralson.

“Yeah, well, call me an optimist. I’d hoped there wouldn’t be a need. Now do it, I want it all set up somewhere nice and quiet in a corner of Valley Forge, and I want it set up right quick.”

The Royal Retreat at Azzan, the Commonwealth of Vineyards


The Majestic Glory of Cloud Ruler Temple, the upper floors of the Royal Retreat at Azzan

“So, how bad is it?” King Brandon asked the technician.

“Pretty fucking bad sire, San Dorado is talking about patrolling the East. And that trade has stopped.”

“And Shep and Astaria?”

”Both dead, and that is from the FUN, and San Dorado.”

“Alright, looks like we’ll be here a while, keep me informed of anything big.”

“Yes, sire.”

Army House, Shepistan

"So we don't know who did it?"

"Sir, we have our suspicions, but since a large amount of technology exported widely by both Japanistan and the CSR around the world are common analogues with each other; we can't exactly pin down who did it."

"Doesn't matter. How bad are the contagions?"

"Pretty damn bad, Sir, they're getting out of control."

"Then I guess we have no choice."

"NO SIR!" shouted the aide. "Anything but that!"

"Shepistan is dying," remarked Sheppard. "And like Samson, we will bring the temple down upon us."

"Samson who?" asked the aide, puzzled.

"Issue firing orders to the 1st Special Rocket Fleet. I believe the code name is Third Temple."

Across the Oceans

Long ago, shortly after the War of the Cities with the Old Dominon, Shepistan had bought two hundred DF-25 ballistic missiles from the Incorporated Republic of Tonkin to replace it's obsolete IRBMs. At first, they had been thought of as white elephants, having no real strategic role or tactical role in the Shepistani Arsenal.

Many things had been proposed for it; from space booster, ASAT system, etc; but all these schemes had fallen through. Through each crazy scheme, the missiles had been kept in pristine condition, as benefited their status.

Finally, they'd found their role. It had happened when due to increasing tensions between Japanistan and Shepistan that arms deliveries were terminated. Shepistan had found itself with thirteen ships from the proposed Crystal Blossom Anti Carrier System, and no Igo-26s to arm it with. Thus, the ships had been converted instead to be ballistic missile ships; which wasn't hard because the Chrystal Blossom system had been designed to be modular; and it was only a matter of removing the containers containing the equipment for the Igo-26s and replacing them with the required equipment

They plied the world's oceans, picking up cargoes at some ports and unloading them at other ports, the world unaware of their true role. Granted, some did suspect their role; but couldn't pin anything definite.

Upon the receipt of the signal, the ships began to run their varied checks. At fifteen minutes before launch, the chief fire control supervisors selected tactical mode, and the ships came to launch course and speeds. 10 volt external power was applied to the guidance systems, spinning them up.

At T minus 55 seconds, the Commanding officer of each ship initated the automatic firing sequences for the missiles.

At T plus 0.57 milliseconds, the fire signal was sent to the missiles. By T plus 262 milliseconds, first motion began for the first DF-25.

A huge cloud of smoke erupted around the ship as the first DF-25 rose into the sky on a pillar of fire. Two minutes later, it was followed by another; until at T plus 16 minutes, all eight missiles on the ship had been launched.

Elsewhere, four ships were sunk before they could launch all of their missiles, but the rest had completed their launches by the time the KILLFUCK Anti ship missiles widely exported around the world arrived and rendered their lives excitingly short.

Some missiles failed; that was to be expected; ballistic missiles were notoriously unreliable. Still, sixty one missiles out of the original 76 continued on their course; each one containing a single re-entry vehicle containing 1,000 kilograms of mixed biological cocktails, but chief amongst them being 500 kilograms of bomblets containing the most lethal weapon in the Shepistani Arsenal.

The Shroomish Flu. It had first appeared in 1896 in Shroomania, and then quickly spread across the world, killing and killing, until it had burned itself out in 1897.

It had been thought gone forever, until a chance discovery was made in 1997 by Shepistani oil prospectors on one of the ice sheets on the Fuckland Islands of a remarkably preserved victim of the Shroomish Flu from sometime during the summer of 1896.

Shepistani gene-engineers had gone hard to work on it, and had managed to raise it's lethality from the original 1896/1897 outbreak lethality of roughly 20% to about 66 percent, as well as improving it's infectious period.

While tales of people getting onto trolley cars perfectly healthy, then halfway through the trip, coughing, and then kneeling over dead at the end of the line made for sensational stories back in the 19th century, they made for a bad biological weapon in the twentieth. So the onslaught of the cykotine storm had been pushed back via careful gene engineering.

In keeping with the apocalyptic message that had triggered their launch, the DF-25s were not aimed at any one specific country.

In true "Share the Wealth" fashion, virtually everyone who was someone had at least one missile targeted on them; but certain non-entities, such as Vulpesia, Cialan, Khitan, the USSR, etc had special attention paid to them. For that was the fiendish plan of the Shepistani planners. Why splatter your weaponry against the shields of a strong nation when you could infect a nearby country and watch the pandemic spread from there?

Quite a few of the missiles were shot down by ABM defenses on their way down, but enough survived to begin the Second Shroomish Flu Pandemic.

Elsewhere, the surviving Shepistani KC-22s that had been part of the former Air Astaria force took off from airfields, under their wings were the AQM-34R Firebee Long Range drones which had been under test when the program had been cancelled. With a range exceeding 5,100 kilometers after launch, and a ceiling of 75,000 feet; they were pretty good long range drones; now they would help carry out the Shroompocalypse with their deadly cargoes within. Twelvedrones weren't that much; but every little bit helped.

Back on Shepistan

While half of the DF-25 force had been sent to sea, the remaining 96 were still on their land based TELs. They raised their launchers and fired. 76 survived the inevitable errors in ICBMs, to continue on their mission. Like their sea-based counterparts, they were full of the Shroomish Flu; and in a touch of historical irony, all but ten of them were aimed at Shroomania.

It didn't take a genius to guess why. Launched from Shepistan, they could only reach the Old Dominion, IRT, Shroomania, and some of Canissia.

Launching against the IRT would be futile; for the Tonkinites were shrewd and had heavy ABM defenses, and it was a waste to launch against the Old Dominion when shorter ranged missiles could do the job.

As for Canissia; due to the small amount of land they could reach; it was to be expected that the Canissians had emplaced heavy chemical lasers all along that area; rendering it immune to ICBM attack. So Shroomania it was.

One Year Later

The Shepistani SSANs rose to attack depths, after waiting in the oceans for a year and raised their EW antennas.

A year ago, the world had been alight with emitters of all kinds, and the crews had enjoyed putting up television buoys from the sail to pull in Shroomanian television channels illegally from orbiting Stratellites.

Now, everything was strangely silent. Oh sure, there were still emitters out there; but a lot less than there were before.

"Shit. I guess it happened for real." muttered the Captain.

"Okay, get the orders."

From within the locked safe in the Captain's cabin, the sealed orders were withdrawn, and the wax seal on them was broken.

The target list was aimed more at the smaller nations on each continent, and each sub had the same orders, so in case one of them was destroyed or lost, there would still be target overlap.

It also contained the standard procedure for missile launch; which consisted of snooping in the area of the launch for several days to map out emitters of any possible air defenses.

Procedure also stated that there would be no mass launches. Even in this post-war environment, it would be too obvious. No, instead, they would launch their cruise missiles like snipers.

The missiles themselves were odd. Instead of being turbojet powered like most cruise missiles, they were instead turbofan powered; which led to a slower maximum speed, but greatly increased endurance; and rather than dropping the bomblets all at once, they would drop them in intervals as they cruised across the landscape at tree-top level.

Results
DF-25s - hey guys, forgot about the 200 I bought near game start, eh start major pandemics all around the world. Mass megadeath.

Survivors end up getting hit a year later with missiles from the subs.

The world, already reeling from the strain of the First BioWar from the Shepistani "Samson Option" which shotgunned everyone, gets hit by the Second BioWar, and surviving public health systems collapse under the strain.

100 years later, the ruins of the FASTA space launch facilities become part of some weird paganic ritual involving offerings to the Gods of Selene.

Orena, Royal Palace - year 2012

Paul closed his eyes. The casualty reports were coming in: despite martial law, containment was becoming harder and harder. For more than two years, PeZookia tried to soldier on, ruthlessly containing outbreak after outbreak. But discipline was breaking down now...corpses littered the streets, emergency services were overwhelmed, and people locked out after two years of horrible stress. Food was running out, too, not to mention medicine, fuel and all other necessities. Within a year, PeZookia would be dead, a ghost country. He has failed.

"...and it seems the design flaw was found and corrected. The thermostates were supplied by a certain company in the CSR which used inferior materials to meet their production quota and..."

"What?", Paul asked and opened his eyes. To his surprise, he saw Karol giving him a briefing about the Mercury program.

"Excuse me, sire?", Karol seemed startled.

"What happened...but you...Shepistan?"

"Are you feeling allright, sire?"

Paul looked at the calendar. August 12th, 2010, it showed.

"What the hell?", he muttered under his breath.

"If I want, sire, we could take a break...", Karol stared in shock as his sovereign frantically dug through his computer files, and then asked out of the blue.

"Shepistan is dead?"

There was a brief pause. The two FASTA liaisons seemed to be in as much of a shock as Karol.

"Yes, sire. Destroyed by bioweapons.", Karol eventually said.

"The subs!"

"What?"

"It has subs hidden under the sea. They will surface in a year and..."

"Sire...", Karol decided to explain calmly, "The Shepistani submarines have surrendered themselves. Their captains sailed their ships into foreign ports and asked for asylum, to a man, claiming they couldn't bring themselves to give the order."

"But they did! They did give the orders, without hesitation!", Paul was reading the report about that just now. After another five minutes of strained silence, he sat back, heavily.

"Jesus christ...okay, we'll take a break. Bring me some tea...and, uh...the kittens died, right?"

"Yes"

"Shame."

The Shroomanian Sea



Oh Shroomy boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

Prime Minister Shroom struggled to keep himself from weeping. The cremated kittens' ashes were scattered over the ocean as the Farbanti sunset neared its end.

As daylight receded, giving way to night, Shroom could not help but think of all those whose fates he had helped consign to a slow and diseased death in Shepland. The decision he and Stas, and almost every other leader of the world, had unanimously agreed to. The decision that saved the world.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Shroomy boy, oh Shroomy boy, I love you so.



And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

Slowly, the sun disappeared beneath the horizon...

"Tomorrow's a brand new day..." Shroom said to himself as he held Alison close.

And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.

I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.

"Fuck you, Shep."

USSR, DUGA-3 facility

- We have detected launches in Shepistan proper. 96 of them, as well as several sea launches.

- Ready the ABMs. Feed data to DON-2NP.

Crimson Star Republic, Byzantium, Pezookia: DARYAL-UM facilities

- Inbounds are detected at 6000 km from sea-launched ICBMs. Data fed to DON-2NP.

- Very well. Feed data.

CSR, COMMUNE-2: Don-2NP battle management and fire control radar

- Targets crossed the 5000 km envelope!

- Good! Fire the long arm. If that fails, hit em' with short arm. Are the S-300VM alerted?

- Yeah, all armies have been sent an alert message, but it will take them more to prepare for defense. We'll take the bulk of the inbounds.

- Wait, are we making priority targets to inbounds for Shroomania? From our sites in Pezookia and USSR?

- That's right; in exchange for their early warning radar use, we'll help them out with missiles. In fact, our system has sufficient range to protect a good swath of the Old Continent.

CSR, COMMUNE-2: the War Room

- Considering the number of nations to deal with, the insane attack by Shepistan could not dedicate more than 20 missiles to our continent. The Japanistanis successfully downed whatever this moron sent at them; they excelled at ABM defenses. So did we... however... - Andropovsky sighed.

- What? - Stanislav braced for the worse.

- One ABM failed to intercept, and the short-range missile likewise... the warhead crashed somewhere under Lipetzk, near the border with USSR.

- Plans?

- We have initiated a small nuclear groundburst at the site of fall just 3 hours after it struck. Aerial recon confirmed that it struck a densely inhabited living block in Lipetzk.

- Whom do we blame?

- Shepistanis. Apparently they had a nuclear device... that's our legend.

- Fine, - Stanislav waved his hand. - Now let's get over this crap. And get me damage assessments from around the world. We should help them execute the Comrade Stanislav defense plan... that is not something a stricken nation can lightly agree to, but consequences will be worse if they do not.

"Sir I have a validated strike order"

"Read back authoirzation code group"

"Sir I authenticate Alpha Romeo Seven Niner Four Tango Tango Yankee"

"I confirm and authenticate. Weps ready tubes one through four."

Long endurance patrols on the Josie Maran were nothign new. An actual strike order for live weapons against an enemy power were not.

Ever since the Molly Sims had captured a transietn exiting the attack zone near SubRon's 1st Patrol Group during the One Week War planners within the Navy had been upgrading every bit of software and hardware they could find in order to catch it again. Since that time a dedicated comparison track had been built to begin typing and classifying each of the, it was revealed they were calle dJack class, SSGNs. Armed with that informaiton there had been a permanent patrol rotation assigned to watch them in light of continued tensions with Shepistan after the One Week War.

Now, apparently, the national command authority had apparently decreed that the Jacks were too much of a threat to be allowed to continue. The Maran and her cewc couldn't speak for the other patrols and their targets but right now her weapons team was setting up a two pronged, two tube each attack.

"Sir I have a solution for all tracks"

"Match generated bearings and shoot. Chief of the Boat rig for ultraquiet."

"Aye sir, rig for ultraquiet"

"May God have mercy on their souls, Weps reload the tubes and standby to shoot again if we don't get breakup noises, Helm steerage speed only."

CSR, Lipetzk



- What a dreadful sight, - the President took a deep breath. - And you know, Yuri... I once contemplated to run a strike identical to Astaria's against Shepistan. That could've spread biological agents to undeveloped nations in Frequesque, and since they wouldn't have a decent enough weapon to down them, or discern wht it was... the CSR agents would've caused millions of deaths. Thousands of acres would be contaminated.

- We dropped that plan, - reminded Andropovsky.

- Damn right. But I always expected something like this of Shepistan, - Stanislav shrugged. - Let's hope the price paid for the exorcism of the war-mongering daemon is not in vain.

- You planned this all along, - inquired Andropovsky with a careful intonation. - How did you know that Shepistan was planning mass genocide?

- Pretty simple, - answered Stanislav. - We clenched once... let's say, in an imaginary game during a diplomatic meeting. Whereas my nation cared to preserve it's own citizens alive most of all, no matter the losses among others, Shepistan's leader was ready to sacrifice every single citizen of his just to murder everyone whom he considered the enemy. Essentially, his nation and it's populace were nothing but hostages of a madman, expended to use weapons of mass destruction on others.

- Why such an obvious hatred towards the life of his compatriots?

- Don't know, - Stanislav started smoking his pipe, regardless of the safety regime on the plane. - Maybe kids punched him with sticks when he was in kindergarten..