ARCHIVED: Turquoise Revolution

September Zweitausendundfuenf
Zarya, Pelhafor, Kannexan Empire

The moon hung like a white pearl in the black night. Sparse grayish
clouds blew in the chilly autumn wind. They covered the few stars that
were still visible in the city sky. Under the stars, surpassing their
brilliance, shone the streetlights and lamps of the protesters' camp.
Turquoise and green banners flapped from poles. Tents in the middle of
Senate Square stood around a huge bonfire. Several hundred young
Pelhaforans sang and danced and roasted marshmellows in the fire. They
cast shadows on the cloth walls of the tents, in which some young
couples made love and others prepared for war.

Armed with batons and pamphlets, the rabble of youths gathered near the
gates of the Senate Building. The guards by now had grown used to the
gaiety of the camp and paid no attention as fifty able-bodied men and
women hoisted themselves up the bars and threw themselves over. They
landed on the other side. When enough of them planted their sneakers
firmly on Senate grounds, the group broke into a run.

The four cops at the entrance shouted in alarm as they were suddenly
swarmed by a horde of college students, who then opened the gate. In
flooded the whole mass of diehard Pelha Youth activists. Three hundred
protesters literally knocked the officers off their feet by their sheer
mass and stormed the building without bloodshed. Bursting right into
the main Senate Chamber, they half scared to death the janitor who
screamed surprised Spanish obscenities as they climbed over empty
senators' desks and made to the podium. The protesters plopped
themselves down in chairs made for wealthy, powerful men, and decorated
the inside of the Chamber with yellow and green and white banners that
read "UNABHANGIGKEIT" and "LIEBE, NICHT KRIEG".

When the television news cameras and the Internal Ministry marshals
finally reached the scene, the students occupying the Senate Building
made their demands. First off, a new constitution, separate from the
laws of the Kannexan overlords. All the rights of national sovereignty
to be vested solely in the Pelhaforan people. Secondly, withdrawal of
all Pelhaforan troops sent overseas for the Kannexan Kaiser's bidding.
Thirdly, passing of laws against discrimination.

The police dared not evict the protesters by force.

Formed under the auspices of the Kannexan Empire, the Pelhafor
Territorial Army (Das Pelhaforische Territorialheer) served as the
Protectorate of Pelhafor's defense force, augmenting Imperial Kannexan
forces. Kannex handled Pelhafor's military affairs.

In the recent Great War, with the entire Kannexan Empire coming close
to nuclear armegeddon and thousands of troops sent abroad to fight and
die in Rhuvish forests and Cronaali roads, Pelhafor was worried --
rightfully so. Then Chancellor Joerg Henneburg, without Pelhaforan
Senatorial consent, without warning, mobilized the 1st and 4th
Divisions of the Territorial Army, meant for defending Pelhaforan land.
The 1st and 4th were sent to Cronaal.

Pelhaforans were in an uproar. Over half of all Pelhaforan troops were
now overseas, fighting the Kaiser's wars with rifles in their arms.
In Kannex, protests arose similarly. University students stormed
college buildings and held sit-ins. Marches with hundreds and sometimes
thousands of students converged in major cities like Weiterburg and
Manhatt, blocking traffic and attracting news cameras. Many waved
turquoise banners and shouted anti-war slogans. Many sung German
revolutionary songs and shouted to each other, "Weisst du nicht, Brüder? Die Revolution kommt!"

As Kannex is perhaps Syrixia's closest ally, their current situation worries us. As such, Syrixia urges the Pelhaforan protesters to keep their protests peaceful and unharmful to the non-protester populace. Should things go violent, we will be sending in the Syrixian Relief Forces to ensure that death does not become commonplace. However, this does not mean we condone such violence. After the Great War, peace has successfully reigned for two months. Let it continue to be so.

An AFI agent was in the crowd of protestors that stormed the building. He had been assigned the task of ensuring that Nebula would benefit from an independent Pelhafor.

Chancellor Jörg Henneburg condemned the storming of the Pelhaforan Senate and at the same time refused the offer of Syrixia for Syrixian Relief Forces. Agents of the Territorial Police Authority (die Territorialpolizeibehörde) ran abound in Zarya and other provincial capitals throughout the Protectorate as rumors of plans to storm more government buildings stirred.

The Pelhaforan government cut power and water supply to the Senate Building the next day. Präsident des Senats Maximilien Trunicht could not help but to scowl in his next press conference, in which he called upon the students to vacate the building immediately.

In the half-hour before the police could reestablish a secure perimeter around the Senate Building, the Pelha Youth protesters had carted in boxes upon boxes of sandwiches, bread, milk, water, and mini-refrigerators. Supplies would last a week. Amid the boredom, the students placed little notes on each of the individual desks in the Senate Chamber, a little review for each senator. To some they gave scathing reviews, criticizing their policies and positions. Others they praised. Tables meant for legislative functions and reviewing bills become sites for chess games and even Warhammer 40k sets. The whole Chamber became a chess camp. The elected student leaders watched over the commotion, speaking with curious reporters and the occasional dark-suited man who passed along messages from the government. The government, for their part, were obviously displeased, but they were willing to reason.

Men in gray suits and black ties visited the office of President Trunicht the other day. One of them, a fidgety skinny fellow, introduced himself as a representative of the Teissen Food Corporation. "My people are willing to back you and Pelhaforan independence," he began, standing above a seated Trunicht, "if given some incentive. Who will feed this new nation? A Republic of Pelhafor needs food, Herr President... but food is not so easy to farm. I think, it is fair to say we can both profit off this..."

Philipp Moritz himself, of Philipp Moritz, Inc., came to see President Trunicht. He was a lethargic fat man with a white handlebar mustache. Naturally, he was smoking a cigarette, and coughing up a cloud of smoke in the middle of Trunicht's office. When he was not coughing his lungs out, his eyes remained half-closed and he sat unmoving in his chair. Trunicht though that, perhaps, what he was smoking was not just tobacco after all. "As you know, Herr President... " He took a whiff. "Pelhafor relies a great deal on my tobacco." He stopped, held up his cigarette as if for dramatic effect, and widened his eyes for the first time. Then he took another whiff. "Lord knows, what would happen if my company left a newly-formed Pelhaforan nation without our money and our smokes... Just imagine! Pelhaforans with nothing to smoke -- " With this he broke into a coughing fit, slamming Trunicht's dark mahogany table with his fist and filling the air with more smoke.

"I... I see your point, Herr Moritz," Trunicht replied, maintaining a picture-perfect smile while waving away the smoke in the air.

Nebulan agents disgusted a helicopter to look like a Cronaali helicopter. Under the guise of getting video footage and an interview for a major Nebulan news organization, the agents managed to deliver to the students more supplies.

Two men sat in wooden chairs on either side of a rock table. They were in a small pavilion by a garden pond. Leaves of orange and red danced in the wind and floated upon the pond's surface as the dark-bark trees stripped bare. The air was dry but chilly and the two men wore their jackets. One was the easy-smiling President Maximilien Trunicht, sitting cross-legged and sipping his tea. The other was his colleague Chancellor Jörg Henneburg of Kannex, a thin bespectacled man who held his expression neutral as Trunicht talked. Henneburg neither smiled nor frowned, but nodded and blinked every few seconds. He was a man of few words and an uncomely disposition, Trunicht noted, but somehow Kannexan voters had voted him into office.

"Well," Chancellor Henneburg spoke at last, "you have my support." He glanced at his bodyguards, the four built men in black suits and ties standing ten feet away. "Kannexan domination over Pelhaforan affairs is an anachronism. An empire can only hold a colony for so many years."

"You will still have your advantages, Herr Kanzler," replied Trunicht with a consoling yet omnipresent smile. "Your companies still control much of my economy. And under this deal, you will keep your airfields and your naval shipyards and your bases in Pelhafor. And, of course, His Majesty the Emperor keeps Pelhafor in his title."

"And you get your freedom. No more Kannexan interference in your foreign affairs and military deployments," Henneburg remarked. "The Pelhafor Territorial Army becomes, what, the Pelha National Army? I suppose I will need to get Governor-General Maschengo another job."

"He's welcome to become a Pelhaforan citizen."

Chancellor Henneburg laughed. "I suppose. He's an old-fashioned fellow, though. He would rather serve the Kaiser as a Kannexan." He sipped his tea, imported straight from Rhuvanland. "And what will your faction do about the Catholics?"

Trunicht's expression froze. "I beg your pardon?"

"You know as well as I do that the Kannexan Empire is only a scapegoat. When Pelhafor gains her independence -- and you become its leader -- the Catholics will then be blaming you for their problems, not us. The Catholic majority will swallow you up."

"That would be unfortunate," Trunicht replied.

"As you know," Chancellor Henneburg spoke, pouring himself more tea, "my party is committed to promoting religious equality."

Trunicht nodded. His smile had disappeared. He gazed across the pond, towards the bushes on the other side. "It may be true, Herr Chancellor, that the Protestant Ascendancy is an anachronism waiting to be ended. That is something we must face."

October Zweitausendundfünf

Through the Democratic majority in Congress and the support of the Christian Social Party, Chancellor managed to pass the Pelhafor Self-Government Act. Liberals were furious, as were Fatherlandists. "Traitor!" they cried. Hundreds of imperialists carrying banners and placards marched in Weiterburg, Manhatt, and Lohenstadt.

"This act," proclaimed President Maximilien Trunicht above a cheering crowd of a thousand Pelhaforans in Senate Square, "empowers Pelhafor to decide her own future." He added, "I will begin to form the foundations of an independent nation.

"I will establish the Pelhafor Central Bank, to print our new nation's currency and stabilize the money supply.

"I will withdraw the Pelhafor Territorial Army from Rhuvanland and Cronaal. The Territorial Army will be henceforth known as the National Army.

"I will establish a National Air Force and a Navy. Our Kannexan friends have been generous enough to gift us a shipment of several aircraft and two destroyers.

"I will direct my government to begin the writing of a new Constitution immediately. We will be known as the Free State of Pelhafor, responsible for our own foreign and military affairs, and also protected under the auspices of His Majesty Emperor Franz, who will be henceforth known as the Emperor-Sovereign of Pelhafor."

Syrixia congratulates Their Excellencies, President Trunicht and Chancellor Henneburg, for making the deal that led to Pelhaforan independence. We wish both Pelhafor and Kannex a prosperous future.

If the Free State of Pelhafor is interested, Syrixia would like to enquire about ambassadorial exchange.

Hiskjriaana would like to celebrate Pelhafor on their newfound independence and the leaders of Kannex for giving it to them.

Nebula seeks close diplomatic ties with Pelhafor.

The students vacated the Senate Building, cleaning and sweeping before they left.

A golden band across a field of turquoise, overlooked by a star and a moon. The latter represented the eternal quality of the Pelhaforans. For before the white man came and defiled earth, the native Pelhaforans practiced their own rites and spoke their own languages. They lived in their own way, free of 'civilized' life. And now, although the land was divided between those of the Roman and German faiths and steel towers rose up into the city skies, Pelhafor was once again free.

Yet Pelhafor faced a whole new set of troubles. The five divisions of the Pelhafor Territorial Army, numbering less than 100,000 in five divisions, hastily rebranded itself as the National Army. The golden-band turquoise flag was sent to every brigade. The Navy and Air Force were rudimentary at best; leftovers from the Kannexan forces. Pelhaforan defense in air or water practically did not exist. Still, there was no worry of attack. One of the first acts after dissolving the bond with Kannex was a mutual defense pact with the Kannexan Empire. As President Trunicht had promised, Kannex kept her bases along the Pelhaforan coastline.

In practice, independence meant this: the office of the Governor-General was abolished, the President's empowered, and the offices of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Ministers were created. The Pelhaforan Central Bank stood tenuously on Kannexan loans, as did just about the whole of the Pelhaforan governmental infrastructure.

But it was a start. Or so it seemed. The streets of every downtown of every Pelhaforan city buzzed with activity as massive demonstrations took place. At first, the nationalists celebrated. The golden-band turquoise flag with its star and moon waved in the air; firecrackers burst in the street as women in frilly dresses spun and turned in the traditional dances. Men shouted joy. Some churches brought out large ornately-decorated crosses and had the altar boys carry them around. The sun shone; the chilly autumn air made clouds of people's excited breaths. Pelhafor was a nation, for God's sake! A nation, on her own two feet.

Some members of the Protestant faith did not feel the same way. Many hid themselves in their houses, or turned their backs on the marchers. In heavily Protestant cities such as Ambers, angry men with red and white fought against angry men with turquoise and gold. Bottles and fists flew as celebratory marches devolved into free-for-all fistfights. Loyalists felt abandoned -- how could Kannex leave them like this to the dogs? "We are resolved," fumed one overzealous loyalist leader on television, "to uphold the results of the separation referendum, the results of which the government of Pelhafor has illegally ignored!"

Then the conditions of the Separation were made clear. The Constitution, written and passed hurriedly in the Liberal-dominated Senate, provided for a President elected for four-year terms, not by the people, but by the Senate. The Senate remained dominated by Protestant businessmen, elected by gerrymandered districts. The Kaiser remained the head of state of Pelhafor -- known now as the Emperor. And the government made no response to the calls for end to anti-Catholic discrimination, nor the continuing police-caused deaths of poor Catholic youths. And, worst of all, Maximilien Trunicht, that notorious Kannexan dog, that loyalist, remained President.

"Pelhafor has gained independence, sir. But demonstrations continue as the nation retains strong ties to Kannex and is ruled by a Protestant minority."
"Bah! Another revolution will happen."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I have said it and it will be so. Contact our AFI moles."