Ugrian Rocket Launch (Invite Only) (COMPLETE)

September 27, 2012, Rural Ugria

6:54PM, 6 minutes until launch...

Scientist Peeter Tamm was looked up towards his work. This would be the greatest test of his career; testing what they were calling a space rocket. As he gazed at his creation, he couldn't but admire the months upon months of effort, despite his feelings of apprehension.

"Get the cameras up! The media will love this." he ordered.
"Just nii!*" a soldier blurted back.

And thus it was done. UTV had a front row seat to what was about to happen. Years of tireless work on rocket prototypes had led up to this moment... Peeter was fearful, though. This was it, the time for success or failure. Billions of marks on the line.

He gazed at his watch...

6:59PM, 1 minute until launch...

Peeter composed himself as he prepared to give the launch order. Apprehension overwhelmed him. He was unsure if he could bring himself to give the order, but at last...

...he started the countdown.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, FIRE!"

The rocket's engine lit up, and then began to rise into the sky. Peeter gazed up into the sky as the rocket soared overhead. A tear rolls down his cheek. "Success." he quietly whispers to himself.

Clapping and cheering breaks out among the scientists and soldiers. They had finally launched their rocket sucessfully into space. Peeter wasn't cheering though; instead, he was praying for success, for he was still worried about the last separation. That would be one of the hardest parts.


*Just Nii-Ugrian Expression for "Yes Sir" Literally translates as "Like you ordered"

Vidar clutched his mug of tea tightly, trying to absorb what little warmth remained in it. It had been just twelve hours since Ugria launched their rocket, with no prior warnings and no previous intelligence on it. Indeed, it had set off a Missile Early Alert System in the northern city of Poneskrona, causing a minor panic before being switched off upon hearing of the official Ugrian broadcast.

And now here he sat, in the meeting room of the Xentheridan Embassy, facing Rahul Khanna - the fucking Syrixian Secretary of State - talking about what what on earth had happened.

“...so to recap. Ugria has launched their own rocket, without informing us, cooperating with us, or giving us any warning at all? And we’ve had no intelligence about any Ugrian space program at all. Hell, they didn’t even cooperate with any other nations on the whole of Eras on making their rocket.”

Vidar nodded. “This entire thing has been planned wholly in secret, but why? Why would Ugria need to hide a space program? It’s clearly much, much bigger than this. We need to find out what they would need to keep so secret.”

Then it clicked. Of course! How could he have forgotten?

“There could be… one possibility.” Vidar began, slowly and cautiously planning his words. “What other type of rocket is especially similar to one used in space? A ballistic missile. Hell, the first Xentheridan satellite programs began using re-purposed ICBMs. They could be making an ICBM, which of course they would need to keep secret. And the logical progression from that would be…” he left his words hanging from his lips, but nobody could deny the elephant in the room that had just emerged. A nuclear warhead. The biggest violation of the Thorium Treaty that Ugria could manage.

Rahul thought for a moment. “That’s a good possibility.” he said, “but we really can’t confirm anything yet. I mean, they could be launching secret military satellites that aren’t nuclear-related, which makes some sense on their secrecy. But we can’t rule out your possibility. I think the best course of action here would be for each of our respective foreign affairs departments to make a statement expressing some concern on the Ugrian launch. From there, all we can do is watch and wait for more developments to unfold.”

---

September 30, 2012, Võnnu

11:40AM, the sun was shining, Peeter's blinds let through beams of light... Republic Day, Peeter had been waiting for this for a while. Cracking open a beer, his eyes glazed towards the TV. He reclined back on his couch. He had caught the last parts of the Infantry marching past during the parade. The Military Hardware followed. As the tanks passed by to the March of the Tankists, he began to feel hungry. As the commanders saluted with their heads out of the vehicles, he left to fix himself some porridge. By the time Peeter returned with a bowl, it was 12:00PM, the Military portion of the parade was now over. He now saw shcool kids dancing down the avenue, and then... something familiar... The announcer called it the "K-1 Rocket". People applauded as it drove past, he then realised... Of course! It was the rocket he had worked on for so long. "Why the fuck were they parading his rocket in front of the world?" He thought. The Ministry of War wouldn't hear the end of his berating, he thought. He quickly got dressed, as usual in his suit and tie and stormed out of the apartment. Soon he was at the Ministry of War. He asked to meet the Parade Organisers, he was quickly directed there.

He began to speak: "Why was my rocket on parade? It was supposed to be top secret!"
A nervous voice replies: "They knew we had a missile... had to parade it"
"Kurat Võtaks*... Do you realise how much worse you made this? Ugh now they can analyze it in High Definition. You have majorly fucked up."
"What do you mean?"
"Just shut the fuck up, ok?"
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing. We'll continue later."


*-Ugrian expression meaning "Fucking hell"

October 26, 2012
Pataliputra

Three men, the appointed managers of the Darshak's investigation into possible Ugrian missile construction activities, stood around a table. On the table lay photos, reports, and other relevant dossiers. The evidence was clear at this point. The Ugrians had not done very well at all to hide their actions; more and more just kept piling up, and so on the men talked.

"So it's true, then?"

"Beyond any doubt. It's all there."

"Yeah, definitely. Photo evidence of ICBM launch sites and a clearly designed reentry vehicle on the rockets. They didn't even try."

"Do we know if they're nuclear?"

"Most likely not. One thing's 100% certain, though- Ugria is lying to us, and they're trying to get there."

"Well, then. Let's make this quick. Ranveer, you can tell the President?"

"I can. I'll head over now."

Ranveer Harichand was, aside from his job, a standard guy. White picket fence home in the Pataliputra suburbs, loving wife, three kids. His fake cover job? Regional deputy director at a medium-sized insurance firm in the New City. He was the man you would least expect to do something like this, and yet here he was, in the comfort of his own home no less, about to utilize the Darshak's encrypted networks on his secondary work computer to contact Subhash Gopala Das.

A one-word phrase appeared in the messenger. "Snakes?" Snakes was the appointed code word for nuclear missiles.

"Snakes sighted." came Ranveer's response to what was presumably President Das' private secretary for covert matters.

A new frequency came in. This one seemed to be from the middle of the Meterran Sea. Das' favorite fake location, as his inner circle knew. It was the President himself.

"Let the Xentheridans know ASAP. We got 'em."

“So, in conclusion,” noted the Syrixian State Curator, Diwan Sahab, “we have direct evidence that Ugria indeed did create an intercontinental ballistic missile, despite their attempts to lie to both of our nations and pretend that it was merely intended for satellite launches.”

Harald nodded. “We’d like to thank everyone at the Darshak for working with us to confirm Ugria’s true intentions. This truly shows a worrying change in Ugrian potential future aspects, especially with the concerning nature of the possibility that this is an Ugrian set-up in preparation for a breach of the Thorium Treaty.“

“Our only question now is how we should announce this to the world, and how this would affect Ugrian relations.”

Diwan Sahab spoke up again. “We could do a press conference. Detailed slides encapsulating the scale of Ugrian lies, display the evidence to news corporations to spread throughout Eras. Hopefully this reveal may dissuade Ugria from progressing with its future steps in a potential nuclear program.”

Harald sighed. He had only been elected a month ago, for goodness’ sake, and the issue of Ugria had already been thrust upon him. Fantastic timing. Hopefully this wouldn’t be indicative of the future of his term, though, but knowing his luck there was bound to be something else cropping up of this scale that he would inevitably have to deal with.

“Sounds good to me then. How quickly can you get this press conference planned and done by?”

12:10 PM; November 5, 2012
Department of Military Affairs
Pataliputra, Syrixian Empire

Diwan Sahab stepped up onto the stage. A month of planning had gone into this. He was generally a more timid man, not big on speeches and especially not ad-libbing, but he did so when he needed to, and this was definitely the time. The press was all there, and he knew not just the Ugrians, but the world, would be watching.

He started in Suchari. "Tonight we will present the world never-before exposed information; one of the most consequential intelligence achievements the Empire has known. I hope the international community will hear what I have to say, and understand it. Now I will talk in Mercanti."

He cleared his throat, then continuing in Mercanti. "Good evening. Tonight, we’re going to show you something that the world has never seen before. Tonight, we are going to reveal new and conclusive proof of the secret ICBM program that Ugria has been hiding for years from the international community. We’re going to show you Ugria's secret files which prove that they are well on the way to acquiring nuclear weapons. You may well know that Ugria's leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing the construction of ICBMs. You can see the most recent Ugrian statement here."

Diwan Sahab pulled up the Ugrian statement from September, reading, "The rocket was purely for peaceful purposes. The Ugrian Federation unequivocally rejects any speculation about this being a violation of the Thorium Treaty." He then turned to the audience. "Well, tonight, I’m here to tell you one thing. UGRIA LIED. Big time. After signing the thorium treaty, Ugria intensified its efforts to hide its now-confirmed pursuit of nuclear weapons. Just this past September, however, Ugria made a fatal mistake, launching an ICBM and then parading more through Võnnu."

"Now, from the outside, this was an innocent looking program. It looks like a space program. And that is what Ugria said. However, a few weeks ago, in what will undoubtedly go down as an important intelligence achievement, we obtained tons of materials claiming otherwise. And here’s what we got." Diwan Sahab went to a slide showing the materials. Here you can see photo evidence of ICBM launch sites."

He pointed to one of the photos. "This particular site, one of the most expansive, is in the Ugrian countryside, clear as day, just a few miles from the town of Järva." He then pointed to a picture of one of the paraded missiles, then bringing up a diagram the Darshak had created of the same missile. "Here you can see a clearly designed reentry vehicle on the rockets. The very same rockets that were paraded through Võnnu. They were about this big. Actually, they’re a little bigger than this, okay?"

"We’ve shared this material with the Xentheridans, and Xentherida can vouch for its authenticity. We will also share it with other countries, so everyone is aware of exactly what the Ugrians are doing. These files, as well as the reports we've compiled on them, conclusively prove that Ugria is brazenly lying when it says it never had a nuclear weapons program. The files prove that. They have a nuclear program, and they've now taken a major step towards the creation of nuclear warheads.

"Ugria has intercontinental ballistic missiles. They need to stop this and do the right thing. The right thing for Ugria, the right thing for Craviter, and the right thing for peace. Thank you."

7:30PM; November 5, 2012
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Võnnu, Ugria

Johannes Peek, Ugria's Foreign Ministry spokesman was all too used to it now, speaking in front of the press defending some Ugrian action. He was at a hastily called press conference, after Sahab's presentation. As usual, he was a little apprehensive, but he didn't show it.
He stepped onto the stage and began: "Today, despite Ugria's solemn position on the Thorium treaty, The Syrixian Empire insisted on airing an anti-Ugria hitpiece on live television, hosted by the State Curator, Diwan Sahab. This presentation blatantly distorts the reality of the situation at hand, and makes unreasonable accusations about Ugria's Space Program. Ugria has never, and will never pursue any nuclear weapons, nor Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. This grossly interferes in Ugrian domestic affairs, and severely hurts the feelings of the Ugrian people." He pauses for a moment, and then continues: "Ugria will not stand for that. "
He then takes a sip of water and continues on:
"Ugria's space program is absolutely part of Ugria's domestic affairs. I must reitarate that the Syrixian and Xentheridan accusations are completely unreasonable; what happened near Järva was, by no means an ICBM test, as claimed by the Syrixians and Xentheridans, it was merely a test of the new K-1 space rocket. We request that the Syrixian and Xentheridan Governments recognise the events as what they really were, a space rocket test. Should you try to continue to hold us back, the progress of the Ugrian people cannot be stopped by anybody. The Syrixian Government must immediately respect fact, make a clear distinction between right and wrong, and immediately stop its erroneous words words and deeds, that interfere in Ugria's domestic affaris, hurt the feelings of the Ugrian people, and harm Ugria-Syrixia relations." Johannes then steps off stage, before the press could ask any questions.