September 30, 2019, 3:58AM
An underground bunker 12km south of Põhjageoff
"How're we doing, everything in order?" A man in a labcoat asked.
"Yes. Everything is ready. Waiting on your action." Another voice responds.
There is a flurry of action in the bunker, Everyone was preparing for one particular event. The whole world would soon witness, that Ugria was no longer a country to be ignored.
"Good. Authorization from Võnnu?" The man asks
"Granted." the other man responds
"Good. Then it is time."
The men walk down a hallway, and arrive to a door
The man in the labcoat opens the door with a code, they enter.
"Here goes nothing. What is the time?" The man in the labcoat enquires
"Thirty seconds to four"
Both men take out a key, and place the keys in the slots
Five seconds to four, both men turn the keys at the same time, three seconds of deafning silence, and a resounding shake follows.
"We did it!" The man in the labcoat yells
"We did it Peeter!" the other man screams out loud
They embrace, as they know that all the years of hard work had paid off.
The whole bunker begins loudly celebrating. Ugria had just done the unthinkable
The moon shone brightly in the sky, its gentle beams of light shooting out amongst the rooftops of the town of Geoff, while the sodium-vapour lamps bathed the streets below in a deep orange glow. A car occasionally whizzed by, a brief flash of headlights that lit up the buildings, but for the most part, this sleepy town remained silent.
A single moonbeam made its way through a crack in Calle’s curtains, coming to rest upon her snoring face, deep within an undisturbed slumber. The blankets over her moved with the steady rise and fall of her breathing.
Something stirred her from her sleep, however - a gentle tinkling sound, coming from somewhere by the end of her bed. She rose slowly, her eyes still groggy and adjusting to the darkness of her room. She focused on a vase on the chest of draws opposite, giving her eyes time to adjust.
But they wouldn’t adjust, the vase was jittering about left and right. She blinked hard, then looked at it again. The vase still continued to rock about.
It took a second for it to dawn on her. Earthquake! She scrambled under her bed, bracing herself as she heard the crashing of the vase hitting the floor. Other objects found themselves coming loose from shelves, colliding with the ground with a resounding thud.
But then, as soon as it had begun, the shaking stopped. Calle pried herself from under her bed, and quickly made her way downstairs and into the street. Dogs were barking wildly as other drowsy and confused residents made their way out of their houses, examining the damage around - while generally quite light, there were still some ominous cracks that spider-webbed their way through the brickwork, and a few windows lay shattered and fragmented upon the ground.
“So we’re here again. Almost eight years to the day since we held a meeting on the last emergency about the Ugrian situation.”
“Deja vu much?” Rahul said with a chuckle. “So what’s it this time?”
“Seismography reports from an earthquake on September 30th. The waves are different from a typical earthquake.” Vidar said. “Something’s fishy about it, and it hints strongly to a massive explosion just north of our eastern Ugrian border. It’s not much to go off of, but with how we’ve seen the Ugrian situations develop in the past, plus the discrepancies in their electricity usage, it’s incredibly suspicious. We think they may have developed, enriched and tested a nuke.”
“Is that so? And that’s all the evidence you have?”
Vidar nodded. “Yeah, it’s not much, and they could easily explain it with some other reason, whether true or not.”
He took a breath, and then continued. “But this could be our bluff. We accuse them with our evidence, even as shaky as it is, presenting it as infallible, and use it to say they’ve violated the Thorium Treaty. Then we see how they react to it. If they act angry but let us investigate freely, we know they have nothing to hide. But if they deny and sling words at us with zero palpable proof to otherwise explain this, and prohibit our inspectors, then they clearly have something to hide, right?”
“There are a lot of “ifs” there.” Rahul noted. “Have you covered all the bases? How do we know Ugria will not react in another way, one that hasn’t been accounted for or seen previously?”
“Their MO became clear during the rocket incident.” Vidar replied. “They refuted our claims but never showed any evidence that proved we were wrong, only the name of some vague rocket program that none of our intelligence had ever picked up. Hell, they hadn’t even asked for advice from any other nation for designs or similar stuff. They definitely wanted to keep that a secret. Knowing them, as well as knowing what evidence we do have, it all comes together.”
“It’s a risk...” Rahul replied in turn, then leaning back, clearly in thought, until leaning forward again, looking Vidar dead in the eye. “...but I think it’s one worth taking. Do it.”
To whom it may concern,
Xentherida, along with our colleagues in Syrixia, has reviewed seismographs dated for the 30th of September, and we have noted a remarkable difference of this particular incident as opposed to regular earthquakes. Additionally, Xentheridan intelligence has noticed some discrepancies in Ugrian electrical usage, with some numbers equating to the typical electricity usage of cities, implying a vast, secret, energy-intensive program - such as enrichment facilities. A more detailed report involving these differences and other findings can be found [here].
We have therefore concluded that Ugria has violated the terms of the 1975 Thorium Treaty by producing, stockpiling and testing an illegal nuclear device. Ugria has 30 days to surrender all its nuclear warheads, enriched radioactive material, and enrichment facilities, and make zero attempt to conceal, move or destroy any such equipment relating towards such activities. Ugria is also to allow Xentheridan and Syrixian weapons inspectors immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to all areas to ensure the Ugrian nuclear program has been halted. Xentherida and Syrixia will have the full authority to seize all nuclear related facilities and either destroy or confiscate any equipment relating to nuclear warheads, their stockpiling, or their production or the enrichment of other nuclear material.
Should Ugria refuse to comply, Xentherida and Syrixia will, as per the terms of the 1975 Thorium Treaty, immediately halt all thorium shipments and impose on Ugria an embargo of such materials. Xentherida and Syrixia will be severing high level diplomatic relations with Ugria until we deem that Ugria has resumed proper compliance with the terms set in the 1975 Thorium Treaty. As well, until that point in time, Ugrian embassy staff in Xentherida and Syrixia will be reduced by 20% within the next 48 hours as of the release of this message.
We hope that Ugria makes the right moves in this situation, and moves towards a safer Collandris, reversing its trend of breaking treaties and illegally proliferating nuclear weapons, in order to retain the strong and valuable bonds between the nations on this continent.
Xentheridan Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Vidar Cederstrom
Institutionen För Säkerhet och Intelligens i Xentherida
Report On The Investigation Into Ugrian Nuclear Capabilities.
Savattenstad, Xentherida.
October 12th, 2019
Seismographic reports have revealed several distinctive characteristics of this earthquake; one notable feature was the wave form, which was much longer and more drawn out, indicating that this incident occurred at a very shallow depth, less than a couple kilometres deep in the crust.
There was also a much greater ratio of P waves to S waves than observed in an average earthquake, indicating a large compression of rock that propagated out to recording stations, leading Xentheridan seismologists to believe that a very large explosion, very close to the surface, occurred in the early hours of the morning of the 30th of September; with current intelligence on Ugria, Xentherida concludes that Ugria developed and tested a nuclear device.
Analysis of Ugrian electrical consumption
Xentheridan intelligence has detected a roughly 500 MW discrepancy in the figures output for Ugrian electrical consumption, which equates to roughly an entire city. Such a discrepancy has been noted but previously attributed to Ugrian administrative mismanagement, but within the context of this situation it becomes highly suspect that numbers were forged to hide possible uranium enrichment centres.
Conclusion
With these two pieces of evidence, Xentherida concludes that there is a very strong likelihood that Ugria is attempting to hide its production and test of a nuclear weapon, violating the 1975 Thorium Treaty.
Johannes Peek, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again stepped on to the podium in the media room. He cleared his throat and began:
"As all of you probably know, there was a large order detonation in the Ugrian Region of Kõndla.
The Ugrian Army Kõndla Command spokesperson already released a statement yesterday on what happened at the Põhjageoff area. It goes as follows:
The 354th Ammunition Base Area's warehouse 4 caught fire today, after a faulty electircal wire failed. The fire spread to the ammunition, which eventually saw the equivalent of 20 tonnes of TNT explode. That also caused the minor seismic event in the area. Any rumours of a nuclear test are unequivocally false.
I would also like to debunk any claims of a nuclear detonation. These claims are counterproductive to the peaceful development of Ugria, and also deeply hurt the feelings of the Ugrian people. Both Syrixia and Xentherida must immediately apologise for their misrepresentation of facts, that is trying to stop Ugria's peaceful development. Additionally, Syrixia and Xentherida MUST stop interference in Ugrian internal affairs."
