Daniel van Irwen; Polaris Energy Headquarters, ZimaliaZimalia was an awfully long way to come for a meeting - all the way home and then some, in fact - but c'est la vie, that's life, as Sir Andrew liked to say sometimes. In truth, only the first few kilometers had been any real trouble, their aircraft hugging the deck and haring north at full speed, fortunately avoiding the tender attentions of the Merinan National Air Force's fighters. Zimalia, for all its reputation, didn't seem all too different to Merina in many ways, nor certain parts of their native Kaedwen for that matter, though not the certain parts that decent folk would visit if they could help it. It was hot here too, though both men felt quite at home in such climes.
The First Minister, having taken some prudent advice on business sensibility, had eschewed his usual mode of dress and donned a pair of trousers, though the white polo remained - the breast emblazoned with the insignia of Carmichael Engineering. Daniel, meanwhile, had no such qualms, though had at least the decency to ensure that his khaki fatigues were washed and pressed before leaving Merina. On his hip he'd worn a long-barreled .44 revolver, though this had been handed over respectfully to Polaris' security staff on the door.
Once the formalities were over, and the Tamoran had said his bit, Sir Andrew took the lead.
"Down to business, right ho" He said, with a smile "Capital. The wider situation in Merina is well... complicated, though the Free State is holding out well enough, for time being"
"I'll have our intelligence blokes send over a dossier explaining the situation in full, if that helps" Daniel interjected, helpfully "There's a lot to get your head round if you're after understanding all the
whys and
wherefores"
"Quite so, good man" Sir Andrew resumed, with a thoughtful smile "Suffice to say that the place has seen better days, gone quite to hell truth be told. There's been signs of trouble brewing for years now. Tinpot dictatorship, really, no real institutional robustness to speak of, trouble flairs up somewhere-or-other and they'd send the heavy squad in. Worked for a time, but there's only so much
repression you can get away with without offering something to the man in the street. Nguessa [the Merinan President] has his supporters, sure enough, but not enough, I think"
"As for us" He continued "The Free State Project was borne out amidst the
"National Unity Council" fiasco eighteen months ago. If one doesn't afford one's assets some protection, then one isn't likely to remain in business very long. There's dozens, if not hundreds, of... enterprising institutions operating in Merina, and near enough every one has offices or headquarters in the Donze area; it's been the place to be for some time now. There's a certain element of expat solidarity when one works abroad as a small fish in a very large, foreign pond, so, when things went pete tong - and the local governor tried to appropriate our assets in the name of the war effort - we elected to pool our forces and drive the bastard out"
"Naturally" He smiled "This wasn't well received in the Presidential Palace, or it wouldn't have been if someone hand't dropped a bomb on the bloody thing beforehand. The Free State experiment now finds itself rather opposed to the incumbent National Government, and not particularly well endeared to the rest of Merina's collection of warlords and lunatics, though our patch is arguably the most functional part of the country left. You see, there's more to the Free State than simple opportunism, we have genuinely been trying to build up local healthcare and education systems. Merina has a vast wealth potential and, once the present situation is resolved, we intend to be best placed to tap into it. Until then, well, we're burning our cash reserves at this point. What we can export has been down to a trickle with the war, and the navy blockading our coast. Ah, and that brings me on to the security situation, which my colleague here will be better able to explain"
"That'd me me" Daniel smirked, more to himself than anyone else, sometimes things just tickled him that way "So, the Free State Forces can field two-and-a-half good quality Brigades; one mechanized, one infantry, and one airborne demi-brigade. In addition to this, we've been reconstituting the local reservists under our management, and hope to add a further Brigade of entirely local troops soon. Our aviation arm has a strength of four helicopter squadrons, and we've no naval units worth speaking of, a handful of fast boats maybe"
"Arrayed against us" He continued with a grimace, reminding himself of the odds "We've got: the Merinan National Army, mostly coming at us from the east and south-east; the Merinan National Navy lying off the coast; the Merinan National Air Force overhead, when it's not in the workshops, at least; and, last but not least, to our immediate south lies communist-occupied Qarkhoi. We're hemmed in, but not exactly on our knees, not yet. My primary concern is the Merinan National Navy; much of our income in the Donze area is from offshore oil and gas, but we lack the weaponry to take on their warships, and they've been interdicting much of the other trade through our port. With air-launched anti-ship missiles our aviation squadrons would be more than capable of keeping the enemy fleet at arms length, if not destroying them outright, I'm sure. Secondarily to this is heavy equipment. Man-for-man, even our local troops are better led, trained and equipped than the vast majority of the militiamen fighting in Merina, but we've very little heavy kit. We've a handful of obsolete tanks from the local reserve depot, no IDF capability beyond 82mm mortars and only limited anti-tank and anti-aircraft weaponry"
